How can I recruit through professional associations?

While it’s important to be able to fill your immediate recruitmentneeds, it’s also essential to take a strategic, long-term view of hiring so that you can maintain the health and growth of your organization into the future.

Building a talent pipeline has never been so important and trade associations provide a way into a targeted and engaged audience.

Creating a professional association strategy
As with most strategic planning, research is key. Investigating the trade associations affiliated with your target industries or professionaincluding their publications, membership criteria, certificates, etc to determine those that promise the greatest return on your investment of time and energy.

Don;t target each and every professional association that is out there, just pick out the ones that your think the people you want to attract to your buiness will be members of. The next step of the strategy is making yourself a known entity within the association. This could come from sponsorship of events, or simply providing content for their newsletters or magazines.

Putting your strategy into place requires:

• Acquiring industry knowledge – know what is going on now and in the future in the relevant sectors and mark your company out as a thought leader in your specialist area.

• Building contacts – pick out key names from articles as people you want your business to be associated with. As well as being useful networking contacts, others will see you're connceting with the right people and will be naturally attracted to your business.

• Have a physical presence – putting your logo on the association website isn;t enough. You need to make an appearance at association meetings and industry events to show that you're actively engaged in the industry and have credibility and expertise.

This avenue gives you the opportunity to engage the passive job seeker that you may not otherwise attract. Placing job adverts on the association website is one thing, but attending industry events and talking face-to-face with people can open up whole new doors.

Before jumping head first into the professional association avenue, be sure you understand these critical elements that will spell the success or failure of your efforts:

• Be constant – ou can’t just show up at one meeting and poach the talent you find. Commit to a long-term relationship, participate often, and understand that you might or might not have immediate results.

• Focus on members’ needs – just as in any networking interaction, the more you focus on your audience and investigate their needs, the more credible and valued you will be.

• Interact with as many people as you can – e very meeting is an opportunity to get in touch new untapped members. Don’t waste the opportunity by latching onto the people you already know or those you perceive as having the highest potential. Establish your presence, and soak up information rather than talking about yourself.

• Look for opportunities to build visibility – y ou have knowledge about employment issues, hiring trends, employer needs, and more that is valuable to members. Volunteer to give a presentations and soon members will come to recognize you as 'the' recruiter for their industry.

Professional associations can be a doorway into the specific professions you most need to recruit. Study your talent needs, then identify the associations that offer the most potential.

With the right approach and a commitment to a long-term relationship, this strategy offers high potential for building a talent pipeline for the challenging future.