In the first of a series of articles, Adam Keable from Colt Mackenzie McNair offers advice on recruiting staff for your golf club:
After speaking with employers following an advertised led recruitment campaign, they are often very surprised at how little reach their job advertisement received.
It is so often the case that many employers are overoptimistic about the number of qualified applicants they will receive when advertising a job. From an internal viewpoint they feel that the role they’re looking to fill is an attractive position, and should receive a strong response from good candidates. However more often than not a large percentage of suitable candidates fail to read or are even aware of the opportunity. This is why it is crucial that you understand the candidate market and how they can be split into two key categories: Active or Passive.
An Active candidate is someone actively looking for new employment and is scanning job boards daily, posting their CV online and is highly motivated to seek new employment.
The Active candidate market is typically comprised of:
- Candidates in jeopardy of losing their jobs.
- Candidates that have already lost their jobs.
- Candidates that are underperforming in their current positions and are upset because they were passed up for a promotion or didn’t receive a pay increase.
- Candidates with personality or other conflict issues with their peers and/or supervisors.
- And a small percentage of candidates that are performing and have other reasons to change companies, such as no growth potential, relocation, etc.
- As only 5 – 20% of the candidate market are ‘actively seeking’ opportunities, 80% of candidates are focused on their current position. These passive candidates are not observing at job boards or trade magazines, which are traditionally used to advertise roles.
It is not to say that there are no quality candidates in the active market, but it is vital that you identify their motivations for a move as they are not always positive.
A Passive candidate is someone not actively looking for a new job and is focused on their current role. Generally these candidates are too busy being successful and making an impact in their role. Job boards and advertisements will not reach them and even if they do, it is usually too late. The challenge with passive candidates is that they are harder to identify, locate and qualify.
As passive candidates are in almost all cases considered more desirable than active candidates, it is essential recruitment process focuses on both active and passive candidates.
So before you rush into advertising a role, ensure that the process you have selected focuses on both the active and passive candidate markets. If you can, form a hybrid methodology that focuses on providing you with the maximum reach so that candidates in both markets are aware of the opportunity.
Also as we live in a world of technology, ensure that your chosen trade magazine, job board or recruiter can provide you with search analytics, detailing the reach. They should be able to provide this in both number of candidates reached and also quality of candidates reached.
Lastly if budgetary reasons or seniority of the role means that you can only use traditional advertised methods, ensure that you chose the right networks to advertise in. It is always worth a discussion with an Executive Search Firm as they may have networks that you will not have access to.
Colt Mackenzie McNair (CMM) offer trusted recruitment solutions to the golf club industry. CMM provide consultancy advice and recruitment solutions for a wide range of clubs across the UK.
By GCMA
