Two Words: Quality Time. A Quick Fall Conference Season Recruiting Guide – Part One
If you described your typical conference experience, we’d be willing to wager that some of your key words might include: fun, food, refreshments, speakers, booths and late nights. These connotations are not groundbreaking, nor is the novel concept of putting on your recruiting hat at industry conventions. Maybe we can suggest looking at conference recruiting with a specific concept in mind…. spending Quality Time with your recruits.
On the surface, recruiting at these conferences can sometimes seem trivial. You know, show face, shake hands, appease those up the corporate ladder. Do not fall victim to this mindset! Use these conferences as a rare opportunity to take advantage of quality time with your clients, vendors, peers, AND potential recruiting targets…. all in one place!
Listed below are some possible focus items to help maximize your conference recruiting efforts.
What motivates them…After a drink and an appetizer, you need something else to talk about beyond the pleasantries of nice weather and the fine financial quarter your group is having. Maybe consider engaging in deeper conversations with your boothmate. Pick up on non-verbal cues and dare to go beyond the surface to better connect with your recruit and learn their true motivations. Begin to understand their interests and hobbies. What do they do for fun? Do they like to play chess or checkers? Anything but work. This can be a differentiator later when your competitor does not truly understand the candidate’s motivational mindset.
Gain strategic insight…What are your competitors doing on the recruiting front and how can you better compete? Sometimes the best way to find out is to ask the person in front of you. How are other companies impacting the recruiting landscape? What can your group be doing better to attract the best industry talent? We are not suggesting you do anything that does not align with your company culture. We are suggesting understanding what you’re up against and adjusting your internal recruiting strategy accordingly.
Plant that seed…Capitalize on your face to face meetings to help set yourself apart. Ideally you can spend quality time together offsite or at least create one-on-one contact away from the fray. Be authentic. Be mindful of personal and company branding. Build and project your group’s marketplace presence. Help that potential recruit understand that your group is THE destination they should be considering when the time is right for a move.
Look for Part Two of this blog coming to an email near you in Mid-October... In the meantime, should you have any questions, please feel free to visit our website www.andersonbiro.com and one of our team members would be happy to hear your thoughts.