For Nick Marcovecchio, the hardest thing about recruiting was getting candidates in the door. But with the right amount of planning, the problem was solved. Here’s what he did.

(As part of an ongoing series, we’ll have practicing HR managers present real problems they faced and how they solved them.)

Recruiting the right people was a challenge. We’re in a pretty crowded industry, and our competitors were hogging a lot of the talent pool.

Raising our starting salaries wasn’t an option –- we already offered what we thought was generous, and we didn’t exactly have the extra money lying around.

Most people we do hire are happy here. They like the environment and the kinds of work they do. We figured we could use that as a recruiting tool. The key was just getting people in the door. So we decided to invite them.

Get them inside

We held an in-house, on-site job fair. We ran ads for the event, listing the different positions we’d be talking about and taking applications for.

To reach the widest possible audience, we put the ads in a variety of publications.

It was a big success. Lots of people showed up, and from there it was just a matter of making a good first impression. We served food, gave a tour of the facility and let people apply for jobs they were interested in.

A lot of good candidates applied just on that day. And many of them are now great employees.

(Nick Marcovecchio, VP of HR, Magnolia Hotels, Denver)

Tags: job fair, My best recruiting idea, on site job fair