At the Better Software tutorial yesterday, several managers said their hardest problem was finding good people. If you haven't started continuous recruiting yet, it's time to start.

Continuous recruiting is not just the "keeping your eyes open" part of recruiting, it requires your (and possibly your team's) active participation. It means you bring a couple of hundred business cards with you to conferences, professional group meetings, they gym--anywhere you might meet people. When you attend conferences or meetings, you always carry job description flyers. You ask where you can post them, or have them announced. And that's just the beginning.

Continuous recruiting is a form of marketing. You're marketing your company and yourself.

Ask yourself why people would find it valuable to work for your company in your group. Have a good story to tell? Write an article. Give a talk (local or at a conference). The more visibility you have, the more likely you are to attract the passive candidates, the ones who are already employed. And the more you provide exposure to your team and company, the more likely you are to help people screen themselves in or out for cultural fit.

Labels: manager, recruiting

posted by Johanna Rothman at at 9:51 AM | link |