Speaker Recommends Guerilla Recruiting and Personalized Management Tactics

Finding key talent is a priority in every industry today, so look to guerrilla tactics to get the job done, Leigh Branham, founder and principal of Keeping the People Inc., said.

Branham, who consults with a range of industries on human resources issues, spoke at NATA’s recent Airports & FBO Symposium in Dallas.

The main obstacle with hiring is that “most companies are not doing near the job they should,” he said.

He suggests getting out into the community, setting up booths and using Web sites in addition to traditional advertising. And never overlook former employees. They can be persuaded to come back under the right circumstances, he said.

Branham’s Web site, keepingthepeople.com, covers his key messages and lists 55 guerrilla tactics for recruiting.

“You just have to do things that other companies are not willing to do,” Branham said. “You have to cast a wider, broader net. It's the sourcing, not the recruiting, that matters. Go to five times more places than your competition does.”

Branham’s NATA seminar focused on management issues posed by different generations of employees and how to tailor management techniques around a personality.

Here are some of his observations: Generation Y employees often operate against short-term expectations, the effect of growing up with electronic communications. As a result, a lot of companies now offer quarterly, as opposed to annual, bonuses. In a worst-case scenario, employees who do not receive the right motivation will become disengaged but not leave.

Companies are training their managers to loosen up a little bit about work-life balance needs.

“Lots of managers are resisting having to adjust,” he said.