Why is it So Difficult to Hire Great Sales Professionals?

In over a decade of presenting to CEO and Key Executive Groups our popular program, “You’re NOT the Person I Hired“, I’ve discovered that the most difficult hire in a entrepreneurial-middle market company is a professional sales role.

If I present to a group with 15-20 members, half the group will be struggling with hiring outstanding sales professionals.

What makes it so difficult to hire this type of employee?

There are a number of factors that contribute to making hiring mistakes when it comes to the sales function. Before my Partner and I wrote our book “You’re NOT the Person I Hired”, we commissioned a study examining hiring mistakes. This study is available in the our FREE Resource Library. You get the Executive Summary of our Research Project – The Top Ten Hiring Mistakes by clicking here.

The research study was primarily focused on hiring at the executive level. However, the problems that lead to hiring mistakes and errors at an executive level are more significant and present a greater risk in hiring sales professionals. Let’s tackle the first mistake that leads to hiring failure.

The first mistake made by the vast majority of hiring managers is not defining SUCCESS for a role.

NOT defining success is a recipe for disaster in hiring.

Those who have seen our speaker presentation know that we recommend defining success through a structured process called SOAR and the end product is a tool called a Success Factor Snapshot. This success definition has absolutely NOTHING to do with the traditional job description.

Most job descriptions are worthless as a tool for measuring and predicting future success through an interview. You can read more about defining success in the article on a previous blog posting, titled “When An “A” Candidate is NOT an “A” Employee.

It takes a few hours to define success for a particular position. The key steps include:

• Connecting sales outcomes to the company objectives.
• Listing all the obstacles involved in achieving the desired results.
• Developing a time-phased, quantifiable plan of action items.
• Defining a future expected result – such as increase sales by 12% for the home health care market.

Your investment of time in building a one-page Success Factor Snapshot will dramatically raise hiring accuracy by:

• Focusing your search in which ponds to fish for the best talent.
• Eliminating the embellishment and exaggeration common in sales interviews.
• Leveraging a success-based management tool to keep your new hire on track after they join your team.

Barry

Originally posted on the Vistage Buzz Blog

If you’re looking for a job – don’t apply here.

One of the things I’ve noticed when working with successful business owners and executive leaders in large corporations is that they know who to hire. They look for certain characteristics in the person they put on the team. One of the first things they try to determine (once the skills are out of the way) is whether or not the person is hunting for a job or a position of responsibility.

If the candidate is looking for a job, they don’t go any further with the interview. If the candidate indicates that what motivates them and gets them up every day is a position with responsibility for which they are held accountable, then the interview continues in earnest, with success factors and lots of questions. The open ended questions will focus on how to figure out if the candidate takes responsibility for the consequences of her/his decisions. “What was the single biggest failure you’ve experienced professionally and what did you learn?” “Can you provide an example of  how you made an uniformed decision and then went back to correct it to take the project down a new path?” “Give me an example of how you allowed hard data analysis to override your instinct when making a business decision.” The candidate had better be prepared to give substantial examples that can be verified.

As you might guess, the person asking these questions isn’t looking for someone who is simply wanting to come in, do what s/he is told, let others take responsibility and go home at five. Nor is the hiring manager looking for someone who always sees outside forces or internal bureaucracy as getting in the way or causing failure. No, this manager or executive is not hiring someone for a job. Instead, they are looking for a person who takes responsibility; one who analyzes situations and is willing to look at data with fresh eyes. This manager is likely building a team that isn’t afraid of admitting mistakes, pointing out areas for improvement, or being the bearer of “bad news.” They are looking for a professional.

Let’s look at the other side. If I am a candidate who thrives on being in a position of responsibility, believe in being held accountable, and believe in being “data driven,” then I would want an interview to proceed as outlined above. If the hiring manager isn’t asking questions that lead me to believe they are looking for a professional, then I might take the initiative to ask some of the questions myself. I’d be very tempted to ask, “How will you know that the candidate you hire is successful?” What would you expect to be accomplished in the first three months and how will you measure it?” “How would you describe the culture of accountability in your organization?” If the manager fumbles the answers to these questions, this is not a cultural match for me and I may want to move on. That’s a very difficult decision, especially in these times. However, to settle for a job when you are looking for responsibility and a career position is going to hurt you in the long run.

