ASA and its membership agree that attracting talent to distribution is a critical issue facing the PHCP/PVF industry.

It’s become such an issue that Project Talent, an ASA strategic initiative was created to address this. Attracting and hiring talent is a challenge that isn’t dissipating in this or most industries. Competition for talent is fierce and companies are searching for an angle or approach to give them a recruiting advantage.

Distributors are not only competing for candidates with other distributors, but undoubtedly countless other companies as well. The reality is jobseekers who have hard-working, curious and coachable qualities often have several options to choose from.

Like most endeavors, executing the fundamentals are critical. With recruiting, there are many new and evolving fundamentals in addition to the tried and true. Beyond the obvious tactics of attending job fairs, connecting with high school and local trade school guidance counselors and word of mouth, newer technology-related strategies have become equally important. Here are some tips to consider as you compete for talent:

1. Make sure your website is not only attractive, but is mobile friendly, reflects your company’s brand and conveys the message to potential candidates that you want it to. It’s a best practice to have a page or portion of a site dedicated to recruiting that is easy to access.

A good recruiting section of a website includes content about your company’s culture and why distribution is an excellent career choice. In terms of design, many distributors’ websites include images of warehouses, trucks and products. Every distributor has these, and images of them don’t differentiate you from the competition. Instead, consider highlighting people to communicate what it’s like to work there. Simply ask yourself, “If I look at my company’s website, would I want to work there?”

2. As part of improving your website, have you programmed it in a way that helps you with local search to increase the odds of candidates finding your site while looking for jobs? According to Zippia, a career planning firm, 80 percent of all job searches are done online. Whether you have internal resources or need to employ outside services, coding your site for search engine optimization or SEO is crucial to help you rise to the top when candidates are searching for opportunities on Google or other search engines.

3. Employing social media to help with your recruiting efforts can also boost your results. 79 percent of jobseekers use social media when conducting their job search, according to Zippia. In addition to specific job opportunities, posting content on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn that supports the messages on your website will help you increase your followers and keep you top of mind when people are looking for opportunities.

4. Once you have candidates interested, are they finding clear, well-written job descriptions? Strong job descriptions help attract the right people when the specifics of a position are easy to read and understand. They also help with training and retaining employees when expectations have been clearly documented and any skill gaps can be easily identified.

As part of ASA’s Project Talent, the Recruiter Toolbox, an online repository of a vast array of tools and resources has been created and is available to members. Many of the items mentioned above such as industry-related images, social media content, job descriptions and more have been curated for you and are available in the Recruiter Toolbox.

To gain access to all of the resources available in the Recruiter Toolbox visit https://supplyindustrycareers.com/request-for-recruitment-marketing-support and set up an account.

In the coming months, there will be a seamless login to the Recruiter Toolbox once you’ve logged into the ASA website.