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.
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: 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.
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.
Host First General. This is when people have the most interest so you should make sure people have something to do after this.
Let the new recruits know what their next steps are to join the team.
Micah’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.
If it is the fall term, collect emails at the SDC Showcase for all interested members and email blast all of them to announce first general. Include basic info about the team and what first general will cover. Otherwise, find some other way to collect emails.
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 but not very effective. You should promote recruitment on Social Media but only because it is easy.
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.