You’ve heard about boomerang employees gaining popularity in many fields, but have you heard of boomerang letter of intent (LOI)s? The easiest candidate pool to submit for your proposal efforts should be former employees.
There has always been debate among recruiters on if they like or dislike working on proposal efforts. These are positions that recruiters hope to identify candidates for in the event that they win work from the government.
THE PROCESS
Generally, a defense contractor’s business capture team will identify a request for proposal (RFP) that they would like to respond to, depending on their company’s capabilities. The writing team will go through technical readiness reviews, blue teams, pink teams, red teams, green teams, gold reviews, and white gloves to ensure their response is up to snuff depending on the products or services the government is looking for.
Meanwhile, recruiting teams read the personnel section of the RFP to see what key personnel and resumes are required to be submitted with their proposal. The process of identifying candidates is similar to fully funded roles: advertise on your careers page, source through third party resume databases, manage phone screens, and conduct interviews if need be.
The difference here is instead of an offer letter, candidates must sign an LOI to show the government that they intend to join this program should the contractor be awarded the work. Sometimes candidates will ask about salaries and what this position is priced at, and other times candidates don’t worry about that at this stage. Following securing your qualified candidate, recruiters format resumes to ensure all key qualifications are reflected.
KEEPING YOUR FORMER EMPLOYEES WARM
Starting from scratch with new candidates for proposal efforts is certainly an option, especially if the work requires something outside of your normal contracts / candidate base. However, you can save valuable time and avoid the heavy sourcing, phone calls, and interviews by keeping your former employees ready and engaged to serve as candidates for future proposals!
Tips to keep your former employees warm:
- Touch base with them, even aside from openings you want to discuss with them.
- Get upper management involved – have their program managers keep the connection with solid employees after they leave.
- Utilize recruitment marketing communications and have employees and former employees on a special listserv for job announcements.
THEÂ CLEARED RECRUITING CHRONICLES: YOUR WEEKLY DoD RECRUITING TIPS TO OUT COMPETE THE NEXT NATIONAL SECURITY STAFFER.
