When it comes to the latest recruiting techniques, Zoë Goldring and Gretchen Ledgard of JobSyntax are about as hip as it's possible to be. It's pretty cool to have Zoë contribute a post to my site as part of the Great Recruiting Blogswap.

There’s a lot of talk out there regarding the “war for talent” in America. George himself commented on this phenomenon in his recent post on creating a global talent pool. The thing is I think most people view recruiting and “solutions” to recruiting problems in a short-sighted manner. In fact, many of the suggestions I hear on solving issues are really only band-aides or stop-gap measures. Nothing proposed has been targeted towards the root cause of these shortages.

And what is that root cause you may ask? Interest. That’s right, kids these days just aren’t as interested in the jobs that have the highest demand for skilled employees; chemistry, computer engineering, nursing, teaching… and the list goes on. You can raise salaries, increase benefits, provide telecommuting options and outsource all you want, but the fact of the matter is unless you create a healthy supply of future employees you’re just robbing Peter to pay Paul.

What creates interest in kids varies from generation to generation. I’m not saying I know what these interests are today or how to answer them, but what I do know is that in these critical talent shortage areas, it’s going to take a village to get folks into these careers and they need to start early. Companies, professional associations, schools and parents all need to work together to present compelling story for different career paths.

One fine example of this is the American Plastics Council. They’ve been running TV, print and radio ads since 1999. This campaign is memorable to me because of the TV spots with the tag line, “It’ll be a miracle if he makes it to…” Not only does this particular add speak to parents raising children, but also the longevity of the child safety concerns that they may have. Additionally they run spots that are funny, up to date with current trends and make you want to go to their website. When you get to the site, there’s lots of great information on how plastics can effect your everyday life from the food you cook to the car you drive. On top of which they provide topics for teaching plastics in the classroom. The message here is that plastics are an interesting area to become involved and there are many applications in various career paths. If I were a kid and someone was teaching me about how the bike helmet I wear protects me, but also is made of a space age material that I could be part of creating, heck yeah I’d be interested.

So what I am proposing here is instead of thinking just about the short term, let’s take a long view approach to the supply and demand issue. In fact I say dedicated a portion of your recruiting not only to what your needs are today, but what your needs might be in 10 years. The data is there to support you. All you have to do is invest.

On that note let me leave you with one final question; what are the activities and events that you or your company support today to ensure an adequate supply of future candidates?