Sample Recruitment Strategy Planning Template

Strategy is
Designed to Individual/s
Strategy Description Possible Tactics Team Action Items Deadline/s
Close this Responsible
Gap:

A large percentage of employees  Research most appropriate on-line

hired or entry level jobs are seeking sites:
their first “career job.” Many are  www.Indeed.com
inexperienced, either fresh out of  www.LinkedIn.com
Not reaching
college, looking to establish a new  www.craigslist.com
majority of
career, or relocating to a new area.  www.Monster.com
Online applicants,
The newspaper want-ads are not
Recruiting especially  www.CareerBuilder.com
an effective recruitment source for
young  www.Jobs.net
most of today’s applicants. Placing
college grads  www.Hotjobs.yahoo.com
vacancy announcements online is
more effective and economical than
using most traditional forms of  Target industry and/or functional
advertising. specific associations

 Send team of an HR representative with

Both professional and
paraprofessional applicants can be
effectively recruited at job fairs
Need to
Campus sponsored by state workforce
improve
Recruiting development agencies. College
overall
and Job recruiting can be a very effective
applicant
Fairs method for attracting applicants for
pool
professional jobs. Consider local
economic development councils
and chambers of commerce.
an experienced manager or frontline
supervisor to fairs – provides an
opportunity for job seekers to ask both
job specific and hiring process/benefits
questions.
 Working with Career Services
Department of colleges/universities,
send an “ambassador” from the
company to classrooms of desired
majors to “guest lecture” or provide a
company overview.
 Schedule experienced employees or
supervisors to speak on a “hot topic” in
the desired field at a brown bag
luncheon at a local college or university.

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 Strategy is
Designed to Individual/s
Strategy Description Possible Tactics Team Action Items Deadline/s
Close this Responsible
Gap:

 Collaborate with Career Services

Departments, university deans and
Not enough Developing a variety of recruitment professors to help generate student
University applicants strategies with area universities, interest in the field.
Partner- with colleges and trade schools and to  Develop stipend program partially
ships specialized encourage students to pursue covering college tuition and other
degrees careers in the desired field. expenses of college students who
agree to work for the human service
agency for specified periods of time.

 Target industry and/or functional

You may need a more diverse
workforce that better reflects the
Lack of
Targeted client population you serve. For
diversity in
Recruit- example, you may need to recruit
targeted
ment employees with specific language
job/s
skills, or with specialized degrees
(e.g., MSWs or Criminal Justice).
Interns sometimes are paid a
stipend, but in most instances
interns are fulfilling an academic
Need to
requirement of the college or
improve
university. Although supervisors
Interns overall
and/or casework staff must spend
applicant
time supervising and training
pool
interns, the potential payoff is
having a “known” applicant who is
familiar with company operations.
specific associations
 Target community job fairs to increase
diversity among new recruits
 Join professional associations for
Women and Minorities
 Abide by any required Affirmative
Action Plan requirements and goals.
 Include examples of past success
stories.
 Working with Career Services
Department of colleges/universities,
send an “ambassador” from the
company to classrooms of desired
majors to “guest lecture” or provide a
company overview.
 Schedule experienced employees or
supervisors to speak on a “hot topic” in
the desired field at a brown bag
luncheon at a local college or university.
 Include examples of past success
stories.
 Ensure compliance with tax and wage
laws

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 Strategy is
Designed to Individual/s
Strategy Description Possible Tactics Team Action Items Deadline/s
Close this Responsible
Gap:

 Even if employees are not actively

If current employees are happy in referring vacancies to friends and
Need to their jobs, they become one of the acquaintances, their positive “word of
improve best sources of recruitment. Some mouth” about the company is a
Word of powerful recruitment source.
overall human service agencies are so well
Mouth
applicant regarded as a “great place to work”  Great frontline supervisors in
pool that they turn away quality organizations that engage and value
applicants. employees are critical to being
considered a “great place to work.”