Readers of this blog will not find too much surprising in this post. Yet, I see hiring managers make the same mistakes over and over again. I also see senior executives taking jobs in a panic – they have bills to pay and a family to support. Here is where I see the problem manifest most often – hiring a salesperson or sales manager. Sales people have a built in aversion to accepting responsibility for failure. Now before you fill my in-basket with hate mail, let me admit that I have come up through the sales ranks and managed a multi-channel sales team at several companies. I found myself succumbing to the very mindset that I’m suggesting isn’t healthy. There’s a simple and understandable explanation for this stereotype of the salesperson (apologies for those of you who have figured this out and grown out of it). A salesperson always faces more rejection in the average day than many people face in a year. They have to build up a thick skin. They have to accept the rejection, BELIEVE that it isn’t personal, and move on to the next opportunity. That understandable need tends to create a habit of looking outside of our own actions for the reasons for failure. We have to guard against that eventuality and admit that while understandable, it is not acceptable to ALWAYS assume the failure is not ours. As the hiring manager for a high functioning sales team, I found it very challenging to dig down and get to the point of “when are you accountable for the failure of a sales initiative or forecast”; both for my sales team (including myself) and with prospective candidates for the team. It turns out getting there was crucial for a successful hire.

So back to the beginning statement. If you’re looking for a job (no responsibility, just put in the time, collect a paycheck and go home), don’t apply here – even if the position is for the assembly line. If you’re looking to take responsibility for your actions, hold yourself accountable and are willing to grow, then let’s get started on what it will take to be successful. Be ready to give examples of how you’ve made mistakes, accepted the responsibility for them and learned from them. Be ready to demonstrate how you are open to various views of and conclusions derived from the same data. If you’re successful, we will be building a highly functional and exciting team. In my book, that’s better than a job any day. Even in this horrible market.

Hiring sales people is difficult for everyone. We just launched our Sales Recruiting Division to help companies with this issue. As the economy turns, good sales people will be harder to find and even harder to identify. CLICK HERE to get a Free Success Factor Snapshot for your sales position.

For more information on hiring top talent, read our best-selling book (0ver 10,000) You’re NOT the Person I Hired. CLICK HERE to read reviews.

About the author

Dave Kinnear is a sought after business advisor and mentor. He works with highly successful executives through one-to-one mentoring and coaching meetings. Individuals who are presently running successful businesses and executives in transition work with Dave to ensure meeting corporate and/or career goals. Through his affiliation with Vistage International, Dave convenes and facilitates Advisory Boards comprising Business Owners, Company Presidents and Chief Executives dedicated to becoming better leaders who make better decisions and achieve better results.

Hope and Luck Are Not A Hiring Process

Hiring is one of those processes in many companies that is often ignored, until it is needed.  My partner Barry Deutsch and I have spoken to hundreds of CEOs and key executives in the last three years, and there is a theme that most of these CEOs and key executives agree upon, which is, they don’t really have an effective, repeatable hiring process with highly competent people throughout the hiring process.

Just about every process in a company, from how customer invoices are processed, to how the phone is answered are repeatable, with competent people and a certain level of standards required. If something goes wrong in the process, for example, a customer invoice is lost resulting in the product not shipping or the order never being billed, qualified people research to identify what went wrong and if necessary either train the people or change the process.

This rarely happens when the hiring process fails. Too often companies just accept the failed hire as part of the process and move on. Why?

Over the last year I have asked over 500 CEOs and key executives the following question, “How many of you have audited, not sat in or co-interviewed, but audited if the people doing the interviewing are competent interviewers?” To no surprise the answer is that around 12% have done this. All the rest admit they have no clue if the people they are relying on to make a successful hire are even competent.

Is there any other process in your company in which you don’t know if the people doing the job are competent? I seriously doubt it.

