October 5, 2017

By Intrigue

At Intrigue, our team members are the key to our success. As a service based business, it is critical for us to find people who align with our culture and fit the role. If you have been responsible for hiring a new employee recently, you know it’s definitely not as simple as posting a job description on some job boards!

One key component to finding great job candidates is sourcing the right people. Similar to salespeople who are always looking to meet, qualify, and sell to prospects, Intrigue is constantly looking for the best people to join our team. If you want to know how we do it, I’m happy to share: We believe in investing in finding the right people and this requires time, energy, and money, before the job is even posted.

1. Connect with local colleges and universities. In between studying for exams and guzzling coffee, students are wondering what jobs their studies will lead to. Over the years, we have sponsored events, attended job fairs, participated in workshop weeks, and more. This can sound like a big job, but honestly, the staff we connected with at local universities have been SO helpful! They are passionate about connecting students with good work experiences and are eager to make this process as easy as possible for interested employers.

Thanks to our friends Robin, Laura and Kate at the
University of Guelph Co-operative Education & Career Services office,
all Intrigue has to do is let them know we have a co-op or full time job to be posted
and they are happy to take care of the rest and send us great candidates.

Think about what post-secondary education you look for in job candidates, and take the time to connect with those programs at local schools. As you become involved, students will begin to see you as an engaged employer.

2. Ask your team and professional network. Your team and your A-clients already have an in-depth understanding of what being successful at your company looks like. They know the cultural values, what the company looks for in good candidates, and the skills and core competencies needed for the job. After a few of our team members read Who by Geoff Smart and Randy Street, we implemented their suggestion of asking these people, “Who are the most talented people you know?” This gave us great results and connected us with some amazingly talented people.

3. Share what it’s like to work at your company. At Intrigue, we share a lot about our culture and the events we’re involved in through our blog and social channels. Our Instagram page shares a lot of ‘around the office’ content.

We also host quarterly ‘Career Info Sessions’ at our office. Registration is open to all and posted on the careers page on our website. At these sessions, we share our cultural values and how we work, and then we open it up to for questions. People interested in working at Intrigue get the opportunity to meet some team members and learn more about us. We also get to meet interested people face-to-face!

The more you can create transparency about what it’s like to work at your company, the more you will attract people who will be a good fit!

4. Engage on Glassdoor. Glassdoor is a great place to post jobs, but it’s best known as being a site where employees can anonymously post reviews of companies they work for. You will probably get reviews whether you like it or not — so embrace it!

As an employer, you can ‘claim’ your company page so that you can edit the description, add company awards/accolades, add pictures, and most importantly respond to reviews. If you receive a great review from someone, thank them! If you receive a negative review, take the time to appropriately respond and use that information to make things better in your company. Almost every candidate we interview mentions that they looked at our Glassdoor page to see team member reviews! This is a HUGE opportunity for us to be transparent with job seekers.

All of these efforts take time. Finding great people takes investment, but as Jim Collins says in Good to Great, “The most important decisions that businesspeople make are not what decisions, but who decisions.”

If you’re interested in learning more about how Intrigue finds great people or what it’s like to work at Intrigue, give me a shout at 519-265-4933 or check out our careers page!

Intrigue is a Canadian digital marketing company delivering solutions to help businesses get noticed and found. Guided by a commitment to empower leaders to strengthen communities, Intrigue offers website design and development, branding, online advertising, content marketing, graphic design, video production, SEO, and analytics. Take your marketing to the next level and Get Noticed. Get Found.® intrigueme.ca

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