Using a Help Wanted ad is good for letting your competitors know what you are up to, but is not always the best the way to hire great new employees. Here are some non-traditional ways that may help you find the perfect candidate:

Start with your employees – Ask them (and reward them) for referrals, but ask seemingly off-the-wall questions like:

• “Where do you eat lunch and at what time?”
• “What retail stores do you visit and when?”
• “Which websites do you visit every day? Every week?
• “Which site is marked as your homepage?
• “What online recruiting site do you monitor?
• “What industry forums do you follow online?
• “Do you read a print newspaper?”
• “What newspapers do you read on-line?”
• “What movie theater do you go to?”

Their answers can not only tell you on what sites you should place your ads, but you can take a page out of Quicken Loans’ book and send your HR people to go have lunch at the eateries mentioned, visit the retailers, and stand in the movie line to start up conversations with likely people. Will they have to kiss a lot of frogs along the way? Maybe, but remember — the employees you want probably already have jobs and job fairs bring out not only a lot of unemployed people, but those with the wrong experience. This type of expanded referrals is the best way to meet the type of people you want (as they are likely to be similar to the type of people you’ve already hired).

Think about setting up a networking event – at the movie theater or in cooperation with the restaurant and advertise the event on the sites your employees use. Attendees must bring a resume as the price of admission. Offer lunch, free movie tickets, or a chance to win a shopping spree or cash price. Afterwards, ask the venue to keep your fliers on hand.

The Quicken Loan HR team also started “road rallies” days where they spread out to various malls and observed the employees of stores like Best Buy and Circuit City and the staff at TGI Fridays restaurants. They were looking for energy, enthusiasm and rapport with customers, believing that it isn’t industry experience you need to hire, but potential. If they exhibited the aforementioned qualities, they’d likely make a great employee who can be taught your business.

Use social networks creatively – Make sure your company has a LinkedIn profile and a Facebook page. Even such a prestigious organization as the Smithsonian Institution advertises its job opening on its Facebook page. They even ask all of their followers to pass along the opening to anyone they know who would suit the position.

Send a request to the people within your LinkedIn network asking that they pass along the job post to anyone they know who might be a good candidate for the job (former colleagues in their field are great for this) and also use  LinkedIn’s own search tools to narrow down a perfect candidate from across the entire LinkedIn database–by using search criteria like Experience, Education, Work History, Geography, and even Recommendations. Make use of LinkedIn’s  “Mailfunction” to send targeted emails to those who look promising with a job description and an invitation to apply. This way you’ll get people who weren’t even looking for a job.

Consider personality testing – This type of testing doesn’t ask about work history per se, but lots of seemingly unconnected questions that add up to a total picture of the candidate. For example, one hard-charging, experienced recruit turned out to be highly likely to burn the candle at both ends and the test predicted early burnout. That’s a good thing to to know before you hire that recruit.

If your company finds itself in need of the perfect candidate, Arrow Staffing is happy to supply them. Please contact us today.