ERIC ED038560: Recruiting the Hard-to-Employ. Perspectives on Training the Disadvantaged--The Hard-to-Employ. Personnel Services Review Series 2.

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ED 038 560

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TITLE

INSTITUTION

SPONS AGENCY

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NOTE

Harrison, Don K .

Fecruiting the Hard-to-Employ. Perspectives on
Training the Disadvantaged — The Hard-to-Employ.
Personnel Services Review Series 2.

ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Personnel
Services, Ann Arbor, Mich-

Office of Education (DHEW) , Washington, D. C. Bureau
of Research.

BR-6-2487
May 70

O EC- 3- 6- 002 4 87- 1579- (010)

9p.

EDRS PRICE
DESCRIPTORS

EDRS Price MF-$0.25 HC-S0.5E

Cultural Disadvan tagement , *Disa dvantaged Youth,
Economic Disadvantagement , Educational

Disadvantagement, ^Employment, ^Employment Services,
*Negro Employment, *Becr uitment , Social
Disadvantagement, Unemployment

ABSTRACT

Traditional recruitment for employment could be made
through news media, but for the hard-to-employ more aggressive
tactics will be necessary, A company will need to tap communitv
resources such as state employment services. Office of Economic
Opportunity agencies, the Urban League, and vocational rehabilitation
agencies, A special company recruiting agent, who can move freely in
the community, will go into the community centers and pool halls to
find and attract future employees. Private firms, which can be
located with help of local Chamber of Commerce or National
Association of Businessmen, specialize in training the hard-core;
they also do the recruiting, it should bo realized that- recruiting is
but the first step in support for the hard-'to-employ ; special
will need genuine support of
, and plant workers. (DB)

programs

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This paper was prepared pursuant to a contract wl . the Office
of Educat1on» U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
Contractors undertaking such projects under government sponsor-
ship are encouraged to express freely their judgment In profes-
sional and technical matters. Points of view or opinions do not,
therefore, necessarily represent official Office of Education
position or policy.

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION
ft WELFARE
OFFICE OF EDUCATION
THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED
EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR
ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT. POINTS OF
VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECES-
SARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDU-
CATION POSITION OR POLICY

PERSONNEL SERVICES REVIEW
Series 2

Perspectives on Training the Disadvantaged —
The Hard-to-Employ

Recruiting the Hard-to-Employ

Don K. Harrison

May 1970

ERIC Counseling and Personnel Services Information Center
The University of Michigan
611 Church Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan

FORWARD

The Personnel Services Review is an ongoing publication
series which has been developed by CAPS to inform person-
nel workers about new developments in a number of person-
nel services areas. There will be several different ser-
ies of the Personnel Services Review . Each series will
focus on a broad area of personnel work practice. Within
each series there will be a number of specific issues
(varying from five to ten depending on the series) . Each
of these issues will concentrate on a specific practice,
procedure or method. The goal of these publications is
to enable the reader to: (1) become aware of a practice,
procedure or method; (2) learn about the ways in which
this practice has been applied by others; (3) understand
the underlying theory behind the practice; (4) consider
possible applications of the practice in a variety of
settings; and (5) consider ways that the practice might
be implemented in his own personnel work program.

This particular Personnel Services Revi ew series is enti-
tled, ’’Perspectives on Training the Disadvantaged— Hie
'Hard-to-Employ Each issue will focus on an activity
which has direct relevance for hiring, training, and re-
taining new workers from a disadvantaged background.

Hie series is intended for use by personnel specialists
and training staff in industry and business who wish to
learn more about the development of their industrial
work force. This series may also be of interest to vo-
cational educators, employment counselors and specialists
in the field of vocational education.

The author wishes to acknowledge the research assistance
of Dorothy R. Brown, information specialist on the ERIC/
CAPS staff.

IBS

RECRUITING THE HARD-TO-EMPLOY

RELEVANCE TO YOU

If you are involved in the recruiting of new employees
or developing the work force to meet management goals
and objectives, you should be interested in capitalizing
upon a potential source of labor that has been under-
utilized and underdeveloped.

Do you know how to get more individuals from the inner
city to apply for employment?

Have you found that job openings which are advertised
in the newspaper do not attract many applicants from
the inner city?

