Placing Ads

Internet-based Ads

There are several job search websites available on the Internet. The most popular are www.Monster.com and www.CareerBuilder.com. Each of these websites has a tutorial or a “how to” section that will give you a step by step guide of how to post a job and how to use each of the resources available. Use the “contact us” feature to work directly with a representative and to get pricing details. There are often “corporate rates” that can be negotiated.

Begin by using the same ad you use in your local newspaper and follow all the same guidelines (not too wordy, be honest, etc). However, posting a job online allows you to be as thorough as you want to be about the position, the requirements, the benefits, etc. since you have much more room to work with compared to a newspaper ad. It also gives the freedom of using electronic communication (e-mails) and allows attachment of resumes from applicants.

Inernet ads also have the time-saving “auto reply” feature that will allow you to write a reply e-mail that will automatically be sent to every interested applicant.

There are also websites such as www.job-hunt.org that lists different websites for jobs in each state.

Look into career centers at colleges in your area. Most colleges provide some sort of resource to their students to help them find a job after graduation, and many of these career centers have online job postings through their website.

Use the “Career Opportunities” section on your own website as well. This will attract prospective employees that are interested in your company, which makes for potentially better applicants.

CSAA/NBFAA Security Industry Resource Center-Job Board

The Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA) and the Electronic Security Association (ESA)’ have joined forces to launch the Security Industry Recruiting Center, providing an online source for matching qualified job seekers with security industry employers.

Designed to be simple and cost-effective, the recruiting center will allow employers in the industry to post available career opportunities, as well as review resumes posted by new industry recruits. CSAA and NBFAA members receive special discounts.

For more information about the Security Industry Recruiting Center, visit [1].

Paper-based Ads

Step 1 – Determine how much money you have to spend on the ad.

Step 2 – Research the different local newspapers in your area and contact the customer service representative at each. Get the rates for the different sections (customer service, office, clerical, etc.), format types, (in column, display, color, borders, bullets, etc.) and ask about any specials they may be running (run 3 days get the 4th day free). Based on the results of your research, choose a newspaper to work with.

Step 3 – Choose the best day/days to run the ad (the customer service rep should be able to guide you on when certain ads work the best). Make sure that you are aware of differentials in price (Sunday ads tend to cost more).

Step 4 – Write the ad. Don’t be too wordy (bullets are often effective and eye-catching). Use words and phrases that are appealing but above all __BE HONEST__. Include important aspects of the job including, hourly rates, hours, benefits, weekend work, qualifications needed, etc. Be creative. For example, with gas prices so high if you are working 12-hour shifts, then advertise “Save Gas – Work 3 & 4 day weeks”. Be sure your ad meets all legal requirements and does not discriminate (EOE).

Step 5 – Submit ad in the format the newspaper needs it and send an electronic version to your representative. Be sure you ask for a copy of the ad back so you can have final approval.

Step 6 – Make sure that you purchase the newspaper the first day that the ad will be printed to ensure accuracy, see how it looks, and where it is located so you can adjust the next ad if necessary.

Step 7 – Keep a spreadsheet of # of responses, # of interviews and # of hires to determine which newspaper, days, and type of ad yields the best results.

Step 8 – If you didn’t get good results, try something different. Use a different newspaper, try a different section (ie “customer service” instead of “security”), or run on different days.

Job Fairs

Job fairs are a great source to help relieve your staffing needs. Job Fairs can be hosted onsite at your company and interviews can be conducted immediately.

Advice and How-To’s: Hold Your Own Job Fair in One Week by Sarah WhiteDec 6, 2006

Holding a company job fair at your location or a neutral space is a great way for your company to see a ton of employees who want to work for you all in one location at a time.

Step One: If You Plan It, They Will Come

Assuming you have a space available at work that you don’t have to reserve, you can plan it in one week. To do this the right way, be sure to follow these six logistical planning steps:

1. Reserve the room. Get a room filled with 10 to 15 computers so everyone can enter their information into your applicant tracking system at the same time. Obviously that isn’t always possible, so you’ll want as many computers as possible, or a room with tables and pens out for paper applications to be completed. Remember, they aren’t even applying for a specific job at this point.

2. Find helpers. Get one to three helpers to greet people at the door, point them in the right direction, and give them an application and list of open jobs and their requirements. If you can’t enlist that much help, put up signs to point people in the right direction, and have one person take and give out applications.

3. Assign a numbers system. Hand out numbers so you can keep track of who is next for an interview. If there is no time to prepare them, add all new resumes to the bottom of the pile and read through the pile from first to last.

4. Maintain a list of current openings. Have a list of open jobs and their requirements for both people coming to the job fair and those conducting screenings. At a minimum, have one copy per table where applications are being filled out, a few hanging up on the walls, and one for everyone screening.

