Getting Creative to Snag Staff From Rivals
In the hotter-than-hot job market, companies are bursting out of the box with new approaches to reach targeted mass markets of the happily employed, or so-called passive job seekers.
While January’s 4.3% national jobless rate matched a 28-year low, the number of creative methods companies are using to bait potential employees is at an all-time high.
“A few companies can make the decision not to do it, but it’s really not optional,” said Diane Tunick Morello, a research director at GartnerGroup, a San Jose technology advisory firm. “Getting your name out there in this competitive market is necessary.”
Not all of the techniques are equally effective.
Past quirky strategies involved Cisco Systems Inc. staking out an In-N-Out Burger in an area crowded with high-tech companies and Compaq Computer Corp.’s Tandem division sending mobile recruitment billboards into competitors’ parking lots.
Although businesses have long used innovative approaches to snag other companies’ employees, such practices are becoming common.
Here’s a sample:
* Resistance is futile. Join the force.
High-tech recruitment directors are signing up in packs to run slide advertisements at movie theaters. Recently, many have tied their pitches in with the May release of the “Star Wars” prequel.
“With the computer-generated graphics and sci-fi aspect, it’s definitely going to draw the high-tech demographic,” said Mike Hagaman, a district manager with Century Media Network Co., which books slide advertisements at national theater chains. “It’s no wonder they’re knocking us over to get an ad--they have to be here.”
Hagaman has worked with more than 100 high-tech businesses over the past few years for branding or recruitment, and at least two dozen have signed up for ads timed to “Star Wars.” The most popular target locations are Silicon Valley, Boston and Chicago, but more Southland theaters have started featuring high-tech movie ads, he said.
Last month, Costa Mesa-based Rockwell Semiconductor Systems ran recruitment ads featuring a Gumby-like figure in theaters in Los Angeles, West Covina, Orange and Ventura.
“A lot of people saw the ad and were tickled by it,” said Doug Clemons, a marketing and promotions manager at Conexant Systems Inc., which was spun off from Rockwell. “It also helped internal morale because the employees didn’t hear about it, but then they saw it at the movies.”
Clemons said the success is difficult to measure, considering the ads are meant to build brand awareness as much as to prompt action. But San Jose-based Cisco, which has been using the medium for a few years and has produced a “Star Wars” prequel ad, has found success in it.
“They haven’t done case studies on it, but they’ve used them to recruit people in Santa Cruz and the East Coast, and it works for them,” said Maluri Fernandez, account coordinator for Cisco at the J. Walter Thompson ad agency. “A lot of Cisco’s recruitment is based on branding and imaging, so this is the perfect place to get the passive job seekers.”
* Would you like an interview on that water break?
Signaling a growing trend among high-tech businesses, Sun Microsystems Inc. recruited engineers for its 2-year-old office in San Diego at the San Diego Marathon last month.
“Demographically, it’s a very attractive group for sponsors,” said Tim Murphy, organizer of the Suzuki Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon, another San Diego race that was launched in 1998. “Athletes are professional, well-educated and make good money.”
Based on registration data for the Suzuki marathon, 65% of racers are Net-savvy, the most common occupation categories are administration and management, and 47% earn salaries over $70,000.
“If you’re going to get the gainfully employed, you have to jolt them with your message in a place they frequent where they wouldn’t ordinarily see you,” said Dawn Dreyer, who handles recruitment for Palo Alto-based Sun in San Diego. “It’s pretty effective.”
* Another Net revolution.
While companies have been using the Internet to reach job seekers for a couple of years, now they are going online to find prospects who are not necessarily looking.
Participants in chat rooms hosted by Monster.com (https://www.monster.com), an online resource for job listings, have primarily been job seekers, but the questions posted indicate that some are already employed.
Clyde Rush, vice president of strategic staffing at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., which has sponsored chat rooms for several months, concedes that the forums don’t reach many passive job seekers, but he says it won’t be that way for long.
“The future of recruitment is the Internet,” Rush said.
Executives with the sponsors lead the conversation. Participants may not directly inquire about jobs, but the sponsors are concerned with branding themselves, said Craig Besant, vice president of human resources marketing at Monster.com. “Companies give out information in a chat, so when employees leave their companies down the road, they are more predisposed to working for that company.”
Another approach to Web-based recruitment is the use of personal search agents at job recruitment sites. Users answer questions about the type and location of their ideal job, and when one is posted that matches the description, he or she is notified by e-mail.
Rush said the process is so simple and anonymous, it encourages even the happily employed to search the field.
“You become a passive active job seeker,” Rush said. “You’re an active job seeker but you’re not doing anything.”
* Buses and blimps for recruiters?
As the job market continues to tighten, employment directors say such tactics are only going to gain momentum.
“It won’t be unusual to see buses painted and blimps flying for high-techs,” Sun’s Dreyer said. “We’ve got to do more than putting an ad in the paper, because that just doesn’t work anymore.”
Although recruitment agencies haven’t seen any blimps yet, companies are pouring more resources into media with a wide reach, including cable television.
In the last six months, high-tech companies in Denver have started running recruitment ads on a public-access television program, “Employment TV.” The cost-effectiveness of the ads have brought attention to a few Los Angeles companies, said Don Sabatino, Los Angeles regional manager for Nationwide Advertising Service. Typically, companies running spots on the one-hour block of recruitment ads were temp agencies and companies seeking entry-level employees.
As strategies continue to multiply, some recruitment analysts say more emphasis ought to be placed on keeping talented workers.
“Some of the techniques are gimmicks,” GartnerGroup’s Morello said. “As the labor crunch continues, companies need to work at building a compelling workplace, whether that’s for recruiting or retaining.”