Do you know that some recruitment techniques have been
found which may attract these people to your company?

WHAT IS RECRUITMENT?

Recruitment is the process of locating and attracting
individuals to apply for employment at your plant or
business. This may include advertising in the newspa-
per, posting signs of openings in front of your plant,
placing job openings with the State Employment Service,
posting announcements on bulletin boards where there
is nubile access, or special search effort of recrui-
ters to identify special talents on high school and
college campuses.

APPROACHES TO PRACTICE

In the past, recruitment has been defined
in the light of general personnel practice;
employees were easy to get and made them-
selves readily available. Special lines
of attack are needed in order to get the
person from a disadvantaged background to
apply for work. Newspaper ads will not do
it. Most of these potential workers come
from an inner city environment. The ex-
perience of mistrust, rejection, and dis-
crimination through the years makes them
skeptical about your intentions to hire
them. As a result, they are not as will-
ing to apply for a job as might be gener-
ally expected.

Several models of practice have been used
by different firms who have worked with
the National Alliance of Businessmen, and
also by firms which have developed their

programs independently. The practices in-
clude recruitment through community resources,
internal recruitment capacity, and retention
of an outside firm for recruitment purposes.

A. Recruitment Through Community Resources
Several urban services come in contact
with this potential new work force as a
function of their location and background.
Your personnel and/or training department
may want to develop a relationship with
one or several of these in order to at-
tract future workers to you. Some of
these sources of manpower are as follows:

1. State Employment Service.

2. Office of Economic Opportunity:

a. Neighborhood Youth Corps (NYC).

b. Community Action Center (CAC) .

c. Concentrated Employment Pro-
gram (CEP) .

3 . Urban League .

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4. Division of Vocational Rehabilition
(DVR) .

These sources are only a few of the ma-
jor and best-known organizations which
may have a file of names to add new po-
tential to the work force. There are
others who are specific to your locale.
In some cities the local Chamber of
Commerce has established a manpower di-
vision that is conducting extensive
work i.n the recruitment and job place-
ment of new workers. One example of
this is the activities of the Greater
Detroit Chamber of Commerce, Detroit,
Michigan. A Manpower Division has been
set up and is staffed by a group of
full-time employees. All are located
within the heart of Detroit.

B. Establishment of Your Recruitment Cap-
ability

Most industrial organizations need to
replace workers who leave, or to fill
new jobs that arise. One person may
be in charge of the hiring or if the
organization is large enough, you may
have a large recruiting department.

If your current means is ineffective
for attracting the new pool of indus-
trial force, you may wish to consider
some of the following:

1. Establish Recruiting Locations in
the Inner City

Some employers, through special ar-
rangements with existing community
organizations have a company repre-
sentative to regularly interview
prospective candidates for employ-
ment. ^or example, Chrysler Cor-
poration operates out of Community
Action Centers located in the cen-
ter of Detroit. They are assisted
by the Michigan Employment Security
Commission which also operates from
these locr.tions.

2 . Street Recruitment

A company representative who can
move freely within the inner city
may attract futufe employees by
making frequent visits to such
places as pool rooms, recreation
halls, etc. The recruiter should
be able to communicate effectively
with the population that he is
attempting to attract. For example,
in the inner city, the recruiter
might be of the same ethnic back-
ground as represented by the major-
ity of residents. He must be
trusted by his future employees.

If such a person is not now on your
staff, you may wish to hire a per-
son with special skills. This same

company representative could serve
as liason officer to organizations
within the target community to pick
up the necessary leads.

3. Retain Outside Firm

There are some private consulting
firms whose speciality is training
the hard-to-employ. These firms of-
fer special services— including re-
cruitment. They also provide spe-
cialized supportive services like
job coaching, job followup, instruc-
tion in reading, hints tor acceptable
grooming, etc., for the new employees.
Your Chamber of Commerce or State Em-
ployment Service can probably give
you a list of any such private con-
sulting firms operating in your area.

GENERALIZATIONS

1. The population within the inner city con-
stitutes a large source of labor and is

a potential recruitment source for new
employees.

