American Staffing Association

Red shirt relationships encourage
candidates to see themselves
as a member of an employer’s select
team—they aren’t employees, but
they are regarded and treated as
valued prospects.

Such pipelines are notoriously hard to sustain. Estimates of candidate attrition from such pipelines range from 25% to more than 50% annually. When that kind of seepage happens, what you have isn’t a pipeline at all—it’s a talent hose, and the work force you’re watering is your competitor’s.

In too many cases, the affinity that candidates feel for an employer is insufficient or missing altogether. They don’t know enough about the employer to be interested, or they don’t believe the employer will respect and support them, or both.

Red shirt relationships are the single best way to overcome this lack of familiarity and trust. In other words, red shirt candidates are talent-in-waiting.

Value in a Red Shirt

Red shirt relationships encourage can-
didates to see themselves as a member of
an employer’s select team—they aren’t
employees, but they are regarded and
treated as valued prospects. These rela-
tionships also allow candidates to believe
they can advance their career by working
for the employer. Although the right
opportunity may not yet have arrived,
there’s a real possibility that it will at
some point.

E-Mail Strategies for Recruiters

When an e-mail message doesn’t deliver a specific job opportunity, make it worth a candidate’s time by providing information that can lead to career advancement. Recruiters should send no more than three messages containing career-related information for every one message describing a specific job opening, and the best frequency tends to be biweekly.

These parameters can help recruiters
keep those non-job-announcement e-mails
engaging and pithy. Aim to include informa-
tion that addresses these two principle needs:
n Candidates want to know what it’s like
to work for an employer and what kind
of people will be their peers. A career
advancement opportunity is as much
the result of the culture and values of a
company as it is about the job itself.
n Candidates want to learn as much as
they can about their profession, craft,
or trade and the industry in which they
work. Career advancement is possible
only if they understand the true status of
their field and the businesses for which
they work.

Communications Checklist

Regular communications with red shirt candidates must be frequent enough to ensure that they recognize your company as a legitimate correspondent, but not so frequent that you’re messages become spam. In today’s overcrowded messaging environment, the optimum frequency seems to be biweekly. Ensure that your communications always arrive from the same e-mail address and that they’re always presented in the same format.

The content of these communications must acknowledge the different perspective of the talent in red shirt relationships. They probably aren’t searching for immediate employment. Instead, they’re looking for ways to advance their career. Advancement may involve a job change at some point, but it is more frequently the result of knowledge acquisition.

For that reason, recruiters should send three messages containing career-related information for every one message that describes a specific job opening. See “Wanted: Career Advancement” on this page for tips on what to include in those “other” e-mail messages.

Developing red shirt relationships— the foundation for an effective talent pipeline—is not a trivial undertaking. It requires a considerable investment of time and effort and can’t, therefore, simply be sandwiched into recruiters’ already busy days. To be successful, begin with the end in mind. Ask yourself what resources you must commit to develop an enduring affinity with the talent that everybody else wants. n

© 2012 by Weddle’s LLC. Peter Weddle is the author of more than two dozen employment-related books. He is editor and publisher of Weddle’s LLC ( weddles.com), a publisher of print guides to job boards. Send your feedback on this article to success@ americanstaffing.net. Follow ASA on Twitter @staffingtweets.