We have faced many challenges in the past few months that have affected our business in life-altering ways. However, one challenge that many people found difficult on a daily basis pre-covid, may find it a bit easier to navigate now. It’s the right time to recruit top talent. With resources like the PPP loan funded, and the availability of 13+% of the workforce, you have to act quickly to retain the top producers before they get snatched up by someone else, or re-hired by their employer.
One thing that people often forget about top producers is that even if you don’t have the money in the bank to cover their full year’s salary, you don’t have to. You just need 3-6 months saved up to get them going and cover your breakeven. Top producers make it rain, and if they don’t, you need to part ways quickly.
How do you successfully recruit top talent? We break it down into two key factors. Time and Process. The faster you move a qualified candidate through the process, the better candidates you get. Let’s take a look at some statistics about recruiting timely numbers:
“The best candidates only have to wait 10 days to find a new job.” (Workonic)
“89% of talent says being contacted by their recruiter can make them accept a job offer faster.” (LinkedIn)
“94% says being contacted by their prospective manager can make them accept a job offer faster.” (Glassdoor)
For a speedy process, from the moment you first interact with the candidate to the final offer, a candidate should get through the interview process in less than two weeks. In order to obtain this timely goal, you will need to have everything organized and everyone ready to do their part within the next 30 days to onboard your next top producer.
Once your tools are aligned, then it’s time to execute the process. Discuss with your team the best step by step system to move the candidate along, and who will be responsible for each step. At the very least, you must have both a phone interview and in-person interview with each candidate, but most companies have more steps. Think about it this way, would you marry someone only after two dates?
Then determine the milestone dates and train on the HR procedures necessary to follow in order to be EEOC compliant. After placing your hire ad, you are all ready to start finding your next rockstar.
As you search for the perfect candidate you want to keep these things in mind:
Don’t settle. Your time is valuable. So if you are going to take the time to interview, do it right the first time.
Take the time to put in the work. If you don’t have time to do it, delegate or hire it out. In your delegation, make sure you know that the person interviewing is trained on the intricacies of spotting talent.
Keep the candidates informed throughout the process. They could be potential customers, and you need to show them the same respect you would to a current employee or client.
Follow the process. Keeping it the same for every candidate will ensure you attract top talent, reduce the chance of a lawsuit, and keep everyone accountable to being fair and EEOC.
Once you follow the rules of time and process, you will be empowered in your decision to choose the right person. But what do they look like? If you’re never done this before, let’s simplify. What do you look like? If you are hiring, you must be pretty successful. What is it about you that makes you successful? What is your achilles heel? Find a candidate that has some of your positive attributes, and that fills the void of your weaknesses. What about your experience made you overcome challenges and adapt to your role? What skills do you possess that are necessary to perform the job? Take these questions into the interview with your candidates. Find out what the pace of the last job was, and how they performed compared to other team mates. Ask about the metrics they were measured on, then compare internally to what your company does in order to make a confident decision. Top talent knows their numbers.