What do companies do when they need to hire new staff?
Depending on the size of the company, they will do the advertising themselves and try to find someone by word of mouth, social media, or ask people they know.
Larger companies though, will hire agencies or recruiting firms to find the people they want who have the skills they are looking for and the values and ethics of the company, making them a “good fit”.
Sound familiar in regard to Rotary membership?
Most Rotary clubs act like smaller companies and try to find new members by asking family and friends, using social media and club events to advertise what they are doing, and hope people will show an interest and approach the Rotary Club asking if they can join.
Recently, some clubs around the globe decided that they needed to change their membership strategy and to start acting like a recruiting firm to see if that would generate better results. In one club, this change in mindset came about due to a newly inducted member being a recruiter in their professional career and asking why Rotary was not more proactive in their membership recruitment. As you can imagine, there was hesitation to change from the tried-and-true path. However, during a year of massive change, an action plan following the “recruiters” process was put into place.
The following is the recruiting plan that was devised.
- Identify 10 owners/operators of local businesses.
- Send them a letter with a general introduction to Rotary, the club and the benefits of getting involved.
- Follow up the letter with a personal phone call.
- For those who express interest, follow up the phone call with an email inviting them to attend a meeting, either via Zoom or in person.
- Place the names of interested persons on a contact list for occasional follow-up. Invite them to special events and meetings with attractive speakers.
- Repeat this process approximately every 3-4 weeks.
So far, this strategy has been successful in several clubs with new members and candidates attending meetings and thinking about joining.
If your club is suffering from a lack of new members and/or the results from your traditional recruiting strategies and practices have been poor, it may be time for you club to try a new approach and mimic the successful recruitment paradigms of the private sector.