Hiring Hacks

Hey everybody, Drew McLellan here from Agency Management Institute, this week coming to you from a little bit cloudy San Diego, but still beautiful. And you know, a little cloudy is actually how many of you are feeling about hiring right now. It is brutal out there trying to find good team members. So, there are some things some of our agencies are doing that are working, that I want to make sure I tell you about. The first one is they are reaching out very personally to their own network, so they are sending emails to alumni, they are following up with former employees, vendors, partners, and they are making a very personal ask saying, "Hey, we're looking for this position or that position. Here's what we're looking for. Here's a link to the job posting or the job description. If you know anybody who's looking, we would love a referral or an introduction." So that's number one, they're getting very personal and granular about it. Number two, they're actually forming out a newsletter list or an email list of people, again, vendors, former employees, anybody, clients even, former clients. And they're sending them regular updates on the agency, but also on the positions that they're hiring for, and that they filled. So, that's number one. Number two, a lot of people are going on LinkedIn and they're looking for people that they are interested in, or that they think are the type of person that would be good for them. And what they're doing is they're sending them a note on LinkedIn that basically says, "Hi Babette, my name is Drew McLellan. I own blah, blah, blah, agency. We're looking for someone a lot like you at our shop. We've got a great position open, et cetera, et cetera. If you know anyone who has the similar skillset to yours or similar job experience to yours that's looking for a job, I would really appreciate it if you would pass along this link to our job posting or whatever." So that does two things. Number one, birds of a feather flock together, so a lot of times, people who do a certain job in an agency know a lot of other people who do that job. So, number one, it's getting to those folks. But number two, it's also saying to that person without being blatant or trying to poach them, that you do have a job posting and in many cases, what the agency owners are reporting back is that the person they sent the note to on LinkedIn is actually saying, "Well, actually I might be interested," and then moving the process from there. So this is tough times. I know a lot of you are paying a lot of money to recruiters and doing anything and everything you can to try and find good people. But just a couple ideas that maybe are not on your radar screen that might help you do that. So, hopefully that helps. I'll be back next week.