27 May Finding Great Talent

I’ve been speaking with a number of CEOs lately, and time and time again I hear them say the same thing, “there just doesn’t seem to be any great talent out there!” The truth is, the competition for great people isn’t anything new, however as executives and business owners it seems like we are facing competition on more fronts than ever.  Shouldn’t finding people be the easy part?

As a small or mid-size business, you might feel like you can’t compete for the best people without having to break the bank on salary or benefits – there is just no way to have a level playing field. Here’s the good news, great people really care more about YOU! That is right, great people are more motivated by work culture and access to leadership than money and perks. Sure, you have to pay fair, but that is way down on the list.

I recently had the privilege of hearing from the founder of a privately owned restaurant franchise with 500 plus locations across the US. He shared with his excited new team that success at each location was about them – their passion, their service, their desire to grow and develop. He shook their hands individually, and was completely accessible to each of them. How accessible are you?

An interview this February in Fast Company Magazine featured CEO and Founder, Julia Hartz, from Eventbright. She shared, “If could give one piece of advice to all entrepreneurs, it would be to really invest in the people.”

For years our friends at Gallup have been telling us that our workforces are unhappy. Nearly 70% of them range “meh” to completely disenfranchised from the firm. The questions they ask to measure this include such things as: the mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important, someone talked to me about my work in the last 7 days, and I know what is expected of me at work. Guess what – these are all things that you can control by getting out with your team and setting the culture for your company early on.

Want to find great people for your business? Here are 5 things you can start doing right now:

1. Go through the current application process – whatever you find difficult, frustrating, or impersonal needs to be changed. After all, is that the experience you really want people to have with your company.
2. How easy are you to reach? If someone really wants to work for you, shouldn’t they be able to easily send you an email? Time to stop hiding and start having conversations, encourage your HR team to do the same.
3. Interview each candidate who will be joining your company personally. Let them know what you expect from them, and what they should expect from you. Unless you have thousands of employees, you have the time. Really, what is more important that getting the right people in the business anyway?
4. Start having conversations with people who might be great for the future, even if you don’t have a role for them now. Building a pipeline of talent is just as important as building your sales pipeline, maybe more important.
5. Continue to share your vision and passion – more than likely it is why the candidate took the position in the first place.

Ready? Lets get to work and find some great people!