Recruitment
- Micah Bai
- Ailan Jiang (Unlicensed)
Over the past few terms, we have tried many different things when it comes to recruitment. Certain things worked and certain things didn’t. This page is meant to document what we have tried and recommendations on what to use in the future.
Definitions
Recruitment - Getting people interested in joining the team, usually ends when they come to their first meeting.
Onboarding - Our process of integrating them into our team. Starts when they come to their first meeting.
Beginning of Term (BOT) Process
The biggest recruiting push will be at the beginning of the term because this is when students are looking to join new clubs/student teams.
Before you start: Recruitment planning will usually be announced during Leads/Core meetings. Talk to your leads to see if there are any specific places where we will need new members, this will allow you to tailor your efforts. Also, make sure to check with each subteam lead if they have onboarding plans and if so, how that will work for the term.
Decide on a date/time for the “First General” with your leads. The First General will be more of an info session explaining what the team does, goals and what the different subteams do.
Leading up to the First General, advertise to appropriate audiences through group chats (have team leads blast out in their respective majors' group chats) and social media (marketing team will be responsible for the design of these posts).
Host First General. This is when people have the most interest so you should make sure people have something to do after this.
4. Let the new recruits know what their next steps are to join the team. Usually, the massive 101 sessions occur for each subteam whereby for two days in a row for 20-30 minutes, subteam leads will run a mid-level overview of their respective term goals and projects. These 101s usually happen around a week after First General.
Micah and Lana’s Recommendation
This is what I have found works the best when going through this process.
Have the First General be on the first week after people get back to campus. This will give you time to advertise it and gives the leads time to prepare for it.
Collect emails either at the SDC Showcase (will run on Discord during COVID times, server link will be shared through email by whoever’s running the Showcase) or by including a google form sign up link for all interested members and email blast all of them using Mailchimp (see below, access to Mailchimp provided by @Kristen S ) to announce First General. Include basic info about the team and what First General will cover.
First General should cover what the team is, what our goals are and explanations of each subteam. Then it should break off into subteams so people can ask specific questions and even get first steps on things they can work on.
Send a follow-up meeting after First General on how to get onto team communication channels and the first real meetings for people.
Different Recruitment Methods
Email - Why email? If people give you their email to sign up for the team that means (1) they want to join the team and (2) they will be looking for your email. After a term where we used email in the way described above we asked people how they found the team ~80% said those emails, while the rest were split between class visits, social media etc…
Class Visits - These take a lot of effort and coordination with profs. It might work best for non-engineering students to learn more about who we are. Otherwise for class visits to be effective you need an action item from them (e.g. collect emails, go to our website, etc…).
Social Media - Easy to do, effective depending on the current standing of, well, the world. During the pandemic, virtual world, this was our go-to way of communication, doesn’t work as well as in-person events during non-pandemic times. You should always promote recruitment on Social Media.
Email Department Coordinators - An easy way to reach a lot of people is by asking department coordinators to forward an advertising email. In the past ECE has been receptive to this.
Posters - They look good but are not very effective. At the most, post them on the garage but they cost money and time to put them around the school.
Recruitment During the Term
During the term it might become clear that certain subteams are missing key people. In this case, you should try to recruit during the term. How to do this?
Ask core members/subteam leads to ask their friends or classmates
Social media posts about open positions
Email blast departments about open positions
These are just some ideas, recruiting during the term is hard but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it if you need it. The ideal though is you figure out what you need before the term starts.