 Issue periodic reminders to staff that

vacancies exist and their referrals are
Need to appreciated.
Employee improve The next step beyond “word of  Offer “recruitment bonuses” to staff that
as overall mouth” recruiting is encouraging refer applicants who are eventually
Recruiter applicant employees to recruit others. hired.
pool  Tie the bonus to the successful
completion of the probationary period or
longer.
Many employers carry a large
number of vacancies relative to the
number of filled positions. There
are many reasons – bureaucratic
 Hire employees in anticipation of
approval processes, heavy
vacancies that are projected to occur.
workloads preventing hiring
Keeping Too many  Ensure compliance with required
managers from having the time to
Jobs unfilled applicant tracking and OFCCP
go through the selection process,
Filled vacancies regulations.
and failure to anticipate vacancies.
 Include examples of past success
It is critically important to keep
stories.
positions filled. Vacant positions
increase the workload of all
employees and add to the stress of
already stressful jobs.

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 Strategy is
Designed to Individual/s
Strategy Description Possible Tactics Team Action Items Deadline/s
Close this Responsible
Gap:
 Have a pool of pre-screened,
interviewed applicants always available
to be called for a second interview with
Some organizations delay hiring the hiring supervisor. When using this
until staff vacancies reach crisis approach, it’s important to minimize the
Too many amount of time between the initial
Maintain a proportions. They then initiate a
applicants interview and the second interview to
pre- recruitment process that is
get hired with prevent top-quality applicants from
screened designed to bring new employees
only the being hired elsewhere.
applicant on board as soon as possible. The
minimum  Human Resources will need to do
pool unfortunate result is hiring
credentials continuous recruiting and screening,
employees who meet the minimum
requirements, but nothing more. even when there are no current
vacancies.
 Ensure compliance with applicant
tracking and OFCCP regulations.
Realistic Job Previews are
designed to prevent applicants from
taking jobs that they have little
Unwanted
knowledge of, or are not suited to
turnover
perform. A RJP is a recruiting tool
among new  Develop a Realistic Job Preview – see
Realistic designed to reduce “early” turnover
workers who http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/staffin
Job by communicating both the
did not gmanagement/articles/pages/jobprevie
Previews desirable and the undesirable
understand ws.aspx
(RJP) aspects of a job before applicants
their job
accept a job offer. RJPs can be in
when they
the form of videos, oral
were hired
presentations, job-shadowing
opportunities, and pamphlets or
brochures.

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 Strategy is
Designed to Individual/s
Strategy Description Possible Tactics Team Action Items Deadline/s
Close this Responsible
Gap:

Many organizations are regulated

Hiring
by merit systems that make it
process
Improve difficult to attract and maintain the
takes too  Seek department and HR approval for
Hiring interest of top-quality applicants.
long - high hiring flexibilities
Flexibility Top applicants in today’s economy
quality  Move to online recruiting
in Highly are searching the Internet for jobs
applicants
Central
are looking
that are available now. In some  Include examples of past success
Systems systems, rigid requirements and stories.
elsewhere for
lengthy inflexible scoring processes
jobs
wash out well-qualified applicants.

 Identify a select group of contingency

Typically In a contingency model, no fee is
Use firms that focus on specific industries or
used for hard paid unless the position is filled.
Contingent functional areas to prevent over-
Recruiters to fill The focus of the recruiter is on
saturation in the market and improve
positions. making a placement quickly.
candidate experience.
In a retained model, the recruiter is
 Identify a retained firm that focuses on
typically paid a partial fee to initiate
specific industries or functional areas.
the search and the remainder upon
Use for confidential searches, executive
Typically completion. The recruiter’s focus is
Use and hard-to-fil positions.
used for hard on finding the right fit because often
Retained  Negotiate fees (typically 25-35% of
to fill the placement is “guaranteed” for a
Recruiters either base salary or total cash
positions period of time (if the candidate does
compensation for first year). Multiple
not work out, the recruiter will find a
retained searches can result in reduced
new candidate at no or little
rates.
additional fee)