“We can’t find good people.” As one of the leading staffing services firms in Florin, CA, it’s a line we hear often. Despite a still high unemployment rate, companies are having a hard time finding the talent they need.

One culprit? Not continuously recruiting and creating a talent pool. According to a recent CareerBuilder survey, “only 38% of employers continuously recruit throughout the year for positions that may open up down the line.” And yet, the survey also found that 65% of a subset of human resources managers who continuously recruit said the approach shortened their time to hire, while 54% said it lowered their cost per hire.

Rather than being left scrambling when an employee resigns, continuous recruiting ensures you have a network of qualified individuals who can be tapped when vacancies arise, reducing time-to-fill and business disruptions, as well a costs.

To help you adopt this proven strategy, here are some tips to consider:

Stay in touch with candidates and former employees.

If there’s a candidate who wasn’t your final choice for a position, but you know they’d be a great fit for your company, stay in touch with them. Follow up after the interview with a phone call, connect with them on LinkedIn and Twitter, and send them any news about openings you think would be a good fit for them. The same goes for past employees who left on good terms. Many former employees circle back.

Keep those unsolicited resumes.

Good people can fall from the sky in the form of an unsolicited resume. They may be fans of your company or heard positive things about working there. Whatever the case, when you get an unsolicited resume, don’t just blow it off. Reach out to the candidate and let them know you don’t have any openings now, but you’ll keep them in mind in the future. Then do it! If they sound promising, you may want to talk to them about their career goals and background.

Create a compelling online presence.

Make sure you have up-to-date and branded career pages on your website that promote your company and its culture so candidates can learn about your employment brand. The more rich and engaging, the more powerful your presence will be.

Some ideas?

• Consider investing in bells and whistles like employee video testimonials to tout all the perks of working at your company.
• Start a blog to share information about your organization, what it’s like to work there, what to expect during a job interview, and profiles of the management team. The more you can put a personal face on your company, the better.
• Use Pinterest to create boards showing potential new hires the lighter side of working at your company, such as fun photos of employees, social events and office snapshots.
• Create a Twitter handle just for recruiting at your company where you share your blogs articles, post jobs and connect with potential recruits.

Don’t have the time to continuously recruit? Call Pacific Staffing. As one of the leading staffing services firms in Florin – and Northern California – we’re just a phone call away. So when you need to hire, we can quickly get to work, finding the candidates with the right skills for your company. Contact us today to learn more.