We have put together an 8 Point Hiring Methodology Assessment Scorecard that you can download for free to evaluate your hiring process (CLICK HERE to download).  This assessment will at least highlight the areas of strengths and weaknesses in your company. You can then begin to work on bringing your hiring process standards up to the same standards as other processes in your organization.

At a minimum an effective hiring process must have at least these 5 steps.

1. Job descriptions based on defining success in the role instead of a laundry list of candidate attributes, experiences and skills. Good job descriptions quantify expected results and the time frame to achieve them for managers, and benchmark standards for all non-managerial positions.We call these Success Factors, and the accumulation of all the Success Factors, a Success Factor Snapshot instead of a job description.  (You can download examples of Success Factor Snapshots by CLICKING HERE).
2. A sourcing process that attracts passive candidates, not just those candidates actively looking for a position. Passive candidates make up the vast majority of the candidate pool and the way most companies promote, advertise and network, they rarely attract these candidates. In fact, the way most companies advertise actually turns passive candidates seeking a compelling opportunity off. (You can download our chapter on sourcing top talent from our award winning book for free by CLICKING HERE).
3. In-depth probing interviews with competent people. We already discussed the need to determine if those interviewing are competent. Most interviewers don’t probe deeply and most “tell” the person about the job instead of asking “how” they would do the job. Interviewers can obtain 80% of the information to determine if a candidate can do the job with just 5 core questions.
4. Candidate assessment after the interview. Most companies simple ask those that have been involved in the interviewing process, “What did  you think of the candidate?” or “How did the interview go?’ The person usually replies, “Oh, I liked them. They will fit in well.” or maybe just the famous thumbs up or thumbs down. Not exactly an in-depth assessment to determine if there are any further issues that need to be vetted. (You can obtain our 8 Point Candidate Assessment Matrix by CLICKING HERE).
5. Additional validation needs to done. There needs to be some follow-up steps to validate that what the candidate said they did during the interview is what they really did. Some examples are skills testing, homework assignment, make a presentation, bring in an example of past work or performance reviews, or even conducting behavioral or work style assessments by an outside professional.

These are the minimum 5 steps required by every effective hiring process. If you don’t have at least these 5 being done with competent people, then you might consider re-evaluating your hiring process.

Download a FREE 8 Point Hiring Methodology Assessment Scorecard to evaluate your hiring process. CLICK HERE to download.

Our award winning book, You’re NOT The Person I Hired. A CEO’s Guide to Hiring Top Talent, describes in-depth how to implement the 5 steps listed above. CLICK HERE to review the book and how to get yours.

Finally, consider joining our Linkedin Hire and Retain Top Talent group. It has numerous discussions and articles to help you attract, hire and retain top talent. CLICK HERE to join.

I welcome your thoughts, comments and questions. If you found this article helpful, please pass it along to someone in your network to help them too.

Brad Remillard

Cost Per Hire Versus Value Per Hire Which Is Most Important

The cost of a bad hire rarely impacts an organization, however, the value of a great hire can often transform an organization.

As executive recruiters, we hear about the “cost per hire” regularly. It seems like every time HR calls, this topic comes up. However, I would suggest that a far better discussion for HR to have is on the “value per hire.” Having this discussion not with recruiters, but with the CEO is a far more meaningful and beneficial discussion. It not only helps justify that HR contributes revenue and value to the organization, but it also brings HR in as a strategic partner.

This also goes for the CFO of the organization, who should work with HR to help determine a way to calculate the value of a hire.

A few years back I was sitting in the office of the VP HR when the CFO came by and stuck his head in to say hi. During the conversation he commented, “You know, over the last x years we have paid you over $300,000 for your services.” I think he was expecting me to be apologetic. I replied, “That is all? I completely agree with you that I have been grossly underpaid.” I don’t think this was the answer he was looking for. I continued, “Considering that you are now a millionaire, and the rest of the executive team I have placed here are also millionaires, and that the company went from $50 million in revenue to $250 million in revenue with a valuation close to $1 billion, I believe the fees I have been paid are justified by the value these people contributed to the company. Wouldn’t you agree?”

