A whole lot of attention is being focused on the short supply of employees these days. We can’t change the panoramic picture that led to and is generating this state of affairs, but we can change our own little corner of the world. If folks have too much easy money to need a job, if folks have grown indolent with handouts, if folks are uneasy getting back to the workforce…no matter what the reason…you can attract more employees.

               Begin with a personal approach. You know someone who knows someone who knows someone who needs a job. Forget the hiring engines, and engage the backyard fence method of recruitment.

               When you host summer events for your employees, you are actually inviting attention from prospective job hunters. Friends of employees are thinking, I wish my boss had a picnic like this! Shoppers are thinking, This would be a fun place to work! See where I’m going here? Become the Blue Springs version of the Pike Place Fish Market. If you’ve never been there, an iconic stop in Seattle is the fish market, where 90% of the people are not buying fish. Yet the fish market makes a good living and never lacks employees. They make their work fun, and like magnetic attraction, everything else follows.

               With four simple principles, they have created a new paradigm for success.

• Play!

• Make their day!

• Be there!

• Choose your attitude!

I added the exclamation points because, well, I believe in these principles and believe they deserve attention.

               Your perfect summer event may not be a sale. It may not be just another company picnic. It should create the mood for your business. I found lots of ideas for smashing events: Social Tables has eighteen suggestions, each one of them a winner. Capitalize on the summer Olympics. Bring in a great mind who is not a traditional planner, and throw out the canned variety in favor of fresh ideas. Take lots of pictures. Post them everywhere. Then hire someone who fits in and wants to be there. You won’t be disappointed.