Recruiting of the Temporary Work Force
There are many methods for the recruitment of employees. Although every method will work to varying degrees in your market, it will take experimenting and time to determine which methods will achieve the best results for you. Recruiting is an ongoing activity to generate new workers for new jobs. Persistence and creativity will get you an increase in applicants.
Obviously, the retention of tour existing workers makes the task of recruiting much easier. Two themes generated from everyone are word of mouth referrals and retention of existing employees. These two methods are very closely related. You will build loyalty and referrals by treating your work force with respect. This takes on many forms. One location calls everyone by Sir, Ma’am, Mr. or Ms.. Some locations will have free coffee and donuts every morning. An occasional Saturday breakfast, Thanksgiving or Christmas meal will go a long way for the workers to have a good feeling about your labor hall. Clean uniforms and supplying the workers with safety equipment daily will add tot he retention and referrals. Telling the works a sincere “thank you, good job, do you know any other people who work as hard as you do?” will not only keep them returning but will also lead to new applicants. Be sure to ask everyone how their day went and listen after you ask, take a few minutes to find out if the worker had a problem. The need for recruiting people would decrease dramatically if you could keep everyone who has applied tin your labor hall returning every day for work.
Having work available will increase retention and referrals of workers. If you have work for the people at your labor hall, word will get out quickly that you have the jobs. This not only will keep your current people returning but will also lead to an increase of new applicants.
Tracking response to any recruiting technique is important. Be sure to ask as many new applicants as you can, where and how they learned of your labor hall.
The methods, techniques and tips that follow may work well in your market. You will never know until you try them. These are ideas that you may be currently using or have used in the past. All of these ideas are YOUR ideas. They are a compilation of ideas that Managers, Staffing Consultants and others in the filed have given to the Corporate Office. What follows are your ideas and techniques.
Help Wanted Sign in Window:
This is so basic, we forget to do it! Be sure your sign is neat, attractive and at a height that can be seen. If you are on a corner, use more than one sign. Change the sign and the colors of the sign occasionally, to keep it fresh. This can be done by simply having two signs, one blue, one yellow and rotate them bi-weekly.
Newspaper Advertisements:
Please remember that all newspaper advertisements must approved by the corporate office prior to placement and that the Human Resource Department is the only area that may actually place the advertisement.
Do not forget that many areas have local city or community newspapers, including foreign language. Although the advertisements need to be fairly general, the more details you include will lead to better results. Examples are: General Labor that includes manufacturing, assembly work, etc… If only one specific skill is needed for a specific job, the advertisement should reflect that one skill. The results are typically poor if only a broad ad is placed.
Newspaper ads will perform better wen used on a consistent basis. The locations that have a weekly ad generate more applicants from the ad than locations, which place an ad every few weeks. Two or more exposures on the same day works well. The size of the ad will make little difference. The use of a logo does not effect the response to an ad.
One difficulty is tracking the response to an ad. If you are planning on receiving phone calls, put your second phone number in the ad if possible. If you have people apply in person, ask new applicants where they heard of you.
Flyers:
Flyers are used in almost every location but to very different degrees. Some basics: Use bright, colorful paper. Orange, Pink, the brighter the better. Use rip off tabs on the bottom for the address and phone number of your office. If needed, make them bi-lingual. Place them in grocery stores, shops laundromats, check cashing stores, etc. Do not forget bathrooms, picnic tables, light poles, anywhere they will not blow away.
If you have experienced past success with flyers but the responses have been diminishing, try going further away from the labor hall. People will travel farther and farther for a job as unemployment drops. Where a person may have traveled only one mile to your location in the past for a job, they may now travel two or three miles. If you have saturated the market out two miles, you will need to keep going further away for new recruits.
Remote Pick Up Points:
This involves picking up people at predesignated locations away from thelabor hall. This practice usually starts off very slowly and takes time to develop. Typically a permanent employee will go to the remote sight and either brings people back to the labor hall or directly to a job sight. This helps in getting additional people and getting them out to remote sights. This will also lead to Staffing Consultants selling in the area of the pick up points. As the number of workers close by the office is depleted, you will need to find people willing to travel for employment.
Early Pay Incentives:
This is an incentive for the worker to arrive early at the labor hall. If a worker arrives before a designated time, they will receive an increase in their pay rate. Reporting times range from 5:30 am to 7:00 am and the pay increases range from 10 cents to 50 cents per hour. The benefits have been twofold where this has been used. One benefit is workers are reporting earlier. This has helped with the early starts and where a longer distance is traveled to the job site. An additional benefit has been an increase in overall workers. A twist on this is a guaranty of at least 4 hours pay if they report for work before the designated time on the first three working day of a month. This, coupled with a higher pay rate for reporting early, will help if you are experiencing difficulty getting enough workers the first week of the month.
Referral Bonus:
This bonus money is given to one employee for bringing in another employee. The second employee needs to work a certain number of hours for the bonus to be paid. Hours range from 37 to 120. The amount of bonus paid ranges from $2.00 to $25.00. This method is not easy to track, they will have to be tracked on an individual basis.
Bus and Park Benches:
Local advertising on bus and park benches telling people about your office. These are relatively inexpensive and many people will see them.
Places to Look for People: With these locations constant communication is a key.
Churches: Contact the local churches. The Pastor of the Church or in many cases the secretary can help you. Tell them you are looking for good people to put to work. In many cases they will make an announcement at the next service or put a note into a newsletter.
Work Release: Contact the local office for help with recruiting. This method helps one office get as many as 50 good people a day. This will also help W.O.T.C. A bonus is paid to the job applicant and to internal staff who get W.O.T.C. applicants into the labor hall and working.
Halfway Houses, Missions: Contactyour local office. A consistent dialogue between you and these offices will help keep both parties abreast of increases in needed workers and upcoming jobs.
Inactive Applicants: By taking a portion of the inactive applications, people who have not worked for the last few months, and calling them to tell them about work, you can rebuild your labor pool. These are people who stopped showing up for some reason other than termination or no shows. To be called, told of work and invited back in, will bring many of these people back to work.
Signage: A LARGE sign on your labor hall will attract people. Make sure your sign is legible; can be seen from a distance and from all traffic patterns. If there is a read behind your labor hall, be sure you have a sign facing in that direction.
Sales Call Referrals: When making a sales call, remember this could also be a possible recruiting opportunity. If the person you are talking to claims to have too many people and applicants, tell them to send people over to your labor hall. When done with the intention of helping the people who do not have a job, this will create good will between the potential client and you. You will help them by giving an opportunity for potential applicant s to find a job, and they can help you by sending people to your labor hall.
Yellow Pages:
An ad here does generate applications. An attractive ad promoting your labor hall will lead to applicants contacting your office along with potential customers.
Pay Raises:
Pay raises are widely varied from location to location. Some examples:
-Starting all workers at $5.15 per hour.
-After a month working full time, a raise of 25 cents.
-Drivers getting from 10 cents to 50 cents per hour above the other workers.
Vacations:
Temporary employees are eligible for vacation pay if a total of 1800 hours are worked during the course of one year. One year is to be defined as January 1 through December 31 of any given year. A total of 5 (five) days will be given as vacation pay if an employee has met the 1800 hours work requirement.