This isn’t about me. It is to demonstrate that even CFO’s don’t step back and recognize that for some expenses there is often a lot of value created for the company. If you de-humanize this concept, an employee is just another asset. Many often say the most “valuable asset” in the company. So, if employees are assets then shouldn’t the CFO be capable of calculating an ROI just like any other asset?.

Would this concept benefit HR as they justify the costs to acquire these assets? Isn’t it fair to look at both sides of the equation?

Employees are often described as “human capital” so some sort of return on capital doesn’t seem unrealistic. I’m not suggesting that the calculation is an easy one. I’m sure whoever first figured out how to calculate ROI had to tweak the formula more than once before getting it right, but just because it is difficult to calculate doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done.

Defining success in the role before you hire a person is a good start. Our Success Factor Methodology recommends developing a job description that defines what great success is in this role. Basically, by the end of the first year what would this person have to have accomplished so that the hiring manager would consider this person not just a good hire, but a great hire. In our book, You’re NOT The Person I Hired, we refer to these as,  “Success Factors” (for some free examples of Success Factors for different positions  CLICK HERE). I believe this is the starting point in determining the value an employee brings to the company. Top talent in your company will hit these. The average will hit these some of the time and below average will rarely hit the success factors. Obviously, for different levels within the company the value added will change.

At least now the company is starting to look at the value a hire brings to the company and can start to assess the ROI.

To learn more about the Success Factor Methodology to help you attract, hire and retain top talent, check out our best selling book, You’re NOT The Person I Hired.

You can also begin implementing the Success Factory Methodology with our comprehensive hiring system. CLICK HERE to review.

I welcome your thoughts, comments and feedback.

Brad Remillard

How can you change your luck in hiring?

In 25 years as Retained Executive Recruiters, Brad and I have had the pleasure of conducting more than 2000 workshops for hiring managers, executives, and CEOs on how to hire more effectively.

In every workshop we ask the question: Looking back over the past 5-10 years, what’s your success in hiring? What percentage of candidates whom you’ve hired have lived up to or exceeded your expectations and what percentage fell short of your expectations?

On a consistent basis over those 25 years, most managers, executives, and CEOs would be jumping for joy if they felt they achieved a 50% track record on hiring candidates who met their expectations in the first 12 months on the job.

Is there any other process in your company that will you accept that level of random variability in hiring? How about the payroll checks you write, or the bills you pay for vendors?

I doubt it.

Why then do most hiring managers, executives, and CEOs accept average and mediocre results when it comes to hiring?

There are many reasons that lead to average and mediocre results in hiring and the acceptance of poor hiring practices. We’ll explore many of these in coming blog posts.

The number one reason hiring fails in most companies (whether you have 6 employees or 60,000 employee) is that there is no systematic process for hiring. Okay – maybe you’ve got a checklist, a few steps, and a couple of forms. However, the reality is that most hiring managers and executives do whatever they want to find, select, assess, evaluate, and hire candidates. There is not a systematic rigorous process across the company from manager to manager.

The minute you implement a structured, systematic and rigorous process across every hiring manager in your company, hiring accuracy will explode upward. Over the past 20 years we’ve seen companies that implement our simple 5 step Success Factor Methodology raise hiring accuracy from roughly 50% (standing at the crap tables) random results to successful hiring outcomes in the 80-90% range.

Imagine this for a moment: Every hire your company makes from the day you implement a structured, systematic, and rigorous hiring process – you’ll have an 80%-90% confidence level that person will achieve your desired results and outcomes.

No more crossing your fingers depending on luck and hope as the primary elements of your hiring strategy.

Take our FREE Hiring Assessment to determine if you’ve got a hiring process capable of finding, interviewing, and selecting top performers at every level in your organization.

Barry

Don’t forget to sign up for our LinkedIn Discussion Group on Hiring and Retaining Top Talent

You Can Reduce Turnover With These 4 Simple Steps

1) Turnover often starts with a bad hire. Often a bad hire results from a poor hiring process. In many companies the hiring process is random, unstructured and riddled with incompetent people. Hiring managers usually wait until they need someone before starting the hiring process. After two or three months of interviewing they have one or two good solid below average candidates, but won’t make a decision until they at least three good solid below candidates. By this time they are desperate and we all know what kind of decisions we make when desperate.

