WASHINGTON, DC — October 19, 2001— Recognizing that the Internet is significantly enhancing employee recruiting in the food retail industry, the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) releases a new Internet training and development tool, Food Industry Guide to Internet Recruiting.

“To remain competitive, retailers must have an Internet recruiting strategy,” said Ernie Monschein, director, education and human resource development at FMI. “The business model of recruiting and training changes with each generation, and the current model is centered around the Internet — a place where pools of qualified applicants can be found nearly every day. We believe this guide will help them to establish an effective job site.”

The 75-page guide offers retailers practical techniques and proven strategies for enhancing their own Internet recruiting efforts. The guide is broken down into four sections for easy reference:

• Thinking Strategically About E-Recruiting describes how to include Internet recruiting in the overall recruiting plan. Areas covered include current trends, how to gear the company website for recruiting, how to plan for costs and what legal and security issues need to be considered.
  
• Attracting Job Seekers Using Career Sites and Job Boards introduces basic recruiting strategies to reach active job seekers and provides helpful information about career-oriented websites and job boards. The section also offers instruction for evaluating the effectiveness of a company’s Internet recruiting efforts.
  
• Appealing to Passive Job Seekers provides ideas for attracting potential, but employed, candidates by enhancing a company’s visibility and building relationships via the Internet. The section references search engines, newsgroups, virtual communities, e-newsletters, relationship databases and popular websites.
  
• Managing the “Back End” of the Recruiting Process covers responding to, tracking and hiring new candidates. The section also identifies data collection capabilities offered by existing technology and guidelines for creating online job applications and auto-responses to job inquiries.
  

“Businesses are competing to attract and hire top quality employees that will contribute to stronger customer service and higher productivity in their stores, so an understanding of the Internet and of what candidates are looking for in a career is crucial to the success of a company’s overall strategy,” said Monschein. “With a unique approach and a well-defined e-recruiting plan, any food retail company can leap ahead of the competition and attract qualified job applicants.”

The guide includes an appendix that lists websites for career management; search engines; career fairs; newsgroup job postings; site-tracking software; auto-responder/mailing list software; virtual communities and selected food retail companies that have comprehensive Internet recruiting strategies.

Contributors to this resource guide include Bashas’, Dick’s Supermarkets, PCC Natural Markets, Save Mart Markets, JobsInLogistics.com, MonsterTrak.com, RXCareerCenter.com, SnagAJob.com, Transition Assistance Online and Peter Weddles, author and online columnist for The Wall Street Journal and CNNfn.

For more information, or to purchase the Food Industry Guide to Internet Recruiting ($25 members / $50 nonmembers), please contact FMI Publications and Video Sales at (202) 452-8444 or visit the FMI website at www.fmi.org.