Reeling in the talent - employee recruitment

HR Magazine, July, 1999 by Carla Joinson

States showcase their assets to lure workers.

Today's recruiting efforts are much more creative than the typical print ads in Sunday newspapers and Career Day booths on local college campuses. Yet companies still are coming up short in their search for qualified employees. HR departments could certainly case the situation - if they had the time and money to conduct elaborate recruitment campaigns.

The truth is, HR could do a lot more - with a little help from their state governments - and at little or no expense to their companies. Most states are re-focusing efforts on recruitment now that many are enjoying record lows in unemployment. The problem today is not so much how to lure companies into their borders; it's how to keep those companies supplied with workers. Within the past few years, and in some cases, just the past few months, many state governments have changed - at least in part - their economic and workforce-development strategies to address this problem.

States are launching strong recruitment campaigns to play up a state's recreational opportunities and natural beauty, emphasize better lifestyles or take advantage of well-known businesses and universities that already draw good candidates into the state. Businesses can plug into these campaigns to do little of the work and investment but reap much of the rewards.

How Are They Biting?

HR professionals can benefit from the labor force data compiled by their state departments of labor (DOLs) to develop targeted recruitment strategies. State governments use this data, which include the state's current and future business needs - as well as reasons behind employee shortfalls - to target recruitment campaigns that will work for their particular state.

Nebraska, for example, discovered that its former residents were fleeing to warmer climates in Texas, Florida and Arizona, with the greatest percentage settling in California. It made sense, then, for Nebraska Works, a workforce development initiative created by the department of economic development (nebworks.ded.state.ne.us), to hold a career fair in California.

However, campaign creators didn't think it made sense for them to compete with California's high-tech Silicon Valley image. Instead, they played up the lifestyle available to workers if they moved to Nebraska.

"Californians are amazed at our state's housing costs," says Patty Wood, workforce development supervisor for Nebraska in Lincoln. "We also have the best student-to-teacher ratio in the country, a low crime rate, less traffic, small communities and a slower pace." She says the state hopes these attributes will attract former Nebraskans and workers looking for a lifestyle change.

It seems to be working. Last fall, Nebraska Works ran stadium ads during an important college football game that draws a lot of out-of-state fans. Approximately 14,000 users visited the web site set up for the campaign and nearly 800 people requested job applications and Nebraska living packets.

Wood's department also piggybacked onto Nebraska's nationwide "Genuine Nebraska" tourism campaign by creating links from the tourism web page to "Work, Play and Stay" pages that itemize Nebraska's cost of living and quality of life. In the future, Nebraska Works would like to target military personnel affected by base closures, as well as to continue its job fairs and targeted advertising.

"We'd also like to create workshops on 'best practices' in recruitment and retention to deliver [to employers] across the state," says Wood. "These workshops should be ready by the fall of 1999 or early in 2000. Retention is a huge part of this, not just recruitment."

Minnesota's campaign, "Come Home to Minnesota," also targets former residents, particularly among professional and technical job seekers. "Our 'Minnesota Living' brochure, which describes the quality of life, education, outdoor and recreational opportunities and the like, should trigger memories from former residents," says Gary Fields, deputy commissioner of the state's department of trade and economic development in St. Paul.

"We also had a fair number of people who left the state in the 1980s when the economy wasn't as robust who we would like to reach."

Fields' office provides marketing materials, brochures and sample letters for chambers of commerce, local economic development organizations and employers, which can be mailed to former residents found through high school reunion lists, alumni groups and community college outplacement lists. "Our focus is to get prospects to click on the state's web site [www.des.state.mn.us]," says Fields, "and to make sure businesses get their job postings on the site." Job seekers can log onto ISEEK (Internet System for Education and Employment Knowledge) at www.iseek.org and browse through thousands of up-to-the-minute job postings, information on the fastest growing occupations in Minnesota and average wages paid.

The Michigan Economic Development Corp., a state government agency, began distributing an interactive, multimedia employment CD-ROM to college students and businesses, which can hand them out to potential job candidates. The CD-ROM opens with images of a brain scan, asking the user what comes to mind when thinking about Michigan.