Finding professionals – Where do they hang out?

Would you find a cyclist in a swimming pool? Maybe. But you are far more likely to find one on a bike, in a bike shop or while cleaning his bike. Sounds logical, right? However, this wisdom is not always fully taken into consideration when searching for new employees. It already begins with the selection of the universities on which one focuses in order to find the right graduates. This raises the question: What are the students of this university like? Does their personality fit to my company culture? Who else is trying to attract them as a potential employer? How do I have to present myself in order to be more attractive than other employers? Especially today, where study programmes are becoming more and more diverse, this requires good research. What are the chances of finding an employee at an international university (which sends its students all around the world every other semester) who would love to work in a small town that is hours away from the nearest airport? And would also like to stay there for the next 40 years? And how do you lure a skilled worker into the big city from a rural, family-owned company in which he was trained by relatives? Particularly, if he has the prospect of taking over the company one day?

So when does the recruiting phase begin? In the last year of training? Or much earlier? Some companies actually already start in kindergartens in order to make children familiar with their brand names. At the latest in school, when it comes to term papers, it is important to be mentioned in them. In a positive way, of course. But this requires the right, specially trained staff, who can communicate with the target audience properly.

And when an application then actually does arrive? Or there is a sign of interest? That is also a part that requires a lot of work. At Swisscom an application takes 30 sec. Because, you merely have to send a link to your profile in social media. That means that Swisscom requires completely different employees in its recruiting department. In this phase the idea is to take on all those who have demonstrated a general interest as potential employees and to contact them. That’s to ensure no one is missed. Either the person is shortlisted immediately or later (and is then directly contacted). But under certain circumstances the person may not be suitable at all. In this case it is important to keep that person positively disposed so that the connection might one day lead to someone who is actually a suitable potential candidate. Staff experience. Titles like Chief Happiness Officer, Employee Experience Leader, etc. are springing up out of the ground like tentative mushrooms. To win over existing and prospective employees for the company. That is what it’s more and more about. And how do you do that? I’ll show you.