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Ramping up staffing in small communities
Recruiting & Staffing
Ramping up staffing in small communities
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Hey fellow recruiting team... I manage recruiting for a Large Call center with sites in several smaller communities, and have beem tasked with a HUGE ramp of 400 folks in 3 weeks in 5 sites. 3 of t
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Forums  »  Topic Forums  »  Recruiting & Staffing  »  Ramping up staffing in small communities

Ramping up staffing in small communities

posted at 12/6/2007 7:18 AM EST
Posts: 3
First: 12/6/2007
Last: 12/7/2007
Hey fellow recruiting team...

I manage recruiting for a Large Call center with sites in several smaller communities, and have beem tasked with a HUGE ramp of 400 folks in 3 weeks in 5 sites. 3 of the sites I am working with are small communities of 20,000 people and we are having a hard time to realize a decent application flow. I was hoping some of you could please let me know some "out of the box" ideas that I might be able to utilize to accelerate our progress?

Thanks

Ramping up staffing in small communities

posted at 12/6/2007 11:36 AM EST
Posts: 3870
First: 2/12/2002
Last: 11/2/2009
What kind of reputation does your company have in these communities? How are you soliciting candidates now?

Ramping up staffing in small communities

posted at 12/7/2007 2:49 AM EST
lda
Posts: 237
First: 7/10/2007
Last: 8/31/2011

Hiring that volume of people in that time frame is going to be a challenge unless you have a staff and generous budget. Whats the old adage You can have it fast or you can hive cheap, but not both. Many of our locations are in smaller communities so here are a few of the things we teach our managers:
1. State employment agencies, applicants, screening and free job fairs in some cases
2. Flyers on bulletin boards (grocery stores, gyms, coffee shops, apts etc)
3. Community e-boards
4. Local Cable TV company
5. Movie theater ads
6. Small want-ad type newspapers
7. Educational institutions (student aid or job placement office)
8. Faith-based organizations (some have transition groups)
9. Any firm in the area who is down-sizing
10. Leaving business-card sized recruiting piece in waiting rooms
11. SnagAjob.com
12. Advertised Job fairs just for us
There are lots of other techniques such as referral bonuses and large newspaper ads which will work. One thing Ive learned is that in a small community you have to go into the surrounding area to draw enough applicants. Some companies even set up bussing operations to bring in groups of less-compensated employees from a distance away.
Good luck

Ramping up staffing in small communities

posted at 12/7/2007 3:07 AM EST
Posts: 3
First: 12/6/2007
Last: 12/7/2007
Thanks Team, great insights

We have good reputations in these cities, but the challenges are that we have been in these communities for several years and have somewhat capped our employee pool

All but one of the sites where I am recruiting for is in Canada....where the one in the USA is speeding along just fine..

Please keep it coming!!!

Thanks
Ken

Ramping up staffing in small communities

posted at 12/7/2007 3:51 AM EST
Posts: 3870
First: 2/12/2002
Last: 11/2/2009
Some good ideas from Ida. I had a similar problem a few years ago in the same industry. We were using one of the major job boards, but only advertising in the customer service category. By opening it up to retail/food service categories, we tripled our applicant flow rate.

In those small communities, word of mouth is the best bet. If you dont' have an employee referral program, you should put one in place. And do some cool things that the employees' will appreciate - if you can get a local buzz that company XXX is a cool place to work, start a career, etc, you'll be way ahead.

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