Recruiting or Retention Is Just Like the Chicken or the Egg – Part 2

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

After examining the ongoing battle between what’s more important for businesses as they invest in human capital, we understand that both recruitment and retention are equally critical to the bottom line and future growth of organizations who expect to be innovative.

In my previous post regarding this topic, I outlined the reasons on why professionals must redefine their approach on how they recruit and retain talent. The programs that were developed to recruit and retain are not meeting the needs of today’s most talented individuals. Individuals, regardless if they are current employees or job candidates, have distinctive needs that HR and recruiters must understand so that they can successfully engage, manage and develop the talent pool of their companies.  

Leading HR professionals and recruiters are using marketing and communication strategies to recruit their future workforce and keep their employees happy and engaged with combining these four strategies:

1.     Resources  

Information that is easily accessible and available for sharing is important to recruiting and retaining efforts. Custom content, mobile sites and a working social profile that is connected to the job boards and other management systems provide talent the necessary convenience and knowledge, two valuable resources they are seeking as they engage with brands.

2.     Relationships

The rise in social recruiting has indeed grown the access to billions of social media profiles, updates and information. An emphasis on sourcing is important, as is segmenting and managing contacts and face to face networking efforts. By developing the relationships with a variety of professionals, HR and recruiters can mitigate risk and be ready when new needs arise. Investing in relationships is equally important for potential hires as it is with hired talent internally.

3.     Timing

Programs that recruit or retain must be updated with benefit plans that provide resources based on a new timeline. Speaking of timelines, new metrics like growth and results must be measured, analyzed and rewarded other than time. Also, the performance of now is a mindset that today’s most innovative leaders understand. If this is not a cultural value in your organization, I recommend you start taking some steps to integrate it.

4.     Technology

The variety of apps and systems can be overwhelming however, technology is a critical component to the overall recruitment and retention strategy and it must be a priority if you expect to grow and develop your talent. Be sure to include social and mobile needs as part of your technology adoption and management plans.

Focusing on these four areas as you update, develop and launch your recruitment and retention strategies will help you to engage with the talent pool. I’d love to hear from your specific experiences on these strategies as you tackle this important human capital initiative.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s is the Chief Blogger & Founder of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @jmillermerrell.