Hourly workers, you want ‘em, we got ‘em!

Except not really… Having a warehouse full of eager baristas, elevator mechanics, and house painters is illegal in Canada.

What we do have are some helpful tips for recruiting qualified hourly workers with the help of social media. Next best thing… Right?

If you want to attract the best candidates, you need to have a solid understanding of the talent pool from which you’re fishing.

Today’s hourly workforce is not all teens and indecisive “job-hoppers”, as the internet might have you believe. According to TLNT (one of the best sources for recruitment info out there), the hourly worker labor market is extremely diverse in age, gender, and attitude towards their work.

Here are a few interesting stats on hourly workers they shared:

• 39 percent of hourly employees are under 25 years old

• 33 percent are 25–44 years old, and a full 28 percent are 45 or older

• More than 80 percent work within a 5-mile radius of their homes

• Over half (56 percent) consider their jobs a full-time career

• The vast majority (74 percent) prefer to work 30 or fewer hours a week

• Most apply for three jobs at once, making employer responsiveness critical in recruiting. The most important factors to these job seekers are: (1) Being hired quickly (37 percent); (2) pay (33 percent); and (3) being close to home (17 percent)

Helpful tip number 1: Tailor your recruiting strategy to your audience

You wouldn't try to woo a meat lover with steamed tofu, or meet the vegetarian of your dreams at Outback Steakhouse would you?! Hopefully for your love life the answer to both questions is an emphatic NO!

Well, same goes for hourly workers. If you want to recruit them, you’re going to have to build a recruiting strategy that targets this specific audience. This strategy may differ substantially from the one you use to recruit for salaried positions.

For example: Using LinkedIn works extremely well for filling salaried positions, hiring managers, and recruiting suits. Facebook, and Twitter are a much better option for sourcing, engaging with, and recruiting hourly workers because that’s where they spend more of their online hours.

Oh, and less than 36% of them even have LinkedIn, let alone visit the site regularly!

You’ll also want to hit up local job boards specifically, as (the majority of) non-salaried positions require local talent, and do not warrant relocation costs.

Helpful tip number 2: Lay it all out there

Hourly positions often lack benefits like stellar vacation packages, and full dental coverage, so you need to broadcast what you do offer, especially if it’s something your competitors don’t!

If the wage is competitive, list it. If you have amazing staff parties, post about them on Facebook. If you offer flexible hours for students, put it in bold!

Our last post used Earls restaurant as an example of a company effectively using social media to recruit hourly workers. One of the things they make sure to highlight again, and again on their Facebook Career Page, is the fact that they offer tons of room for education and growth within the company. They entice candidates applying for lowly line cook positions with the prospect of gaining the education, and training required to become head chef.

Helpful tip number 3: Make your job titles recognizable and searchable

Do you know what a “Chief Chatter” is?

Neither did I, until I read Business Insider’s list of weird job titles and learned that Chief Chatter is just fancy talk for call center employee.

Please do not do this.

For the sake of all job seekers everywhere!

Not only is the job title the first thing a candidate will notice when scanning through page after page of job postings, but it’s the main SEO factor for any of the jobs you share online.

I’m not saying you can’t have some fun with your job titles, I am all for fun, just not at the expense of being findable on Google, or the sanity of your potential candidates.

For example:

Another of the weird job titles was Retail Jedi. That’s actually a pretty rad job title. I would definitely want to work for someone with whom the Force is strong, but I would also want to know what exactly I would be doing for this Yoda of an employer.

Try “Comic Book Shop Assistant/Retail Jedi” instead. It’s much clearer, still fun, and has a bunch of great SEO words to boot.

Remember, if your job description or title is too vague, and you are receiving applications from scores of unsuited candidates, there are fixes: these are not the droids -- ahem, I mean candidates -- you are looking for.

Alright young Jedi get out there and recruit those hourly workers like a pro. Do or do not... there is no try!

Oh, and if you haven’t already, check out the Jobcast Facebook Recruiting App for all your social recruiting needs.