When California-based American Palet contacted the State of California Employment Development Department (EDD) to list a job advertisement a few months ago, that ad soon found its way onto the Stanislaus County Alliance Worknet Facebook page. For American Pallet, its initial experience with social media for recruiting proved to be positive.
“Since the Facebook post was published we’ve received several applications from qualified applicants and we believe it’s because of the social media recruitment,” responded Annie Montey, account representative for American Pallet.
Montey continued,” we think the social media advertising attracted better candidates, but this was also our first time using social media to recruit so we can’t be certain how effective it is until we try it a few more times.”
Physically demanding sectors, such as the pallet industry, have always had to work harder to recruit good talent. Given that the labor market in general will be feeling the pain of ongoing baby boomer retirements and a recovering economy that will create greater competition for workers, labor availability will continue to be an issue.
With this in mind, let’s look at leading and innovative recruiting strategies as well as some of the legal issues they raise.
What Is a Recruitment Strategy?
A recruitment strategy is a proactive approach to managing your hiring activities, including the documentation of your company’s present and projected labor needs, identifications of gaps in the existing approach, the specification of goals, and your plans for achieving them. A recruitment strategy might include components such as: your current staffing strengths and weaknesses, identification of goals and measurable actions for achieving them, and your recruitment budget.
In addition you should clarify what type of new employees you seek, where you will find them, and how you intend to communicate with them leading to successful recruitment. Smart human resources (HR) departments will also develop contingencies for flexing hiring demands for seasonal peaks and valleys, as well as for anticipated future growth. Businesses must also periodically review the success of the recruitment strategy and take corrective actions as necessary to improve it.
Another important component of your recruitment strategy, stressed Sapphire M. Wells, director of corporate HR for Millwood, Inc., is effectively communicating to job candidates the demanding physical requirements of many pallet industry jobs versus other sectors. And Wells suggested that pallet companies must provide tools for new employees to succeed. The coordinated effort of everyone involved in the hiring process, from initial plant tours and interviews through to on-the-job training, are all essential. “You can bring new hires in the door all day long but how do you keep them?” she asked rhetorically. She emphasized that there is a lot of proactive exposure and training required to ensure a successful recruitment experience.
Referrals Remain a Strategy of Choice
When it comes to reaching out to potential employees, referrals continue to rank at the top for both employers and job seekers alike. According to the 2014 Jobvite Job Seeker Nation Study, four out of every 10 employees said that a referral was responsible for them finding their favorite or best job. On the other side of the equation, employers say that 64% of their highest quality employees result from referrals. Keep in mind that these numbers are general and may be different for the pallet industry. In spite of such possible differences, the key reasons for employers preferring worker referrals rings true for both general jobs as well as the pallet industry. See chart on page 41.
Based on anecdotal evidence from pallet industry insiders, referrals are a recruitment method of choice for a number of pallet companies including Millwood, Inc. “We find employee referrals to be highly effective,” stated Wells of Millwood. “Our employees feel valued by the company, and they want to extend opportunity to other people they know.” For Millwood, it has been a successful approach for bringing talent into the company.
Referrals are also a preferred approach Ontario-based Woodbridge Pallet. “Typically people coming from referrals know all the details about job and environment prior to starting and are comfortable with it,” explained Ryan Scobie, president of Woodbridge Pallet, Ltd. “Since it is typically a friend or family member, the person is motivated to do well as they do not want to let down person who referred them.”
In order to promote referrals, some companies, including Millwood, have established employee referral programs, which involve some sort of compensation or benefit to the referring employee if the new recruit completes training and meets other requirements. Other companies do not offer referral compensation, depending upon the local job market. They find that loyal employees wish to share their employment experience with others in their social and family sphere.
A referral program can be too much of a good thing, however, if it taps one source too heavily. The U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission notes that it is “illegal to discriminate against someone (applicant or employee) because of that person’s race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), national origin, and age (40 or older).” If a company relies too heavily on word-of-mouth referrals at the expense of other recruiting message so that all new workers come from one social or ethnic group, for example, the Commission warns that the employer may be violating the law.
Getting Social to Find New Help…and to Evaluate It
According to the Jobvite research referenced above, aside from references, employers find the next highest source of quality candidates through social media and a corporate website. Increasingly, pallet companies like American Pallet, mentioned at the beginning of this piece, and others are looking to social media to support recruitment efforts. Two industry participants with highly visible social media recruiting efforts include Millwood, Inc. as well as Nazareth Pallet. Both actively use Facebook. This is line with the results of the Jobvite survey, which, the most popular social media platform for recruiting to be Facebook.
Also of interest, hiring companies increasingly use social media to help them better understand job candidates. According to Jobvite, 93% of recruiters indicated they were likely to view a candidate’s social profile while 42% have reconsidered a candidate based on content viewed in a social profile.
Other Sources of Recruitment
Like employers in other industries, pallet companies still rely heavily on job advertisements, however, they increasingly post online versus in newspapers. Scobie of Woodbridge noted that his success with newspaper ads had diminished over the years. Have recently used sites like Kijiji (branded as eBay Classified in the United States) as replacement to local newspaper ads. “It is really cheap and produces same results,” he said.
Another option is to staff for seasonal peaks through temporary placement agencies, and evaluate them while their contract hours are met. Ultimately, job offers can be made to promising candidates.
“We do utilize temps to fill full-time jobs and have had many successful hires that way,” Scobie said. “We find that to be a very hit or miss process as well and depends on recruiting agency.” His recommendation is to bring the agency into the workplace to see the job first hand so they can better screen candidates. Providing them with a video can also be valuable.
Another recruitment approach used in various industries is the job fair, but this is generally more cost-effective for larger employers. Some companies in other industries report having success through a variety of outreach initiatives such as providing tours and job placement for vocational and work readiness programs. Placing a “Now Hiring” sign outside your facility can make sense if you are in a high traffic area. It can also be a good idea to put job vacancies on your website as well as information about your hiring process.
While referrals remain a successful approach, pallet companies interviewed in this article rely on a variety of approaches to bring in employees. Universally, they emphasize the importance of effectively communicating the challenge of working in the pallet sector, assessing the potential for candidate success, and providing them with the support necessary to hone the required skills and work habits during the training period.
Reasons Employer Referrals Are Great For Recruiting
• Faster Hiring Process: To start with, the process is typically faster. You don’t need to write and post a job description, and then read through the resumes. Instead, you simply interview the referral.
• Cheaper: In addition to saving time in the screening process, you can also avoid recruitment costs related to job posting or recruiting fees.
• Accelerated Development: Researchers have found that referrals tend to progress more quickly than other hires, likely because of their connections. They are more likely to seek out any needed advice and support from the sponsoring employee or others.
• More Staying Power: Referrals tend to stay with the job longer than from other recruitment streams. The Jobvite study found that 46% of referrals stayed on the job for at least one year after their hire, versus only 33% of people hired from career sites, and only 22% of people recruited through job boards.
