Hiring Your Customer

A few years back on a consulting assignment, I was helping a rather large privately owned company to develop a strategy for attracting new employees. They wanted to be the “employer of choice” in their industry, and were in an aggressive growth phase. The executive vice president was a very likable fellow and came across as an “Andy Griffith” type, someone who was everybody’s best friend. He had a very impressive demeanor, could persuade prospective employees very easily, and could sell the company. He was one of the best I’ve ever seen at having the natural and intuitive ability of attracting new talent. But he had the absolute worst track record of landing them.

This executive was one of the busiest that I’ve ever observed. His assistant almost needed an another assistant to keep up with his work load. He took on a large part of the company’s growth, while simultaneously managing a $100 million a year branch office. And he was responsible for hiring all key staff throughout most offices of the company.

Because he was so busy fighting fires, he naturally prioritized. The fires quickest to reach his feet received his attention, and everything else was on the back burner. Here’s the problem: all good candidates were ignored and eventually lost interest. The hiring scenarios were so far removed from his immediate attention because those fires were far away and could be dealt with “later”…whenever that is. By not keeping up with the rhythm of his searches, the good candidates assumed that he was a poor manager and had the impression that he was absent-minded, scattered, and unfocused. After receiving a candidate’s resume, an initial telephone call would be scheduled, which he would consistently forget about, leaving the candidate wondering why the call never came. The calls were rescheduled, and if he didn’t forget about them, he kept pushing them back. It would take him as long as four weeks to connect with an interested candidate. And finally, when he had the time to interview, the candidate would withdraw his candidacy and move on to another opportunity, carrying a bad taste of that company in their mouth forever.

Here’s a solution for that teachable executive who can see the value of hiring top talent: make that prospective employee your customer. Yes, your customer. Treat them as if they bring several hundred thousands of dollars of net income to your company every year… because they do. If you can realize and understand the quantifiable impact that a star employee has on your company, you would rarely neglect them.

Call them when you say you’re going to call them. Write them thank-you notes. Yes, you the employer should write a star prospect a short note telling them how glad you were to meet them. Take them out to lunch. Wine them and dine them. But most importantly, keep the hiring process on the front burner, even when more urgent issues may seem critical. If you neglect to keep this hiring process a priority, you will eventually not have hiring issues to worry about.

Scott Love shows managers and sales people how to manage their risk and win the game of business. He is a professional speaker and can be reached at 828-225-7700 or on his website at www.nolimitachievement.com