Dear Workforce: How Do We Ramp Up Hiring in a Suddenly Tight Labor Market?

Dear Workforce:

-- Under Pressure, software/systems, Bangalore

Dear Under Pressure:

Hiring 25 new IT workers is a very daunting task that is made even harder by an ever-tightening job market. Accomplishing this goal will require you to develop a sound recruiting plan. Here are some recommended steps:

Create accurate job profiles. Have your recruiting team meet individually with each of the hiring managers to develop a solid profile of the expected duties for each position. I liken this to building a house. Without a solid foundation to start, the house will collapse. Without solid job profiles, your recruiting team won’t be able to build a recruiting strategy, and may wind up chasing candidates that won’t fit the positions.

Determine the proper size of your recruiting team. You didn’t mention the number of recruiters you currently have, nor the level of the positions for which you are recruiting. If the positions are difficult to fill, I suspect that each recruiter could do three "fills" a month. If you need to supplement the size of your team, consider hiring contract recruiters or outsourcing this task.

Devise a sourcing plan. Decide on an Internet positing and sourcing plan using several national job boards. You also should consider using various search engines to find names to cold-call. Develop a list of target companies and instruct your recruiters to network with these firms. If you don’t already have one, an employee referral program is a great source of quality candidates.

Hammer out an interview plan. Do you have senior management’s buy-in that the hiring managers will commit the time necessary to interview? Managers generally do not like to conduct interviews. An interview-to-hire ratio of 3-to-1 is very good, meaning you will need to schedule at least 75 on-site interviews a month to meet your goal of 25 hires per month. Companies quickly run into "interview fatigue" when they work a schedule like that. This will be a major problem for your recruiting team if they have sourced the candidates but can’t schedule interviews.

Develop a bonus plan for your recruiters. I am not sure how your recruiters are compensated, but my recommendation would be to develop a bonus plan to drive your team to reach the hiring metrics needed to hit your target.

SOURCE: Mike Sweeny, T. Williams Consulting, Collegeville, Pennsylvania, April 26, 2001

LEARN MORE: How to reduce turnover in the IT department.

The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.