1. Always be looking - whenever attending a network event, a social function or visiting your competitors - be aware of the people you meet. Who impresses you? Who is particularly successful? Who has impressed the people you know? Like a football manager or basket ball coach - you should always be looking at bringing in better talent into your team so that you are constantly raising the bar and making your business more competitive. In business, like professional sport - if you stand still, your business is at risk.

2. Keep On Advertising - whether it's a listing on your website or a simply a poster in your reception area - never stop advertising your positions .If you haven't a vacancy, you may word the advert differently. E.g. "We are always interested hearing from x,y,x people" etc....

3. Always welcome applications - regardless of whether you have a vacancy or not, be open to receiving applications. Make your friends, ex-colleagues and business associates aware of the type of people that you look for when recruiting and make it very clear that you are open to hearing about people they know - even when you have not got immediate vacancies. If you use recruitment agencies and headhunters, then inform them that you are open to hearing about strong candidates on a speculative basis - just be totally clear on what you want and totally clear that you do not want to be pestered with speculative CVs / resumes every week. You only want a call or email when they have a 'star candidate.'

4. Have a system to capture & store details - if you are welcoming applications when you have no vacancies, then you must have a system or process in place to store details and be able to recall details when required. Depending on your business this could be a database, an excel spreadsheet, a diary or simply a "little black book" where you store names and details of people you are impressed with or referred to you. So the minute you have a potential opening, you have a ready made list of potential people to start recruiting from. Yes, some of them may no longer be looking - but many others will. And even if they are not looking - they may well know people who are and so if you have maintained a relationship you have access to some very good people.

5. Inform The Team Your team may be sensitive about why you are open to applications when you have no current positions. So be honest and up front in informing them right from the start. Explain that you want a ready made pipeline of candidates (or to use a sporting analogy, "substitutes") so that it save time and money when you do have a vacancy. And like sports, having people sitting on a 'substitutes bench' puts pressure on the existing team to stay "on their toes" (i.e. to perform) - which may not be bad thing....

So start putting these steps into practice and you will save time and money when you are recruiting. But don't expect instant result, there is a time lag with these things.

Copyright (c) 2007 Mr Sital Ruparelia