You’re familiar with age-old rivalries like the Hatfields and McCoys and newer ones like those between Mac and PC.
As the war for talent heats up, we’re starting to see a new rivalry emerge: the big firm vs. the small(er) firm.
- Bonadino is doing it with pictures;
- Stonefield Josephson is inviting you to their Back Porch; and
- Choate is using video, riffing on the Mac vs PC ads.
If you’re a small firm competing against bigger rivals, here are five ways to take on the big boys. (Please consult your HR pro or your HR strategy to see which of these are best for you):
- Stop going to career fairs. Career fairs are cattle calls. Most small firms cannot afford to stage the kind of experience that’s really going to make an impression on a college grad at a career fair. That means you’re just one more face in the crowd. (Moo.) To attract great talent, you have to differentiate yourself… which is hard to do at a college fair.
- Stop hiring college grads. Research indicates that most college grads say that they take their first job… in order to get their second job. Can you afford to be a notch in the belt of a new hire? Do the math: it takes between six months and two years for new employees to learn their jobs and begin to return value to their employer. That’s a big investment of your time and money for folks who are not planning to stick around for long. Can you - as a small firm - afford it?
- Start targeting mid-careerists. If hiring college grads just doesn’t add up, it may make more sense to turn your attention to ‘mid-careerists,’ young professionals who’ve had their first 2 or three jobs, are in their late 20’s to early 30’s, are becoming interested in ‘settling down’ and are disenfranchised with corporate America. These folks want to work for a company where they’ll be a player, not just a number. They want greater access to cool projects, clients, and their boss. (The downside of hiring mid-careerists is that you have to ‘untrain’ (bad) behavior they’ve learned working for the big boys.)
- Replace your text-based “Careers” webpage with something sticky. A quiz is sticky. A short, fun video is sticky. Photos with some personality are sticky. Text is not sticky. The people who spend the most time on your website are the people visiting your Careers section. So give them something worth spending time on. If you’re hungry for young talent, invest some bucks in a creative firm to help you tell your story, “Why you should work here” online. If you don’t have money, at least read Made to Stick by the Heath brothers.
- Go viral. It’s harder than ever to catch the eye of the next generation. By the time they enter kindergarten, a five year old has already seen 125,000 ads. Multiply that exponentially for young talent, and you’re pushing water uphill. So if you’re doing what everyone else is doing, e.g. going to career fairs (see tip #1 above), you’re going in the wrong direction. You need to get out of the pile, and one way to do that is to go viral. For example: If you’re trying to attract the college crowd, supply the most popular bars with those little paper coasters during the last two months of classes. If you’re targeting mid-careerists, supply 7-up, the Uncola, at your next CPA gathering, and cover the bottles or cans with a message referring to your firm as “the Un-firm” and the web address of your career page.
More: Watch all the Mac v. PC ads.
