That equates to a fiercely competitive employment market, so you need to get up to speed if you want to find the staff you need. Last month we looked at deciding between permanent and contract staff. In this column we'll look at some ideas for locating and winning the right permanent people.

In previous columns I've spoken about the need for a clear job definition, and this is the time when you need it to help crystallize your thoughts. Because you may never find the perfect candidate, you must be clear about what you consider key skills and what are optional extras. Get these down on paper and make sure that everyone involved in the recruiting process is working toward the same goal.

HotJobs... Click here

Choose Your Weapons
After writing down and agreeing about the job description, the next thing you need to think about is how far you want to spread your net. You're unlikely to want to advertise a junior programmer position in Tampa, Fla., if your development shop is in Des Moines, Iowa, but if you're looking to fill senior positions you may have to spread to national or even international range.

So, you know who you want, or at least you know some of the skills this person should have. You also know how far you are prepared to look to fill the position. Now you have to work out the best route to track him or her down.

Things are so extreme in Northern California that some Silicon Valley companies have been forced to hire aircraft to tow banners around or even to buy billboard space along Route 101 to advertise their vacancies. Most of us, fortunately, don't have to pull that kind of stunt. We can stay with the more conventional options:

• Word of mouth
• Bounty program
• Your Web site
• Newspaper ad
• Job fairs
• Job Web sites
• Headhunter

What Friends Are for
Assuming you already have an existing staff, a good starting point is to encourage them to contact their friends. If you've created a good working environment your team is generally happy to spread the word, bringing in resumes from friends and former colleagues.

	Dice... Click here

You can add some spice to this process by offering a bounty on the head of each person you hire. Obviously you don't want to offer this just for receiving resumes, so you need to make sure your team understands that it's paid out only when their friend starts in the job. Hiring bounty can be an effective motivator to help find the right people, as your staff will help qualify the applicants—after all, they aren't going to want to work with a jerk. And although you do have to put up some money, at least it is going to motivate the people who work for you, not some external agent.

The same is true for having a "help wanted" section on your corporate Web site. This costs very little to set up and maintain as it can be run by your existing Web managers. Because it's going to be a struggle to locate the folks you need, you may be able to help use your corporate brand to make the roles more attractive. If your company has a good reputation with its customers, chances are it equates to a good working environment. And in some areas, notably consultancy, surprisingly often you end up hiring staff from your customers. A word of warning, however, before making such a move: Check your contracts and with the account manager, lest you spoil the relationship.

Print Is Still Alive
Moving along to the next level of cost we come to newspaper and magazine advertising. This is perhaps the oldest way of finding people, short of sticking "help wanted" on your store front, but it is still alive and well. I spoke with Lee Skirboll of the classified ads section of the San Francisco Chronicle to find out how newspapers were doing in the heart of dot-com land.

Guru... Click here

Turns out there had been a reduction in placement of ads when the first wave of Web-based recruitment started, but that era's over. Now, more companies are placing ads in print. The simple logic that it's still easier to read newspapers on the train (or indeed in that other place famous for reading). People actively looking for work will go out and search Web sites, but people with nothing better to do browse the job ads to fill in time. In doing so, they might see your ad and be interested.

The cost of placing an ad in a newspaper varies enormously from area to area, newspaper to newspaper, and depending on the type of ad. If you're looking to hire a large number of people, you might splash out a half page in your local quality newspaper, complete with corporate graphics and company information. On the other hand, if you're a small company looking for one person, you might go for three lines of text. In both cases, however, you're going to have to make the most of your text. The first job ad I ever ran started "Windows wizard bored of working for idiots?" It certainly attracted plenty of interest, including a high-caliber candidate who is now the director of that development team.

	StepStone... Click here

Another traditional approach to hiring is the job fair. It's so traditional that it stretches back to medieval times, when farmers would hire their workers for the next year at annual fairs. Still alive and well in the 21st century, these fairs are busy connecting employers and employees like never before. Check out the Web for fairs in your area—there are bound to be some.

E-recruitment
When I first thought of this article I was planning a table of recruitment Web sites, but I soon realized there are now simply too many of them for that. I'd be sure to overlook some, especially since another dozen would hatch in the time between my completing the article and it reaching your desk.

Like most subjects on the Web, recruitment sites come in assorted flavors. Some are geographically sensitive, others are aimed at specific skill sets, and some look at specific sectors such as contracting. Which you choose depends on your needs. I started looking at the DevX CareerLink section (careerlink.devx.com) and was offered links to three different sites offering different angles on hiring developers.

As well as specializing in either contract or permanent placement, some sites differentiate themselves by being overtly oriented at the recruiters or at developers. Clearly there is an advantage to the latter, even if they are harder to use because they are likely to have more available candidates.

Slipping into consultant speak for a moment, some sites offer new work paradigms, or the ability to locate particular specialists for very short engagements, perhaps even a few hours. Some sites now offer the ability to post a question and offer to pay a particular sum for a response. This kind of micro consultancy can bring highly specialed knowledge to you. As an example, you might want to know if the authorization model of Microsoft Site Server can be linked to an existing customer ID stored in a legacy system. Rather than hunt through the data sheets yourself, or hire a consultant for a day, you can simply post the question and offer a $100 payment. It's worth it to be sure, and any other way of finding out is bound to cost you more.

Activate
All these approaches are, however, passive. They rely on people who are looking for work to look at your posting and decide to do something about it. Sometimes you need to go out and grab the talent you need, and that's where headhunters come in. Normally calling themselves something less bloodthirsty, such as employment agencies, these people aim to find the staff for you.

JustComputerJobs... Click here

Agencies, too, come in many different forms—offering services including complete team recruitment. Others simply send you resumes they think are appropriate. Some specialize in technical areas, others cover IT as well as catering, secretarial, and accounting. In the other dimension, some agencies specialize in senior executives, while others cover all levels.

Two warnings: Agencies are not cheap, typically charging 30% of salary for each placement. Some companies now offer recruitment for equity, but that is only of value in startups. Second, recruiters are not always clued in on technology and sometimes can send you poorly qualified candidates, thus wasting your time on extra filtering. Here that job description comes in useful—pass it to your contact and make sure he or she understands the technical details. You don't want to read DTP operator resumes for a DBA position just because they include Access in the list of packages they've used.

An Attractive Package
Clearly the key to getting the right people is to offer the right package. Many people are looking for fun, stimulating work—if you offer that, then shout it out. Other people want security and reliable benefits, so make sure they know about the full range of benefits. If you're in the Internet business, you're not going to find folks if you don't have a generous stock option program.

Whatever your recruitment needs, you need to define the work to be done as clearly as possible. From this you need to work out the best way of reaching suitable candidates. Best practices here will vary enormously whether you're South of Market in San Francisco or in Putnam, Conn. You'll have to work out the strategy that's going to find the right candidate. For more senior roles, especially technical specialties, remember the possibility of relocation, which is expensive, or remote working, which might be a novelty for your company.