3.3 Employer Prospecting

Prospecting is the first step in the new employer engagement process, which consists of searching and identifying potential industry partners (prospects), and pitching them on how you can help solve their employment-related problems – leverage and build skills in their organization, fill short-term staffing gaps or raise their community profile.

The goal of prospecting is to increase your connection with likely employers and then systematically communicate with them with the hope of converting them from potential employer contact to a current industry partner. Prospecting is sifting through a mountain of businesses and individuals to uncover the employer prospects who you believe would benefit from a WIL experience. Knowing where and how to search for these prospective employers efficiently is critical.

Prospects are not looking for random sales calls and pitches. They are looking forward to speaking with knowledgeable people who can solve their problems.

Targeting strategies

Targeting strategies are contingent on how many students you will have available for work terms the following semester and what programs they are in. Depending on what program you are prospecting for will direct how you go about industry engagement. Niche specific programs like environmental technologies, engineering, hospitality, and sport align well with industry-specific prospecting however humanities, arts, and technologies programs cut across many industries. Increasingly organizations, to meet the demands of a shifting labour market are requiring workers with the right mix of skills to respond to the technical and creative demands of the next decade.

General considerations

• Target those organizations who can benefit most from your services and those who can provide the most benefits to your organization.
• Target those who have a connection with your institution through existing alumni working there, or even better, an alumni in an HR or management role.
• Get a paid LinkedIn account and build your own individual network, post regularly and reach out to prospects using InMail.
• Target those who signal that they are looking to build and develop skills in their organization (this is the #1 reason employers engage with WIL).
• Employers want to know the student has the skills to fill the role and will often have skills gaps that cross your programs.
  • For example, if you are prospecting for technologies outside of engineering and only target technology companies you are missing a very large segment of the market. See Figure 2 below.
• Employers are more interested in what you can do for them than what programs your institution has.
• Target organizations who are posting, hiring and experiencing growth.
• Industry-specific prospecting is most effective with more niche sectors like engineering, hospitality and tourism and sport.

Prospecting Using LinkedIn & Google Search

In today’s digital world, where roughly two-thirds of the B2B buyers make their decision via online content, the rules of prospecting have changed.

Consider the following:

• LinkedIn actually outperforms both email marketing and cold calling when it comes to lead generation.
• LinkedIn Messaging, which has been proven to be three times more effective than email.
• LinkedIn has 700+ million users and growing.
• 76 percent of B2B buyers prefer to work with recommendations from their professional network.
• 90 percent of C-level executives say they never reply to cold calls or cold emails.

LinkedIn vs email marketing vs phone calls

• Cold Outreach via Linkedin: 30%+ successful rate
• Cold calling: 20% successful rate
• Email template campaigns: 5 % success rate

In the not too distant past, prospecting consisted of cold calling, drop-ins, daily meetings and networking over lunch: basically putting yourself in front of a lead at every opportunity. Those days are over.

Prospecting spreadsheet template

You are going to want to manage your time and efforts by using a master prospecting spreadsheet that should be shared with your portfolio team and kept up to date. Organizing and managing your prospects will save you a lot of time and energy.

Save a copy of the editable and sharable Prospecting Spreadsheet Template. Each portfolio should use their own spreadsheet and share it between the team members. Instructions on how to use the template can be found on the first tab called “Instructions”.

Using the prospect channel in your database system

Managing potential or prospective employer contacts and connections that you have spoken to or met with and who are not ready to commit can be challenging without a tool. Often times, you will connect with a prospect, spend time and energy with them and they are not quite ready to engage further. These contacts are valuable and can be stored using the Prospect Channel in your database.

Read an example scenario of how Kathryn, a job developer uses the prospecting channel to keep track of new employers she has engaged with but who are not ready to sign up for an account and post a job.

How to create and add a prospect to your database

Alumni contact lists

Find 24 curated alumni contact lists by industry and job titles.

Communication templates to engage prospects

You will want to personalize each call or email depending on an assessment of the organization. Take these scripts, save them for regular use and customize them to your own personal style. The point is to have them ready for efficiency and time management.

Relevant industry associations and organizations

Effective job development requires that you get involved with industry associations, funding partners, the chambers, and the general business community. Often you will be able to create opportunities to do presentations or webinars to these networks of organizations. The goal is to increase awareness about WIL, communicate skills-based value and educate prospects about funding and how you can help solve a problem.

Leverage existing broad networks and ecosystems to build awareness with their audiences.

Examples include:

• United Way will promote you in their newsletters
• WorkBC is willing to include materials to their distribution networks
• Development & Alumni at Camosun will promote your events using their distribution lists
• Central communications and social media will promote you
• SWPP funders are interested in doing collaborative presentations to employers
• CPHR association does guest panel presentations with their members
• Presentations at Chamber events
• Multi-institutional event collaboration

Employer Engagement Calendar

It is essential to start your current employer engagement activities three months before each term’s start. The yearly JD calendar is meant to be used with your entire team as one shared resource, which can be updated on the fly throughout the year, to map out your employer engagement projects and activities. It serves as an internal communication and planning tool.

Practice doing an employers needs assessment

An employer needs assessment happens during a virtual meeting or phone call. It involves asking the employer contact a series of questions relating to their business/project objectives, labour needs, skill requirements, budget, timeline requirements.

Presentation slide decks

Slide decks for portfolio-specific virtual, and in-person presentations, webinars and info sessions.