2. If your current recruitment procedures
primarily require applicants to come
directly into your personnel office to
apply for work, you may be missing manv
individuals who might make good employees

3. The past history of denial, rejection and
non-opportunity has reaped a great amount
of suspicion, mistrust and lack of confi-
dence in this group. A very positive
'outreach' is necessary.

4. Existing organizations in your community,
i.e., the State Employment Service, the
Urban League, the Office of Economic Op-
portunity, probably have a list of names
of people who are interested in obtain-
ing meaningful employment.

5. Utilization of a staff person, knowledge-
able of the inner city, as a recruiter
may enhance your recruitment efforts,
since you may be able to identify and at-
tract employees from a vast manpower pool

6. In recruiting the hard-to-employ, caution
must be exercised not .to exclude poten-
tially good employees, for some jobs, be-
cause their application forms are comple-
ted in a manner that is not expected.

ACTION POSSIBILITIES

Although this is one in a series of articles
directed toward personnel directors and/or
training managers in business and industry
who are interested in developing programs
for hiring and retaining the hard-to-employ
several steps may be taken to recruitment.

1. Establish liason with community organi-
zations by planning with the local State

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Employment Service, Office of Economic
Opportunity, Urban League, or other ap-
propriate organization.

2. Use a present staff member of your per-
sonnel department to serve as a liason
with these community service programs.

3. Establish your own recruitment capabil-
ity. Hire a recruiter who will be cap-
able of communicating with and working
with the inner city residents.

4 . Contact your local Chamber of Commerce
for the names of private firms who spe-
cialize in assisting employers in re-
cruiting and training people for em-
ployment.

IMPLEMENTATION

The implementation of a recruitment pro-
gram will depend upon such factors as:
the resources available in your area; the
amount of money the company wishes to in-
vest; and the readiness of the overall or-
ganization.

1. In a city where local community organ-
izations may have limited staff or they
are non-existent, the company may be
required to develop its own recruitment
capability independent of outside assis-
tance.

2. Where there are well defined efforts of
the State Employment Service, the Urban
League, the Office of Economic Oppor-

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tunity, or other groups, a decision
might be to develop some combined ef-
fort. The decision might be to develop
a liason arrangement.

3. If the company has little experience
in recruiting from this source of man-
power supply, a decision might be to
retain an outside firm for supportive
assistance and consultation in the ear-
ly stage of planning and implementation.
Associated with this, a pilot program
may be conducted to obtain experience
before determining the features of an
on-going program.

4. Regardless of what decision is reached
with respect to implementation, an im-
portant consideration is that the or-
ganization from top to bottom is ready
to implement the recruitment program.

It is essential that the program have
the full support of top management and
that such support is communicated
throughout the organization.

5. Developing support for a program of
recruitment may be aided through draw-
ing upon the knowledge gained by others.
Developing an openness of company staff
to receive and implement a new program
may be aided through special human re-
lations ^raining and team building ef-
fort. Private consulting firms and
certain individuals may be of help to
companies in achieving organizational
development.

3

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References

Ferman, L. A. TOE NEGRO AND EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES, A REVIEW OF MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCES
IN TWENTY COMPANIES. Ann Arbor: Michigan University, Institute of Labor and Industrial Rela-
tions, December 1966. 202p. (ED 015 308 MF-$1.00 HC-$8.16).

Janger, A. R. NEW START-FOR TOE HARDER HARDCORE. Th e Conference Board Record . February 1969,
10-19.

Levine, L. IMPLICATIONS OF TOE ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAM FOR EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT. Vocational
Guidance Quarterly , Autumn 1965, 14, 8-15.

National Citizens Committee for Community Relations. PUTTING THE HARD-CORE UNEMPLOYED INTO
JOBS. Report of the Business -Civic Leadership Conference on Employment Problems , Chicago:

June 1967: (ED 022 139 MF-$0.75 HC-Not Available ) .

Research Institute of America. WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT TOE HARD-CORE UNEMPLOYED? New York: June
1968. (ED 019 091 NF-$0. 50 HC-Not Available) .

Ulrich, Bernard. A TRAINING MODEL FOR TOE JOBLESS ADULT. Systems Design of Basic Systems of
Xerox, 1966. (ED 017 783 MF-$0.25 HC-$0.72).

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