Limiting your search to local candidates limits your recruiting.
The quickest way to limit the quality of candidates you receive is to place tight constraints on geography when recruiting. Seems obvious, right? And yet many businesses fail to recruit outside of their comfort zone, sacrificing the quality of candidates for locality. What businesses need to realize is that a candidate's locality is no substitute for the skills, experience, and background they possess.
There are several benefits to searching for the best candidates outside of your local area. For starters, when you hire only candidates from one background or vicinity, you tend to get one way of thinking or one thought pattern. These candidates have similar life experiences and often times have similar beliefs or approaches to the job. Local candidates think in terms of local culture which is good at times but stifles creativity and fresh thinking. Recruiting outside of your area welcomes a unique perspective to your company.
A candidate who is not familiar with day-to-day life in your community has a fresh outlook to every situation they encounter. They have a completely different approach to problem solving than probably most of your local employees. New ideas are born and your business thrives with innovation when quality hires bring new insights into the workplace.
Another advantage to looking beyond locality is that you reach quality candidates considering relocation. Think about it – no one clicks on a job posting for a far away city if they are not currently thinking about moving. Or, at the very least, they would be open to the thought of a change in scenery. You can also choose to perform a resume database search without placing restrictions on the geography. If you find a candidate that is perfect for the job but who lives 200 miles away, contact them anyway. They may be more than willing to work for you despite having to relocate.
Searching in cities that are farther away than normal also reaches candidates who may have grown tired of rural life and are ready for life in the big city or vice-versa. Great candidates live everywhere, both in rural and urban locations, so you will always find candidates ready for a change of pace regardless of where you look. Reaching these candidates adds variety to the workplace and a talented employee who brings more to your position than a less qualified candidate who lives locally.
Be sure not to make the cost of relocating a sticking point or a snag in the recruitment process if you feel the candidate has the qualities you need. However, be prepared to sell the candidate on all the wonderful things your city or town has to offer and all the reasons why they would want to work there. Some candidates won't need any convincing while others will require some coaxing and a little time to warm up to the idea of relocating.
If relocation is not an option, you might consider arranging a remote working situation for a candidate who possesses the skills and qualities you seek. In fact, according to the 2007 CareerBuilder.com Job Forecast, 33 percent of employers are offering candidates more work-at-home or telecommuting options to keep up with recruiting top talent. Many positions such as medical billing, programming, IT, customer care, and more can be performed at home with inexpensive technologies. This enables you to recruit the candidates you want regardless of location, with no worries about relocation for either party involved. If this is what it takes to get the best talent on board at your business it is a better option than settling for a candidate because they only live a few blocks away from work.
The goal of your recruiting is to attract and hire the highest quality candidate you can get your hands on. Sometimes your ideal candidate does not fall within your local territory. Do not let this discourage you from pursuing a candidate you know to be perfect for the job. The best candidates make the best employees regardless of the city and state in which they currently reside. All that matters in the end is that you have the best employees working for your business.