Recruitment Strategies

A practical guide to finding people who stay

Be honest - how many people signed your list at the last society fair, and how many are still around? For most chapters the answer is something like forty and four. That gap isn't a motivation problem on their side. It's usually a recruitment design problem on ours.

Introduction

Recruitment is not about filling seats on a board. For oikos chapters it's about bringing in people who connect with the mission, want to learn, and are willing to do something about it, and then making sure they stay long enough to grow.

🧭 Here's What You'll Walk Away With

• A way to balance skills, motivation, diversity, and cultural fit instead of guessing

• A shift from one-shot recruitment rounds to a year-round habit

• A short, humane selection process that tells you what a CV can't

• An onboarding approach that turns a new signup into an active oikee within a month

What Do We Mean by “Recruitment”?

Everything from the first moment a student hears the word oikos to the moment they're running something of their own. That includes attraction, application, selection, and onboarding - because a great selection process followed by a silent first month still loses the person.

Why Does This Matter for oikos Specifically?

Because chapters run on volunteers with degrees to finish, and every member you lose costs you twice - once in capacity, once in the knowledge that walks out with them. Recruitment is also the first experience anyone has of oikos. If it feels transactional and impersonal, that's what people will assume the chapter is like, and the ones who care most about culture are exactly the ones who won't come back.

There's a second reason: chapters that recruit only from their own course, their own year, and their own friendship group slowly become an echo chamber. A sustainability organisation that only ever hears from business students is missing most of the conversation.

How: From Stranger to Active Oikee

Recruitment funnel

Step 1 - Define Who You Actually Need

Before advertising anything, decide whether you're looking for specific roles, project members, or general participation - they attract different people and need different messages.

Aim for a deliberate mix across three axes:

1. Skills - design, finance, writing, facilitation, events, data

2. Academic background - not only business; law, engineering, and social sciences change the conversation

3. Study year - recruiting only final-years guarantees a cliff next June(or when they graduate)

💡 If everyone we recruit this year looks like everyone we recruited last year, what are we not hearing?

Step 2 - Recruit Continuously, Not Once a Year

Formal rounds are useful, but they shouldn't be the only door in.

Year-round recruitment

Every event, classroom presentation, sustainability initiative, and hallway conversation is a recruitment touchpoint. Someone who attends one panel in November may be the person you want running that panel next year, if you kept their contact and followed up.

Minimum viable version: a sign-up sheet at every single event, and one person whose job is to email that list.

Step 3 - Time It Right, and Go Where Students Already Are

Align formal recruitment with university society fairs and the standard student joining periods - fighting the academic calendar is a losing game. For channels, use whatever your students actually use locally rather than whatever the chapter used in 2019.

Step 4 - Keep the Application Short

A long form filters for patience, not passion. A short one is usually enough:

Ask	Why
Programme and year of study	Helps you balance the mix
Why do you want to join oikos?	Motivation is the best predictor of who stays
What are you interested in or curious about?	Lets you match people to real work quickly
How did you hear about us?	Tells you which channels actually work

Step 5 - Make the Selection Human

A short interview beats a long form. Ask about motivation, curiosity, how someone works with others, and what they want to learn; not just what they've already achieved. A first-year with no experience and real curiosity will usually outlast a decorated CV looking for a line to add to it.

Four questions that do most of the work:

Ask this	What it actually tells you
What made you want to join oikos rather than another society?	Whether they know what we stand for, or just want a society
Tell me about something you worked on with other people.	How they behave in a team - and whether they say “we” or “I”
What would you want to learn or try here?	Whether you can give them something real in month one
How much time can you realistically give per week?	Prevents the over-promise that becomes a ghosting in week three

And follow the basics on data and dignity: collect only what you need, get consent where it's required, and reject people kindly and promptly. Students talk to each other. A thoughtful rejection today is an application next semester.

Step 6 - Onboard Like the First Month Decides Everything

Because it usually does. Selection gets someone in the door; onboarding decides whether they come back.

First 30 days onboarding roadmap

The single highest-leverage item on that timeline is the real task in weeks 2-3. People don't bond with an organisation by being told about it; they bond by contributing to it and having that contribution noticed.

Technical and social sides of recruitment

Key principle: Recruit people not just to attend events, but to become active members of a learning and impact community.

Why People Actually Leave

If members drift away, it's rarely because they stopped caring about sustainability. It's almost always one of four things:

What they experience	The fix
“I joined and then nothing happened.”	Give a real task within three weeks
“I don't know what's going on.”	One predictable channel; announce decisions, not just events
“Everyone already knows each other.”	Assign a buddy; run one social early
“I'm only ever asked to carry chairs.”	Let newer members lead something small and visible

Summary

Decide who you need before you advertise, treat every activity as a recruitment touchpoint, keep the form short and the interview human, reject people kindly, and pour your energy into the first month. Selection fills a list; onboarding builds a chapter.

🎯 Main Takeaway

Recruitment isn't the fair in September - it's everything you do between fairs, and everything you do in someone's first month.

💡 Tips & Tricks - Try This Tomorrow

• Put a sign-up sheet or QR code at your next event, whatever the event is about. Then actually email the list within a week.

• Count your current members by course and study year. If one column dominates, you've just found your recruitment target for next round.

• Cut two questions from your application form and see whether you miss the answers. You probably won't.

• Write a kind, reusable rejection template now, while nobody is waiting on it - it's much harder to write well under time pressure.

• Give your newest member one real task this week with a deadline and their name attached. Nothing signals belonging faster.