5. Train the trainer. Have a skilled group of five to 10 professionals trained in the mechanics and art of interviewing. Have an interview form that has two to three basic questions you want asked, a space for their name, the interviewer name, any jobs they may be a fit for, and a quick ranking to circle “Probably,” “Maybe,” “Definitely Not.” If five to 10 recruiters or HR reps aren’t available, grab whomever is willing to stay late from any department. Include admin support, people from any of the jobs you’re looking to fill, interns, etc. Give them a crash course on what they should look for and what they should do with good people. Remember, these are two- to five-minute interviews.

6. Organize the resumes. Have a pile for “Probably,” “Maybe,” and “Definitely Not.” Make sure each interviewer includes their notes page and puts the application, resume, and notes in the correct pile.

Step Two: Publicity Counts

While there are as many ways as you can imagine attracting people to the fair, here are six common and time-effective approaches:

1. Publicize the event.On the Friday before, post on your online job boards and include in the title “On-Site Career Fair: Entry and Professional Level. Immediate Interviews.” or whatever is true for your organization. Make sure in your job-ad body you include all of your keywords that a person may search for. If you have a large variety of positions, you may want to run a few online job ads targeted to the different groups.

2. Send a press release to the paper.Small-town papers honestly report on anything. For whatever reason, people still think there’s a bad economy (see the election results) and hiring makes news.

3. Use a display ad.If you have unskilled or general labor needed, advertise using a display ad. It’s more expensive, but you get better results.

4. Network, network, network.Use your ERE, LinkedIn, MySpace, and any other job networking area you have created contact lists in. Send out a notice to all of the people in your group letting them know what you will be doing and to send people they may know.

5. Offer a referral bonus. Send an email out to your employees and retirees letting them know when you are having it and what you are hiring for. If you offer a referral bonus, remind them of that; or, offer it just for this event.

6. Use your ATS.Send an email out to people in your database, if you have an applicant-tracking system. If you don’t, you and I need to talk, because it is 2006 and there are a lot of very affordable options that are good out there. You can target this as much or as little as you want. Even better, send an Evite. In some ways, this will feel more personal than an email and will help you manage invitees.

7. Prepare for a large turnout but relax if it bombs. It very well might. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it again; it may just mean that wasn’t the right time. You can’t control the weather, television, and sporting events.

While not the norm, and possibly totally unexpected, there are a few additional things you can do with a little more planning to really make your job fair a success.

Enlisting the help of professional sourcers, like Maureen and others, can help you specifically call and target people within your competitor’s organizations to personally invite them to the job fair.

If you do this, I strongly recommend having a way to fast-track these busy professionals that you invited to come. There’s nothing worse than a true recruit feeling like another sheep.

Another tool that I’ve seen lately is a video interviewing online software by HireVue. It sends Webcams that can be set up with any computer and allows candidates to answer interview questions that you have written in general or based on position requirements. The interview is saved in a very recruiter-friendly online interface and is easily accessible by a recruiter or manager. Employers can “view” the interview as if they were really there.

While obviously more impersonal, it sure beats making someone wait for an hour or two for their two-minute interview with the accounting intern or bringing someone back for a full interview because you didn’t have time to screen everyone in person during the event.

If you are still wondering if this will work for your company and the types of positions you offer, I say it’s worth a try. I’ve seen company job fairs bring in hundreds of candidates and generally a much better quality turnout than public job fairs.

Candidates are being recruited for positions ranging from skilled/non-skilled labor to management level. The draw of an onsite interview and confidentiality it gives will often attract working professionals that you may not otherwise meet. Often, they’re afraid to go to public job fairs since their current employer may have a booth.

Company job fairs are also often held during off hours, such as 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., when busy people can leave work a little early and still make it home at a decent time, or make it home to change and come back to meet with your company.

The key is making sure that you are clear in your emails and advertising what types of positions you are looking for. In fact, some companies I have worked with have actually grown out of holding them at their own location and now rent out meeting rooms or halls at a local hotel to handle all of the traffic.

All in all, while not currently practiced by most recruiters, it is a relatively easy and cost-effective technique that can be used by corporate and agency recruiters alike.

Set Up of Job Fair

Usually, company management will get an invite to an upcoming job fair thru contacts from the Chamber of Commerce, Employers association groups, or other business groups of which they are a member.

For the actual job fair you would then proceed with the following steps: 1. Set up a booth/display area. 2. Have on hand brochures or fliers with a brief company introduction or mission statement. 3. Brochure or display detailing briefly the job position(s) available. 4. Application forms. 5. Folder or box for applicants to deposit resumes. 6. Notepad or something to write down notes for brief pre-interviews.

It would be prudent if the person manning your company’s booth is knowledgeable of your company benefits, pay scale, and other key information, such as available schedules, advancement opportunities , etc.

Referral Programs

Existing employees can be a great resource for applicant referrals. Offering a cash incentive for referring an individual that is ultimately hired and retained for a minimum of 1 year is a win-win situation.

Be sure to include specific guidelines for receiving the referral fee such as the timeframe the referral employee must work before the fee is released, what happens if employee is transferred to another department, etc.

