Are You Overlooking One Of Your Best Recruiting Opportunities?

Published November 27, 2007

All new hires are excited to have a new job, but some are genuinely thrilled to be working at your organization. Finding these individuals isn't as hard as you might think. All it takes is viewing your customers in a new light.

A recruiting light, that is. Customers make ideal job candidates because they're already engaged in the brand, possess product knowledge, and, most importantly, are enthusiastic about the company's products and services.

That's all well and good, but if they really wanted to work for your company, they would have applied already, right? Not necessarily. They might not know you are hiring. They might not even know they are in the market for a new job. It's your job to spread the hiring word and plant the seed of interest in their minds. Try these tactics:

• Ask them directly. Example: "You really seem to enjoy our products and shopping here. Why don't you join our team?"
• Post "now hiring" signs at the job site, and make applications easily accessible to customers. With each, outline some benefits of employment. A discount for purchases, for instance, might be enough to interest some customers.
• Insert recruitment brochures into customer bags or shipments.
• If customers can place orders on your website, include a link somewhere on the order page to your organization's career page.
• Create recruitment cards. The size of a business card, these cards contain basic information about open positions and instructions for applying. Supply these cards to all staff who directly interact with customers.
• Then, train staff on how to recognize customers worth recruiting.

Related Topic(s): Hiring