The Situation

A business is first and foremost a group of people, and people are messy. How do you find great people? How do you convince them to join your team? How do you deal when people get messy? And how do you keep them engaged?

The Plays

Find: 

1. Always be pipelining talent.

1. Consistently connect. Look for relevant people on LinkedIn. Keep your eyes and ears open at events.

2. Develop an outreach plan. Who should reach out?

3. Start building relationships. The goal is that, when someone you want starts thinking about their next opportunity, you’re top of mind for them.

2. Try an outbound search: Take high touch recruiting to an employee base that hasn't necessarily experienced outreach before. “Hey, have you thought about our company? We like your skill set and think that you could be a really good fit.”

Hire: 

Design a hiring and interview process that works for your team.

1. Go through your own hiring process.

2. Map out who will be doing the interviewing at each stage, including how much time will be required and when.

3. Identify what really matters for a particular role – and how your hiring process will highlight those qualifications.

4. Develop a system around communicating feedback from one interviewer to the next. 

Keep: 

1. Start talent-oriented conversations with, “How do we keep the good people we already have?”

2. Create a culture where top performers want to stay:

1. Clear KPIs

2. Consistent touchpoints

3. Check-ins on motivation, goals, and highest-and-best use

Run the Plays

Highlight: Doing More with Less in “Multipliers”

“Small business owners and operators might be feeling the instinct to batten down the hatches to weather the recessionary storm that looms on the horizon. But looked at differently, this lean time might be the exact proving ground needed to identify and deploy the talent that already exists within your organization.”

Find, Hire, Keep – A 3-Part Series on Building a Team and Nurturing Talent

Part 1: Who Are You Competing With (And How Do You Compete?)

“The bottom line? Getting a nuanced understanding of who you’re competing with for talent – both in your sector and beyond – can inform how you structure more aligned compensation packages, support employee retention, and guide long-term talent planning and recruiting.”

Part 2: Designing a Hiring Process That Works For You

“One of the things I like to ask our leaders is, ‘Have you tried to apply for a job at your company? Do you know what that experience feels like? Do you know where it breaks down? Where is it challenging? What does the experience of the candidate feel like in terms of who gets back to them when? How long does it take someone to move through a hiring process? From the point that they engage to the point where you make an offer, how long is that taking?’”

Part 3: Designing a Hiring Process That Works For You

“At a fundamental level, you want to make sure that you’re thinking about who joins us? Why do they join us? Why do they stay and/or why do they leave? If you can get some clarity around those questions, then you've got data… And understanding those answers helps you devise your strategy.”

Permanent Podcast

How can you attract and retain top talent? What can small to medium size businesses learn from large companies? What challenges and opportunities lie ahead in this climate? Permanent Equity’s Kelie Morgan and guest Ashley Day give some tips and insights on up-leveling your talent pipeline on this episode of 5 Minute Management.

(Be sure to subscribe to get the latest episodes in your feed!)

Throwbacks

Finding Fit: Talent’s Guide to Big or Small

“Career decisions are difficult because they’re never really just about the job. They’re about how you see yourself, how you want to see yourself, the environment you want to spend at least a third of your life in, how you find meaning in work, and how you provide value and impact.” 12 questions to help you understand your best fit.

How to Fire Someone

“Of all the tough conversations you might have with a team member, this one might be the worst: ‘You’re fired.’ As a leader and a manager, the time is going to come when you’re going to have to let someone go. And it’s going to suck.” Advice from Mark Brooks on how to prepare – and have the conversation successfully and empathetically.

Go Deep

Curiosity sparked? We've put together a list of resources on finding and keeping top talent. 

Always Be Recruiting (Masters of Scale)

+ Host Reid Hoffman and Kayak co-founder Paul English on the constant drumbeat of hiring and recruiting – and how to hire for complementary skillsets. “When you have a firm grasp on all your weaknesses, that actually frees you up to double down on your strengths. And then you can hire for the traits you lack.”

The Great Attrition is Making Hiring Harder. Are You Searching the Right Talent Pools? (McKinsey)

+ If you’re going out looking for talent, know who you’re targeting and what they’re looking for (or running from): “It cannot be overstated just how influential a bad boss can be in causing people to leave. And while in the past an attractive salary could keep people in a job despite a bad boss, that is much less true now than it was before the pandemic.” But motivators are different for different personas. Are you talking to a traditionalist? A DIY-er? A student? A caregiver? A relaxer?

Here’s How Google Knows in Less Than 5 Minutes if a New Employee Will Get Off to a Perfect Start (Inc.)

+ Hint: It’s more about the manager than the employee: “Managers who followed that advice got their new hires up to speed a month faster -- in Google terms, about 25 percent faster -- than those who did not.”