Recruitment Starategy

Competency-Based Recruitment Strategies

Recruitment: The process of surveying all sources of personnel, inside and outside the organization, to locate and attract the best possible candidates for new or vacated positions.

Many human services agencies have a difficult time recruiting top quality applicants for the very demanding jobs they are trying to fill. Baby-boomer driven retirements coupled with a shrinking labor supply suggest that the recruitment challenge will only get tougher.

The recruitment challenges faced by small private human service agencies may be very different from those faced by the largest state, county and city public agencies. Yet they face many common challenges – some requiring basic systemic changes, and others that can be addressed in the short term. Both must be addressed if human services agencies are going to be successful over the long haul in attracting applicants with the needed education, experience and competency sets.

Closing the Recruitment Gap

Your gap analysis may have revealed that you need to attract more and better-qualified applicants. Ultimately, the applicants you hire are only as strong as those in your applicant pool.

The following steps will help you develop a gap-closing recruitment strategy to better attract more applicants and to build a pool of high-quality applicants.

▪ Identify your Recruitment Strategy Team

▪ Brainstorm possible recruitment strategies

▪ Select the best recruitment options to investigate and pursue

▪ Draft plan

▪ Get leadership buy-in

Step 1: Identify the Recruitment Strategy Team

Form a workgroup whose primary objective will be to develop a gap-closing recruitment plan for your agency. The team should include:

▪ Key Human Resources personnel.

▪ Staff who have knowledge and responsibility for day-to-day operations.

▪ Other work units as appropriate given your agency’s size and organizational structure.

▪ Individuals with...