By GORDON RENNIE
According to some of the behemoths of our day like Google, Amazon, Uber and Airbnb growing with the best talent is something that can hold back so many companies from achieving their goals of growth. Kevin Systrom in an interview with Reid Hoffman on The Masters of Scale podcast said that instagram would have grown faster and with less problems if they had hired better sooner. With only a team 13 strong Instagram achieved huge download figures in the region of 20 million almost instantly from launching.
So what can we learn from the mistakes made by these companies and put to work better policies that will help to grow your business or put in place the best teams that will help you get to the next level in your career.
#1 Referrals
When was the last time that you made a hire from a referral? Better yet, when was the last time that you put it out to your colleagues, employees or wider network? One area that companies can learn from recruiters is their referral policy, for example, I offer £400 of Amazon vouchers for a successful referral. It might not sound fancy or new age but it works, put it this way, if I had a team of 20 or 30 people that were already bought into the company and the culture I would be putting them to work every time I was hiring. Don’t do the lazy thing and send an email cc’ing everyone in. Get them together or go round and talk to them one by one.
#2 Job Board Searches
Solely posting jobs on job boards might make you feel like you have done your job as you sit back with a cuppa and wait for the applications to come in. If someone lands on your job post at the particular time your job is appearing at a certain part of the feed on a certain day IS JUST PURE LAZYNESS, sorry, I meant LUCK, yeh Luck.
Granted, you are often better lucky than good but if you can be good and lucky you’ll double your chances of finding the best talent. Mining Job Boards for top talent can be a mind numbing, long and arduous task but it remains a great way to find relevant talent. Partnered with your job post you will drastically increase your chances of finding the best talent available in the market.
” If someone lands on your job post at the particular time your job is appearing at a certain part of the feed on a certain day IS JUST PURE LAZYNESS, sorry, I meant LUCK, yeh luck“
#3 Social Networks
This one is obvious but depending on what it is that you do and where the talent you are looking for hangs out will determine your best practices here. LinkedIn is the obvious one, personally, LinkedIn has been one of the best resources for me since starting in recruitment. It’s right up there with referrals.
Facebook and Instagram are other great places to go, its easy to find people that are either following companies or people like you or certain hashtags. You might even think about running referral campaigns with your followers offering something for their help in finding the best talent for your company.
Bottom line, if you aren’t spending a couple of hours a day on LinkedIn and other social networks looking for talent then you will find it hard. That doesn’t mean cruising through the feed liking posts but searching through the database and finding talent. ***Inside tip*** connecting with people works better rather than in mails, this way you can play the long game and like their content, talk to them and build a rapport of value.
#4 Don’t Wait, Act!
Do you know that you have to hire in 5 months time? Have you done anything about it yet?
Hiring is a full time, 52 weeks a year gig, if you want to do it properly you can’t rest on your laurels or wait until you get the go ahead to get the job advertised. If you know that you’ll be hiring in 5 months, 7 months or 11 months time, get searching now, get connected to the market and attend networking events related to the area you’ll be hiring in. Waiting until the time is limiting your options and increasing the chances of making a bad hire.
Don’t worry. If all of the above sounds like too much work get in touch at gordon@eyonzy,com and we can make sure your next hire is your best hire.
Do you know someone that could benefit from reading this? Send them the link or share in on social.
Thanks for reading and good luck on your search, Gordon.
One Comment
Some great tips and advice here.