Strategy For Hiring Top Performers
By Marcus Miller
If you ask a hiring manager to describe the "perfect candidate" to recruit they usually say:
The best employees to recruit are probably the best workers at the company they already work for. They are probably well treated and are not actively looking for a new job.
Finding top employees and convincing them to become Active Job Seekers requires a multi-part strategy. In Seth Godin's Permission Marketing, he outlines a generic strategy of “turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers.” For converting top performers into active job seekers the process involves:
Name and resume gathering:
This is probably the easiest step. You first need up front research data that identifies the skills and experience you need, and the locations where top performers work. You will also need career postings on your web site and the public job boards. Next comes vigilance. You must be ready to respond to a candidate at the precise moment they are feeling vulnerable, or to be ready to engage in a dialogue at the point when a friend recommends that they "check out your web site" or they give you a call.
Rapport Building:
It takes time and frequent campaigns to build an on-going relationship with the top performer, where they look forward to and accept your efforts at providing information and education on the job market. The offers have to be personal, appropriate and frequent so they believe that your message has been selected for them. Information on what’s happening in the industry, on-line courses and lists of "the best companies to work for" are all examples for building this rapport.
Relationship Recruiting:
As efforts evolve, the top performer will either reject the process or grow and trust you to consider another employer that can offer them more in their career development. Timely phone calls make the difference in establishing the personal relationship. In addition this can lead to referrals of the targeted person’s friends. As the word spreads, the process grows.
A successful business process for recruiting the top performer typically takes 6 months lead-time to deliver results.
1) First you have to get the attention of the candidates with an attractive, realistic offer that appeals.
2) Next you need an Applicant Tracking process to manage the delivery of fresh, frequent and worthwhile messages. This involves the presentation of information such as industry trends, key industry surveys, and different career tracks. The approach is designed to build trust by not pushing job openings.
3) Finally use direct contact to build trust. Get in touch by phone. You will need a career section of your Web site that offers learning, information and graphics with sizzle, one that piques the candidate's interests and shows them that the individual matters.
By continuously putting efforts into recruiting and re-recruiting the top performers, you can maximize your chances of winning them over. Your efforts will be more than rewarded with an increased quality and performance of recruits!
Marcus Miller (Marcus.Miller@LEAPJob.com) is the President of LEAPJob (www.LEAPJob.com), a Human Resources Consulting firm focused on improving its clients' capabilities to attract, hire and retain great people. You can reach Marcus at 905.281.3090, Ext. 21.