Couple that with most hiring managers are not really competent or comfortable with interviewing and is it any wonder why hiring often fails? A few hiring managers are really good at hiring, but most simply ask the same questions they were asked when they interviewed. Few probe deeply into the candidate’s ability to deliver the performance the hiring manager expects. So the candidate’s expectations once on board do not align with the hiring manager’s. Leaving the hiring manager to think, “You’re NOT the person I hired.” (A great name for a book).

There are many more reasons for the hiring process to fail but these are two big contributors.

If your company wants to reduce turnover the first step is developing a structured, repeatable process with trained competent people. To see a list of steps in an effective hiring process CLICK HERE.

2) Lack of effectively training new employees. This is not an orientation program. It is formal training program to ensure the person is well trained in the tools, resources, industry jargon, processes or regulations, and systems necessary to deliver the performance standards the hiring manager expects.

Too often hiring managers can’t find the right person so they hire a lighter person and “will train them once on board.” YEA RIGHT. Even entry level employees need some structured training program to come up to speed. If the company doesn’t provide effective training the highest potential employee will become frustrated and eventually quit. Nobody wants to come to work every day frustrated because they were not properly trained.

3) A boss they can respect. We often hear how candidates put on their best face during the interview. Candidates are on their best behavior so it is hard to get to the real person. This is also true of hiring managers. Once on board candidates often think, “You’re NOT the person that hired me?”

If the hiring manager is not respected by the employee turnover is only a matter of time.

If you have a hiring manager with constant turnover it may be time to focus on the hiring manager. Are they possibly the problem. Training them to be an effective hiring manager maybe necessary. We recommend that all companies should require all their managers and any future manager to read the book, “First Break All The Rules.” The subtitle tells the real reason, “What the world’s greatest managers do different.” If you want to know what the world’s greatest do to become a world’s greatest managers this is the book to read.

Most studies show this is the biggest reason people leave. There is a saying, “People don’t leave the company, they leave their boss.”

4) Culture of non-performance. Top talent want three things in a position to stay motivated. Since your top talent usually leave before the below performing person that has been on your staff for years, top talent should be the focus. The bottom 10 to 20% never leave (another blog article for later). To retain top talent your company must provide top talent; 1) an opportunity to learn, 2)the opportunity to make an impact, and 3) the opportunity for them to become something better or grow. When any one of these three is eliminated top talent starts the job search.

By having monthly or at least quarterly private and regularly scheduled one-to-one’s with your best people you will find out if any one of the three is diminishing or been eliminated. At least then you can address the issue. Without the one-to-one few managers ever realize their top talent is lacking one or all three of these.

Turnover is one of biggest hidden costs that most companies never address. It is one of those things that we know is costly, but so hard to measure, so let’s ignore it. You can download for free our, “Cost Of Turnover Worksheet.” It lists the categories of turnover, direct and indirect. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD. You can input the cost for your organization. CAUTION, don’t do this unless you are ready for really bad news about the cost of turnover.

Once most companies realize the real cost of turnover then these four won’t seem like such a burden.

We offer a wealth of free resources for companies to improve their hiring process. This include an audio library from our talk radio show, numerous templates, free services and our hiring managers blog. To view the resources that will best benefit your company CLICK HERE.

What is Top Talent Ability in a Candidate?

We frequently get this question from CEOs, Key Executives, and Hiring Managers. Many Hiring Executives and Managers, Human Resource Professionals, and Recruiters consider the ability to measure top talent as an art form elevated to almost spiritual levels.

The reality is that the ability to measure and assess whether a candidate is top talented individual is simple and straightforward.

Let’s start with the very first step of determining whether you’re sitting in front of a candidate who could be considered top talent. This step takes place before you’ve looked at their resume. This is the first step of our Success Factor Methodology.

The first step to measuring and predicting top talent is defining your expectations and the level of performance you desire. Do you have set of expectations for your new customer service rep, inventory manager, or Vice President of Sales that puts them in the top 25%, top 10%, or top 5%?

You cannot predict future success by interviewing a candidate until you first define what level of success do you desire.

