Hunt for treasure, mine your gold, and mind the steal.
If talent is treasure, we need to hunt for it. Underserved communities often have untapped talent, so it’s imperative and important to embrace diversity and work around preconceived notions. Why not work with veterans’ organizations to search for potential employees? Veterans with military backgrounds, more often than not, are disciplined people who are mission oriented. There are scores of organizations that promote veteran transition to civilian work and offer assistance for veteran job searches. Ensure your company culture is open and welcoming to military veterans. As a bonus, every veteran comes with an inherent referral network; every military unit is a group within a larger group, and these groups often have reunions.
Public schools offer a wealth of possible recruitment opportunities. Unlike private institutions which may spend money on personnel to help ensure job placement for graduates, public schools may be resource challenged. Fostering relationships with school guidance counselors may be particularly effective. Start with high schools. How do you reach the right people? There’s no sole answer. Consider geography and contact local schools to see if they offer a career day or would be interested in arranging such a presentation. Do your current staff members have children in school? Find out where and see what you can learn about those schools. Do employees have kids in sports programs? Coaches are often more accessible to parents, and sometimes very motivated to help their athletes in any way. The U.S. Census Bureau released data in 2022 from the Educational Attainment in the United States: 2021 that indicates the high school completion rate in the United States for people over age 25 is 91.1% as of 2021. The percentage of people over age 25 listed with a bachelor’s degree as their highest completed level of education was 23.5%, and 14.4% had completed an advanced degree like a master’s, professional or doctoral degree. If we don’t want to overlook more than half of the available workforce for many positions, recruiting employees at the high school level makes a lot of sense.
Churches and religious organizations offer more untapped avenues for employee recruitment. Different religious denominations have multiple sites and locations across the state of Illinois and in municipalities. Again, consider geography and reach out to local churches, temples, mosques, and parishes. Get to know your own employees better and learn if any are involved with local churches or service organizations. Church bulletins may be willing to publish job opportunities, particularly if submitted by church members. Many parishes offer employment support groups for those unemployed, those looking for employment or those searching for new job or career options. Personal contacts are the keys to these connections that open a world of networking possibilities.
Don’t wait for the employee referral program to provide 58 | COMMON INTEREST®
results. Employees already on staff and their family ties are golden, so mine that gold. If you have an outstanding team member who impresses you at every turn, do they have siblings or children who might be looking for work or a career path? While we may be able to teach skills, we can’t teach character and we can’t (as of yet anyway!) clone our best employees. We certainly can explore family ties, as family members often share similar character traits. There’s a reason that one company may employ several siblings or multiple generations of a family. Family members learn about our community association industry at the dinner table, on road-trips and over morning coffee, whether they wish to or not. Family members are exposed regularly to both the good and bad things about our work world when moms and dads, brothers and sisters, children, aunts, and uncles vent about the latest travesty, tragedy, or triumph at work. So many of us live in community associations, we often share the dual perspectives of employer and employee, vendor or service provider, manager and board member. It’s absolutely worth discussing employment opportunities with current employees and their family members.
Very unfortunately, there are those who may recruit new employees by stealing them from competitors. There are pros and cons to this strategy, and we all must mind the steal. If an employee is unhappy or disillusioned with employment, moving to a competitor is a likely scenario. The steal is easy for both the employee and the hiring employer, with minimal investment in retraining. Of course, if an employee is happily employed, the chance of the successful solicitation is negligible, so retaining good employees should always be important to an employer. Hiring employees from a competitor may have unintended consequences. Dissatisfied employees who change jobs frequently may potentially affect the culture an employer is trying to build, on both sides of that equation. Isolating employees, prohibiting them from networking events or otherwise shielding them from industry exposure is likely counterproductive. If an employee wishes to change employers, they will. Repeatedly recruiting employees from competitors is not a sustainable strategy for long-term hiring success.
Employee turnover isn’t good for anyone. Hiring and training new employees is typically represented as more time- consuming and expensive an investment than retaining staff members. Employees coming and going is stressful and disruptive for both current employees and their employers.
Employers should work to provide appealing perks that attract new employees and enhance the benefits that will retain those employees. When recruiting people, employers may now offer a starting or sign-on bonus. Money always matters, as does salary transparency and opportunity for growth. Today’s work environment and culture should embrace schedule flexibility and remote work where and whenever possible. If you think such options aren’t possible,
• Winter 2022 • A Publication of CAI-Illinois Chapter
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