You've heard about the downsizings, the reneged job offers, and the drop in recruiting activity. But at the same time, employers in industries such as biotech and pharmaceuticals are scrambling for talent.

Apotex, a privately held Canadian generic-brand pharmaceutical company based in Toronto, is a good case in point. For the last five years, this fast-growth company has hired 700 people annually. The company currently has 400 job openings ranging, for example, from entry-level chemists to more experienced professionals.

A large part of Apotex's recruiting strategy centers around college hires-building the talent pipeline right from the start. Grooming young new-hire talent into GEMS (global employees mobile and skilled) is where a lot to time and energy is spent. "We want to become the employer of choice for students and we are working on a lot of projects that accomplish that goal," says Joanne Campbell, Apotex's director of learning and recruitment solutions.

The company is well advanced in developing ongoing partnerships and relationships with local colleges. For example, several educational institutions provide Apotex employees specialized instruction in various areas of industrial pharmacology. The company offers job opportunities for students, provides employees for guest-lecturer slots at colleges, as well as offers 75 internships every school term. An important company initiative is identifying high-performing interns early on and providing them with offer letters before the internships are completed.

Apotex's hiring activity may seem exceptional. But the reality is that strategic organizations—even those hard hit by a soft U.S. economy—are still filling the talent pipeline, or at the very minimum, still building and maintaining relationships with new-hire talent.

Consider for example, the fact that 73 percent of the 22 leading corporations (from 11 industries) surveyed in the most recent Towers Perrin Talent Report, How Leading Organizations Manage Talent, have cut staff in the last six months, but continue to hire top performers.

Communicating More Effectively

According to John Falto, vice president, college staffing solutions for recruitment advertising firm Bernard Hodes Group, instead of ending relationships with educational institutions when hiring needs are zero to minimum, consider more effective and less expensive ways of reaching out.

"There are relatively inexpensive things you can do to maintain a presence," he says. "Helping the college career services office with mock interviews or working with one of the school clubs could be very valuable, yet only requires one person's time every couple of months. By doing these activities, you are keeping your company's brand alive; you are maintaining your presence."

Falto also recommends: "Don't go to campus job fairs if you don't have jobs to offer. There are other avenues for communication," he says. One popular tactic is holding online chats, which are open to students from many schools. The attraction for students is they get to communicate with a high-level company official; an opportunity that wouldn't arise during the traditional interview process.

"The opportunity to interact with senior people in a company is attractive to college candidates," explains Steve Pollock, president of Calif.-based WetFeet Inc., a recruitment solutions provider. Recently, Pollock worked with Shell Oil Company to set up an online chat session for college students.

"The students asked far more questions than expected," says Pollock. Besides providing good answers, the two Shell employees involved were able to promote the benefits of working at Shell and get a feel for which students might fit in well at the company.

Here's a sampling of the kinds of questions students asked during the Shell Oil online chat:

• What kind of applicant are you looking for?
• What kind of abilities does Shell expect from potential new hires?
• I am pursuing my second masters in chemical engineering, the first being environmental engineering. I would like to know what kind of opportunities do I have with Shell?
• What have been your career paths through the company?
• Do you process the work permit for international candidates in the United States?
• What is the extent of job rotation?
• What does Shell have going for it over other major competitors?
• I've heard that the decision-making process takes quite some time at a company as large as Shell. How do you deal with this slow process? Can you fast-track issues that are more critical? If so, how are you able to do it?

Besides using the Internet for online chats, Shell Oil has created a robust careers section on the corporate web site. There's in-depth information about the company's core businesses, the interviewing process, specific career opportunities, and workplace culture.

Rethinking Your Strategy

Even if your organization doesn't have a heavy new-hire requisition load, now is not the time to tone down talk with potential new hires. Instead, consider how you can revise a few relationship-building strategies to make them stronger and more cost-effective.

Following are a few pointers from the experts on how to evaluate your recruiting communication tactics to continue long-lasting campus relationships:

Focus in and Better Coordinate Communication. "Choose two or three disciplines that are most needed at your company and then match that need to a few campuses as close to your physical location as possible," suggests Kevin Wheeler, president of Global Learning Resources. "Start coupling recruiting with internship programs and get employees involved on campus in laboratories or in the classroom."

Know What Sells Your Company. One of the main reasons job candidates want to work at Apotex is because the business is Canadian owned. Because so many of the businesses—and competitors—operating in Canada originate in other countries, from the start, Apotex is attractive to prospective candidates. "People are proud to work for a Canadian-owned organization," Campbell says.

Keep It Simple. Instead of sending multiple messages to different segments of the workforce, Apotex keeps print communications simple. "We asked employees to come up with adjectives that describe their work experience here, and we incorporated them into the recruitment brochure," Campbell says. "We tried to make the brochure colorful, show less words and more people, as well as talk about the values of the organization."

Re-examine How Print Collateral Is Used. "It's an effective way to drive people to the company website, says Pollock. Relatively speaking advertising has gone down, as well as in-person travel. Print collateral is being used to move recruiting online."

Upgrade How the Internet Is Used. "Use it to find and communicate with students. Send the literature and promo info about your company electronically, and start a chat room or listserv for students to talk with employees," Wheeler says. "Develop and use online assessments as a step to reducing the amount of face time needed on campus. Every time you reduce the number of steps in the recruiting process or eliminate a trip to campus, you lower your overall costs."

Consider If Giveaways Are Important. Does your organization use giveaways as a way to leave a lasting impression with potential candidates? For example, Celanese uses a mini CD as one of the many ways it connects with new-hire candidates. The CD contains a message from the COO and profiles different people at the company. "It's been very helpful for potential hires to learn more about the company and the culture," says Paula Caya, Celanese's global director of organization effectiveness.

Use Content Experts As Recruiters. At Celanese, various types of employees are recruiters for the organization. On college campuses, for example, it's the content experts who strike up relationships with professors and students. "They get to know professors and the people working in the placement office. They attend job fairs and help in the classroom," Caya explains. "We are very active on campus because we have a long-term focus about recruiting."

"Excellent communication has better recruiting return on investment than fancy campus perks," Wetfeet's Pollock says. "Students disproportionately value excellent communication; and strong communication performance does not cost a lot."

Michelle Martinez is a Leesburg, Va.-based writer specializing in recruitment, human resources and workplace management issues.