Rural recruiting: How to land candidates in small-town America

From Enid, Oklahoma to Old Town, Maine, we’ve helped candidates relocate to many of the United States’ smaller cities.

Often, these towns provide tactical headquarters for organizations requiring diverse shipping routes, highly skilled labor pools or affordable facilities.

But, despite these benefits, a rural worksite can make it challenging to recruit new talent accustomed to larger cities with more resources.

Small-town living isn’t for everyone, but your organization can employ the following strategies to convince top candidates your opportunity, and community, are worth moving for.

Provide resources and guidance for your top candidate’s family, if applicable.

Family ties are the number one roadblock to most candidates’ relocation, regardless of whether they’re considering a role in a small or large city. Organizations can get ahead of this issue by creating a wholistic, family-friendly relocation playbook.

This can mean getting to know your candidate’s family before their official start date and connecting them to resources like employers, schools, extracurricular or sports programs. Helping secure housing, whether temporary or permanent, will also help your candidate and their family ease into their new town.

Related: Want candidates to move? Get creative with your relocation package

Have a local take your candidate around town.

Hiring a realtor or knowledgeable community member to provide your candidate with a comprehensive tour is a good way to expose them to all aspects of a community and help them evaluate whether they can truly see themselves fitting in.

Showcasing popular businesses, restaurants, recreational activities and neighborhoods is a must. Sometimes, this requires candidates to stay for an extra day after an on-site interview, but the dollars you invest in giving them a meaningful experience will show how dedicated you are to making sure their new career is truly a good fit.

Related: Visit our relocation webpage to learn about choice destinations around the United States.

Become a fixture in your community.

It’s easier for a company to sell a location if its team plays a direct role in making it special. This is why we recommend every organization strive to become involved in local happenings, whether that be joining the Chamber of Commerce, sponsoring local events or providing useful resources for community members. If your company has a good reputation, so will its location.

Consider offering a hybrid work option.

In some cases, the perfect candidate is unable to relocate full-time but has some availability to be on location in a part-time capacity.

With the advent of remote work, many roles previously requiring in-person schedules can be performed online, which allows more flexibility for candidates to work from different locations or to split their time in more than one area.

These situations aren’t always possible, but being flexible in your on-site work requirements will open the aperture for a more diverse array of top talent.

The takeaway:

Many smaller cities offer strategic advantages for businesses, but recruiting talent from larger urban areas can be challenging.

To attract top candidates, organizations can provide comprehensive support for candidates and their families during the relocation process, offer personalized tours of the community and actively engage in local initiatives to showcase the benefits of living and working in the area.

To learn more about recruiting top talent to rural areas, contact Eric Spell at (336) 217-9116 or eric.spell@charlesaris.com.