When Recruiters Fall Short: Creative Strategies To Fill a Tough Recruit
In late 2020, a client came to us with a challenge—they wanted to interview people in industries that are “vulnerable” to the climate change movement, including farmers, auto workers, and coal miners. Additionally, the client had location-specific criteria, and wanted to talk with farmers in the Midwest and auto and coal workers in the Rust Belt. The goal of the project was to understand how these industries might adapt to changes that result because of the climate change movement, and how bringing sustainability to these industries might not only allow these workers to survive, but thrive in their respective occupations.
Because these industries have already experienced vulnerability on several levels, finding people who still work in them was no small feat. We enlisted the help of recruiters with offices/databases in both regions and were assured the recruit was feasible.
But lo and behold, a week into the project it was obvious we were going to come up short. At that point, the recruiters had only secured a handful of farmers and auto workers and no one from the coal industry. They didn’t have many leads and were relying on their database and social media which were not producing results.
Failing at this recruit was not an option, so we knew we would have to find some creative solutions to get this done, something our company has excelled at in the past with hard-to-reach populations.
In the end, we got the recruit done, and we relied on two strategies to do it:
1. Friends/family/social network recruits
Sometimes the best way to find the people you’re looking for is to ask others for referrals. Recruiters do this with their databases, and in many ways our own social networks are akin to big databases of people who know other people-- hopefully the types you’re looking for. We posted about the recruit needs on our own social media pages and almost immediately fielded DMs from folks in our own networks who knew people that fit the criteria. For example, an old friend from high school has a family of farmers in Wisconsin, one of whom agreed to be interviewed for the project. Others who may not know someone directly can point you in the right direction—another friend from one of my mom’s groups sent me a link to a club for auto workers where I was able to post about the project—this also yielded a recruit.
A friends/family recruit is sometimes frowned upon as being biased, especially if the researcher’s network is particularly closed or homogenous in some way that affects the type of responses and opinions expressed. That may be a legitimate concern for some studies, though for this particular project it really was not, as the people we ended up connecting with tended to be a few degrees separated from our direct social networks. Also, being transparent with the client about this strategy can also ameliorate concerns and can potentially showcase your hustle in getting the right recruits for the client’s projects.
2. Creative networking
The other way we got recruits from this project was by joining social media groups where these populations live. For example, Pennsylvania coal miners have their own private group which we requested permission to join, explaining to the group administrator the purpose of the project and what we were hoping to gain from interacting with their members. We found that for the most part, group admins were welcoming to our researchers and saw our project as an opportunity for their members to express their opinions on important topics relevant to the industry’s future.
We posted on these group pages inviting members to contact us directly (via private message) if they were interested in being interviewed. This is where follow-up on the researchers’ part became really important—many members commented on our post expressing interest but didn’t follow-up via DM. In these cases, we replied to their comment asking them to DM or invited them to leave their phone number for us to call them—an option that was important to provide for older populations who aren’t as online-savvy and might be less likely to use Facebook Messenger.
We also found one recruit on Instagram by searching for photos tagged at auto manufacturing plants. We DMed one woman who took several recent pictures with her boyfriend at a manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania and asked if she could refer him for the study. It turned out that she herself also worked at the plant and was able to participate in an interview.
Networking through social media is a newer method of recruitment, but one that is becoming increasingly necessary as communication channels change and more and more people are spending their time on social. While in the past it might have been considered unprofessional to recruit via Facebook or Instagram, it’s become much more acceptable, especially as younger populations are communicating more and more via social media DM. And if this study is any indication, recruiting through social media is not only acceptable, it also simply works.
Hard-to-reach or very specific populations may be difficult to recruit from recruiters’ or focus group facilities’ databases, which is why more creative methods might be essential to recruitment success. While the best recruiters in the industry already know this and will engage in nontraditional strategies for reaching respondents, others will just rely on their database to fill the recruit, and often fall short. Sometimes the researchers have to fill this gap and rely on their own hustle to get the recruit done and execute the project. We are proud of our team’s work in this effort and think it reflects BLS’s ability to problem solve, pivot when necessary, and find creative solutions to ensure projects get done and get done well.