Seeing there’s a big war for talent going on out there, manifesting itself in many different ways, there’s still an old and nasty practice from about an era back that puts handcuffs on recruiting organizations from across the world. This practice is the agreement companies are usually making not to poach each other’s employees. At some point (unbelievably common among suppliers, strategic partners, direct competitors, and resellers), this type of agreement can very easily and rapidly isolate a considerable amount of the talent supply needed to help an organization grow outside the companies’ recruiters’ direct reach.
What can recruiters do?
The type of agreements mentioned earlier have always been a nuisance. Yet, it can’t be said they were a major obstacle that impeded organizational growth. However, the situation is not the same anymore. Today, the global demand for people with skills has increased, outpacing the supply and changing the role of talent. Anti-ban poaching agreements are not banning other organizations from recruiting employees; they just prohibit recruiters from directly sourcing this talent. When employees from other organizations go to recruiters without being asked to, they’re only fair. But the question here is: can recruiters do something to convince and encourage employees in a non-approachable organization to come to them looking for employment opportunities?
Fortunately, the answer to this question is yes. Recruiters now have access to tools that allow them to find social media profiles using a candidate’s phone number, enabling smarter and more subtle outreach. Combined with platforms such as SignalHire, that offer comprehensive talent discovery and sourcing capabilities, this opens new ways to ethically and efficiently attract passive candidates.
What tools to use to acquire candidates through non-direct recruitment?
The most effective way to engage top talent is to reach out directly—and SignalHire makes this possible by offering contact lists for both major companies like Amazon and American Airlines, as well as smaller or niche businesses such as Bare Performance Nutrition and AutoZone. If you happen to be an HR manager or a recruiter working at an organization that has been handcuffed by the old and outdated anti-poaching agreements, you should probably quit your job and look for another position at a company that really understands real talent is valuable and very hard to find. If quitting is not something you want to do, read this article further to find out the many approaches and tools you could work with as a recruiter or recruiting manager. These tools should help get talented employees’ attention from your company’s competition pool without contacting them directly.
Employment Branding
Some define employment branding as the science of determining the border behind which the talent would line up to get an opportunity. If you want to receive inquiries from employees working for unapproachable companies, you need to:
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- Put your people-management approaches and tools out there in the media. Developing and implementing the most interesting and attractive management approaches and tools is one of the most effective ways to get talent to approach your company. However, tools alone are not enough. You need to make great candidates aware of your company, too.
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- Go to professional events and give presentations. When done right, employees telling compelling stories at industry trade shows and seminars is the most powerful tool of attracting talent.
- Win awards of excellence for being the best place to work at. When your company is listed by publications such as BusinessWeek, Working Mother, or Fortune as an excellent place to work at, the talent in your industry is sure to notice you.
Employee Referrals
If you look at the employee population across the globe on social media, you can easily notice that employees working for your organization already are directly interacting with a large proportion of the talent you’re prohibited from reaching out to as a recruiter. Your employees’ connections are very much underused, yet they provide a great opportunity to influence the talent you’re targeting. The best employee referral approaches you could use are:
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- Developing a story inventory. Being a recruiter, you most likely spend most of your day finding out the most effective ways of approaching targeted talent and making your company the best option for employment. But keep in mind your employees aren’t focused on this at all. What you can do is to create impressive stories about how great it is to work at your organization and wait for your employees to share them.
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- Having Ask Me! Buttons. This very cheap yet still incredibly powerful tool of convincing staff from competitor companies to approach your employees is straightforward to put into practice. All you need to do is create “Ask About My Firm” t-shirts, backpacks, and lapel buttons.
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- Refreshing the referral program. A significant proportion of the employer referral programs are no longer effective after 18 months if they haven’t been regularly refreshed. If your referral program doesn’t help you hire a minimum of 30% of all the external hires, then either the program needs more work, or your organization does.
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- Using referral cards. If the anti-poaching agreement at your organization is rather loose, then tell your employees to give out cards to people they’re running into. If, of course, they feel like these people would make a great addition to your company.
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- Asking former employees to plant the seed. In most cases, former employees are more than happy to help you recruit, especially if given an incentive for it.
- Asking your vendors to plant the seed. Vendors selling products and services to both you and the non-approachable talent you’re after could be of great help, too.
Web Attraction
Often, competitors check out each other’s websites to keep an eye on what others are doing. This means employees from companies that compete with yours may do it more often than you think. While doing so, there’s an increased chance they will check your careers section too. Make sure you have an appealing website that attracts talent. Have a look over what Microsoft and Google have done with theirs in this direction for more inspiration. Here are some of the top approaches you should consider planting on your website:
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- Profiles of employees and a “People just like you are working with us” section
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- Uploading an impressive video about working for your organization
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- Running social media pages and blogs
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- Using “friends of” type of newsletter
- Researching “answer guy” websites
Other Approaches
Here are some of the best approaches that are very effective and easy to adopt:
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- Sponsor on-campus professional events
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- Go to social events and even wine or other types of festivals where employees like to relax
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- Have fair booths
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- Participate at University alumni events
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- Consider benchmarking opportunities
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- Praise the work of your employees
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- Reward the candidates you’re interviewing for different positions with your organization
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- Run contests to identify talent build relationships
- Consider magnet hires
To conclude
Good recruiters are usually very competitive people who think it’s very frustrating to work in an organization handcuffed by anti-poaching agreements. Companies that do not want to end this practice do not realize they’re doing a disservice to themselves. In a way, anti-poaching policies send a message that companies don’t think it is important to access the best talent. Perhaps, they think competing in a talent market that’s open would destroy them, or, maybe, the fact that securing top talent can increase their revenue by 200% to 300% hasn’t crossed their mind. No matter what the actual reason might be, their leaders should think twice about what they’re doing to the talent market. After all, recruiters will always find ways to make their organization known, not to mention top talent doesn’t stay in a place that employs such a practice for too long.
Images sources: pixabay.com
