Attracting and recruiting high quality staff

Here are some brief but significant points about attracting and recruiting high quality staff.

And while the methodology is especially important for recruiting rare individuals, it actually applies to the successful attraction and recruitment of all staff.

The methodology for attracting and recruiting good quality employees follows basic marketing principles.

This might seem obvious to marketing and advertising folk, and even to some sales-people, but commonly recruitment in organizations is a function of HR (Human Resources) department, or in smaller companies the task is perhaps handled by an office manager. Not all HR people and office managers think like marketeers, and the world is a better place because of this, nevetheless:

If you want to recruit the best possible staff, you must approach the activity as if you were marketing a product or service.

First, it might help if you consider the elements of the recruitment process in terms of marketing language:

Your organization is effectively a supplier.
Employees are customers.
The two simple statements above represent a vital point. Ignore it or reverse it at your peril. (There are unfortunately very many arrogant employers who believe they are doing their employeees a huge favour by employing them. The employer - typically the directors and the culture which emanates from them - regards itself as the customer, and the employees as the suppliers. This is a formula for the recruitment and retention of the disinterested and demotivated. Try to see things the other way around: organization = supplier; employees = customers.)

Employment/a career with your organization (essentially the job or role) equates to the product.
The job candidates - your ideal new employees - are your customers, prior to which they are your target market or target audience.

The channel(s) or method(s) by which you reach your target audience is/are your route(s) to market. (For example, routes to your target market of potential employees would include headhunters, recruitment agencies, recruitment websites, newspaper or trade journal adverts, job shows and exhibitions, university/college/school career events, referral by existing employees, etc.)

The employment opportunity is your product offering, within which your organization is a vital component (in other words, it doesn't matter how good the job is, if the organization is a pile of unethical crap, or perceived as such, then the job opportunity will probably be irretrievably tainted).

The product offering (job opportunity) must contain at least one and ideally a few USPs (Unique Selling Points) or there is little reason for good people to be interested in working for your organization compared to competing opportunities with other employers. (Ideally your organization should be so bloody wonderful that the organization itself is one of the USPs of the job. USPs must be considered from the perspective of the customer, not the supplier. USPs effectively define the type of customers attracted to the product.)

The way(s) in which the employment opportunity (product offering) is communicated to the target audience/market equates to your advertising.
If you do not know what your USPs are then you need to research what they are (assuming you have one or two...) by asking your best staff why they continue to work for you so diligently and loyally.

So, having established a few definitions and correlations, here, simply, is the methodology:
 

1. Identify/refine your USPs (as an employer - your unique selling points - what makes a job or career with your organization different and special versus any other). Different jobs will tend to imply different USPs.
2. Identify your target audience/market (candidate profile, deeper than traditionally defined - this must go beyond job skills and experience - consider lifestyle/life-needs/philosophy/outlook/etc). 
3. Identify routes to market (how to reach the ideal candidates).
4.  Implement activities/a campaign to put your offering in front of your target audience.
5. Process the enquiries (applicants) with complete professionalism, including very sensitive and respectful treatment of all unsuccessful applicants.
   As with marketing, differential in the product offering (employment USPs) and creative and effective advertising/communications are the means by which competitive superiority (versus other employers) is achieved and candidates are attracted and enthused by the job opportunities.
   If you are an HR person and all this sounds a little daunting, please be assured that it is not rocket science - it's very logical - and you might have some brilliant marketeers in your organization who can help with the process.
   
   I'd add that (just like marketing a product/service) it's easy to make wrong assumptions about your organization's (as an employer) own strongest USP(s), as perceived by the potential customers (the best quality employees), so just as with fundamental marketing, it helps to research and discover what aspects of working for your organization attract and retain the best staff of the type you are seeking.
   
   Refer to the pages on marketing, and to a lesser extent selling. The essential ideas of marketing and selling apply very directly to attracting and recruiting good quality employees.
   
   Crucially, the foundations - the philosophy, organizational integrity, values, culture, etc - must be right and good, otherwise you are building on sand.
   
   The best employees gravitate towards, and tend to perform best for, the best employers. If your organization struggles to recruit and retain excellent people it might be little to do with the job or the pay, and conversely, good ethical caring organizations will generally attract and retain great people even if the job and the money are not the most competitive.