by Chuck Moyer

Created on: November 14, 2007

Are you Offering Drudgery or Accomplishment? Your applicants are what you recruit. If you want the best, the position you are offering needs to stand out from the rest. So many job posting, job expo speeches and initial interviews are laced with descriptions of monotony. A typical job description lays out the tasks the position is responsible for, and applicants are qualified based on how they would or can perform those tasks. In other words, what they will be doing day after day.

While it is important to convey the scope and responsibilities of the position, to make an impact on the organization you need more than a warm body to perform a role, just good enough; shouldn't be. In the battle to keep up with recruiting demands it is easy to fall into the get somebody, anybody routine. But a well done recruiting effort has the chance to change the organization for the better. But are you attracting the difference-maker applicants?

Differentiation applies to all marketing, including employment positions, look at the way your messages looks with the messages of other companies recruiting from the same pool. How are you different? Unless you can always offer the highest salary you must entice candidates with the positive elements of your organization and the opportunities of the position. Stand out with descriptions of your company's culture, environment and vision.

People want to believe in something, work toward something that visibly and tangibly shows progress. Describe big projects that the company is working on, or initiatives being put in place, participation in a unique or special accomplishment will bring out the best people. In initial discussion lay out targets or milestones that are approaching. Instill that organizational euphoria of achievement into the applicant. Make them want to be part of its success.

When positions are reduced to a commodity based labor effort then price and location become the only determining factors for an applicant's acceptance of a position. And in this manner retention is determined by maintaining that price or location leadership over competing positions in a costly up-the-ante cycle. Whereas with initiatives and milestone targets driving the interest of new employees, they are likely to stay on to see the completion of these objectives, and maintain that pride of accomplishment into the next set of organizational goals driving the company to success.

This is where good employees have a chance to be great. Their intent is accomplishment and their commitment is to the pursuit, not to some daily repeating task, but instead to a purpose, participation and contribution. This helps build a critical mass that attracts additional recruits to the company with a like mind and initiative. In this environment your valuable human resources can collectively shine and individually distinguish themselves to greatness.

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