Attracting Employees to Rural Areas
In Southern Alberta, many of our clients are in rural communities, which poses a unique challenge to recruiting employees. We want to address these challenges and help you to overcome them by bringing awareness to what is attractive about living and working in your area, showing you how to represent yourself well to job seekers and encourage you to be responsive to the needs and desires of potential employees.
Culture
An employee is not only looking for a job, they are looking for the culture to go along with it. By conducting formal interviews and regular informal conversations with your employees about what they like about working there, and having your employees describe your culture, you can then use that to appeal to potential candidates or work on problem areas to prevent turnover.
Employees are looking for professional learning and development opportunities and an employer that is responsive and accommodating to their desire to pursue accreditation or advancement will be more appealing.
Job Seekers want the company they work for to align with their values. Having values that are not only defined, but also upheld, gives your organization integrity, and helps people find meaning and satisfaction in their contribution.
Community
Many Job Seekers may not be familiar with your community. You are going to have to sell yourself as an attractive place to live and work. What are the unique recreation or lifestyle opportunities in the area? Highlight the quality of your services and why you love living there.
A strong appeal of living in a rural area is the lower cost of living. Research and be ready to tell applicants what they can expect to pay for housing and utilities.
Many people like the idea of being involved in the community whether through volunteering, coaching, sitting on a board, joining a club or participating in annual events. How welcome would a new person feel in your community?
When it comes close to making an offer, invite the candidate and their spouse for an in person tour as you will want to make sure the whole family is on board for the move.
Candidate
It’s important to understand what kind of person would fit in well and want to live and work in your area. While not everyone is suited to a rural lifestyle, there are those that are looking for a quieter life to settle or have come from a rural background and are looking to get back to their roots.
In some cases, employees are on a career path that requires working their way up and they might use you as a stepping stone. The more aware and accepting of this you are makes the applicant feel they can be honest about their intentions. Encourage them to give plenty of notice if they intend to leave so that you have time to replace. Perhaps they can even train the next person if they feel they were supported in their development.
Alternately, if there is a possibility for a long-term career with your organization, let them know what other employee’s career paths have looked like and where they have room to grow with you.
Innovation
Rural areas can sometimes be overlooked as being stuck in the past. Making sure you are up to date with your technology, processes and mindset will be more appealing to a new generation of employees. Giving space for employees to be forward thinking and contribute ideas will be motivating and rewarding.
Evaluating your policies, procedures, documentation, work flow and job descriptions will allow for clarity, consistency and efficiency so that employees are set up for success and prevent restructuring or redundant work.
Public Image
Serious Job Seekers will do their research before applying, and the reputation of your organization could either attract or turn off candidates. Search yourself online and see what comes up as far as news articles, reviews, or people or events associated with you, so that you know what others are seeing. Keep your website current, functional and visually appealing. Include a video of your location, perhaps from the local tourism organization, to showcase what is great about your area.
Incentives
You are in competition with other organizations for the job seeker. Make your offer as lucrative as possible including covering their moving expenses, offering a signing bonus, a raise after completing the probationary period and/or a retention bonus after 1 or 2 years. Try to meet their expectations for wage, benefits and vacation time so that they aren’t tempted to keep looking and accept another offer if something else comes up in the near future.
Recruitment
Make sure that you have a full understanding of the nature and scope of the position so that any questions can be answered readily and there is no uncertainty about what the role and responsibilities are. The more defined your requirements, the easier it is to narrow down who meets them and who doesn’t. However, be open to the possibility of training into the role for someone who is likely to stay long term and benefit from your support.
Use the information we have just discussed when building your job posting and try to get job seekers hooked without too much extra effort on their part.
Word of mouth is a strong resource, as you can verify the quality of the candidate through the person in your organization that may know them. Tap into your network of connections for referrals.
Process
How you conduct yourself during the recruitment is also key. With qualified candidates being so rare, you need to respond quickly with communication, interviewing and deciding to move forward or to cut them loose.
Your hiring process should be well defined and consistent. Who is conducting the recruitment, who is making the final decision and what steps you plan to take should be known from the outset. Don’t engage in second or third interviews without a reason why and don’t bring in other stake holders last minute to weigh in on the decision.
Recruiting is time consuming and there are capable, experienced professionals who can support you through the process, becoming a partner with your best interests in mind. Whether it’s a full recruitment from developing and posting the ad to short listing candidates for you to meet, or just conducting background screening, consider using an executive staffing firm such as Hire Standard to help you make an informed and confident hire.