Example of incentive:

Any central station employee with over 6 months of continuous service who recruits or refers an individual for employment is eligible for a $[insert dollar amount] referral fee if the referred individual is hired and successfully completes 1 year of continuous service in the Central Station. The referral fee will be distributed to the recruitng employee in 4 equal installments if and when the new employee successfully completes each 90 days of service. Should either the recruiting or the referral employee resign, transfer out, or be terminated from central station before the referral employee’s successful completion of one year of service, the remaining referral fee will not be paid.

If the referred employee has previous alarm dispatching experience, the recruiting employee will receive an additional $[insert dollar amount].

High Schools

There are several ways in which we have recruited through our local high schools. Some have been successful while others have not.

Work Study This did not turn out to be a viable method of recruitment. We contacted local school districts and spoke with their Director of Work Study program. This is a program where high school students attend ½ day of class and then work a job the other ½ of the school day. Child Labor Laws place restrictions on the number of hours they may work and the shift times they may work (unlawful to schedule a student past 9pm on a school day). In addition, the hours they were available were 11am – 9pm and that was just not a time that worked well in the 24X7 world of CS.

Career Fairs ‘These are usually held in the spring. They are designed for non-college bound seniors and/or graduates who plan on attending local community colleges after graduation. By contacting local school district Guidance Counselors, you can get a lot of information. If you company is willing to invest some time meeting with the Guidance office and then attending the schedule fairs, it can be worth it. There is some lag time when using this method as the Student is still attending high school while the career fairs are held. However it plants the seeds and many of the students contact us after graduation,

Colleges/Universities

Billboards Most colleges and Universities have job posting board on campus. If you have the time and can hang flyers at the student hubs, eateries, etc it can drum up applicants. Experience has taught us that having business card pockets on the flyers yields a larger response.

Websites As the World Wide Web grows, one can almost always find “job” websites college/university websites. However, a quick and broad reaching approach is posting jobs on CollegeCentral Network. www.collegcentral.com . Most accredited colleges/universities subscribe to this service. It is a National data base of jobs. When posting a Dispatcher Position it can be viewed by students from all over and we get a large number of applicants. However in the world of 24X7 Dispatch Centers, it can sometimes be difficult to balance class schedules and work schedules. It is becoming increasingly easier now that many Colleges and Universities offer on-line classes. This allows the student’s class time to become far more flexible.

Companies who offer tuition reimbursement are very attractive to these students and can often time turn out to be a long term relationship. Many of these recruits are willing to work every weekend, holidays and semester breaks! Even after graduation and they leave our employ, these folks will contact us for part-time positions or floater positions. It has been a very profitable recruiting technique for us.

Tips for utilizing college students for staffing needs

List the schools or universities in your area.

1. training schools did not work out as well as technical schools

2. technical schools have a 2 year school enrollment plan which gives the possibility for a longer term employee (2 years) vs the 6 month training schools before the student goes into their field of study. Universities can give you and employee for up to 4 years.

Put an information package together:

1. short introduction of your company

2. company’s mission statement

3. a job description

4. a list of testing requirements

a. typing

b. data entry

c. personality

5. general directions to the site

6. all the contact information for the initial interview

7. information regarding hiring requirements

a. licensing requirements

b. age requirement

c. certification requirements if applicable

Make an appointment to visit the school/university and meet with the person in the finance department that handles “job placement” for students.

Advise on the type of environment and fundamentals of the job

1. 24/7

a.possible schedules

b.pay scale

c. part time availability

d. dress code

e. general expectation

2. And the skill set needed to perform the job

a. eye for detail

b. quick learner

c. necessary retention

d. problem solver

I found that the more contact I had with the department the better defined the candidates they referred.

Since opening the relationship with the schools, employees have been asked to speak at the schools, on behave of our industry which has led to the placement of several people in other departments of our company as well as central station.

Government Agencies

1. Unemployment agencies

There are many agencies at the Local, State and Federal level that specialize in employment assistance. Most of these agencies have .org websites and are very easy to locate with a Google search.

The Department of Labor has a websites dedicated to connecting job seekers with employers. Just a few of their sponsored sites are: www.jobcorps.gov and www.jobbankinfo.org. Both of these sites have links to multitudes of state and county services as well.

Another wealth of applicants can be found by exploring the military veterans. One such service is www.recruitmilitary.com. This website specializes in connecting military veterans with employers.

2. Others

Recruiting Bi-Lingual Employees

www.pghhispaniccenter.com

The Hispanic Center, Inc is a website that specifically serviced the Latino community in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The Hispanic Center’s mission is to contribute to the enhancement of the workforce potential of Southwestern Pennsylvania through the Recruitment and development of a vibrant Hispanic community. The Hispanic Center, Inc. Provides the following core services: recruitment, prescreening, and retention services for employers, along with career development, training, and placement services for job seekers.

We have found this to be a great source or recruitment for Central Station Dispatchers. It is very inexpensive (compared to the cost of a news ad) and it is particularly attractive as the need for bilingual operators has grown.

This is local to the Pittsburgh area, but there are many national sites that provide similar services. www.ihispano.com www.joblatino.com www.latpro.com