The #1 Hiring Mistake that gets made by most companies (whether you have 6 employees or 60,000) is that future success is not defined. We documented this hiring mistake in a major study before we wrote our book “You’re NOT the Person I Hired.” You can download a copy of the study from the FREE Resources Section of our Website.

Instead of defining expectations that are quantifiable and time-based, most companies use a traditional job description to evaluate a candidate’s ability to do the job. The traditional Job Description is worthless as a predictive tool for analyzing and projecting future performance and success.

Resources to Learn About Defining Success

Learn more about how to define success for top talent by visiting our website and taking advantage of the following Resources:

1. Our Internet Radio Show every Monday alternates between topics for hiring and for job search. We post all our Radio Broadcasts onto our website into the FREE Audio Library – either on the Hiring Manager side of our website or on the Candidate side.
2. Get a copy of our book “You’re NOT the person I Hired”. This book has hit best-seller levels with over 10,000 copies now in the hands of CEOs. Key Executives, and Hiring Managers.
3. We have posted examples of Success Factor Snapshots from various Executive Searches we’ve conducted. These Success Factor Snaphots replace the traditional job description in combining the expected/desired results for a specific position.
4. A couple times a month we will hold Hiring Manager Open Roundtable Discussions on a wide variety of topics, including defining success for top talent. You’re welcome to register and reserve a spot in these FREE programs. We cap the attendance at 50 participants and it usually fills up within hours our announcements.
5. Read about the Research Project we commissioned before we wrote our book on the Top Ten Hiring Mistakes. You’ll see how NOT defining expectations is a recipe for hiring failure.
6. Get our Complete Hiring System – a comprehensive Kit that allows you to implement the Success Factor Methodology, stuffed with every conceivable audio, video, worksheet, template, and content we’ve published on the subject of how to raise hiring accuracy. You can use this kit to train your hiring managers, raise hiring accuracy for every position, and begin to hire top talent in every department in your company. For a small investment, this could possibly yield a greater return in improving your hiring processes than anything else you ever seen. We’re so confident of the claim that you’ll raise hiring accuracy in your company – we’re willing to back it up with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If that’s not enough, we’ll let you “try it out” for $2.49 plus shipping.

Barry

Hiring Frustration #6: Useless Candidate Evaluation

The interview has ended and the candidate has left the building. Bob, the Vice President and Sue, the Director/Hiring Executive, come out of their offices and meet up at the proverbial water cooler. Let’s assume they both liked the candidate. Here’s what their conversation might sound like after Bob says to Sue “So, what did you think of the candidate?”

He seemed bright.

Had a lot of energy

Sure seemed enthusiastic

Maybe he could do the job

Might fit in here

Appeared to be smart and confident

I liked him

I got along well with him

No obvious issues or problems

Came across in my interview very well

Presents himself very nicely

What Just Got Measured in the Interview?

What the heck was this? Worthless Crap!

This was nothing more than a “meet-n-greet”. It was not an insightful, probing, analytical, in-depth assessment and interview of whether the candidate could deliver the desired results (probably since the desired results were never defined in the first place – it would be very hard to measure in the interview).

What are we really measuring? Bob and Sue are not measuring the candidate’s ability to do the job – they’re measuring the candidate’s ability to interview for the job. This is not only a major frustration among hiring managers – it’s one of the top ten reasons hiring fails more than 50% of the time in most companies.

You can read more about our 8 key Hiring Manager frustrations and how to overcome them. We provide a range of free content, products, and services to help combat and overcome typical useless evaluations of candidates.

The 8-Point Success Matrix for Assessing Candidates

We’ve developed a one-page scorecard for assessing candidate responses in the interview. We call the scorecard – the 8-Point Success Matrix. It takes about 3-5 minutes to complete at the end of an interview and zeros right in on whether the candidate can deliver your desired results – and whether they’ll do it with a style that fits with your culture and values. You can read more about this amazing scorecard on our website. Get a 20% discount on our regular pricing by reading about it here on our blog. Just enter the discount code of “HiringBlog” when you are ready to obtain the Matrix.

Barry

Your Reputation Impacts Hiring Top Talent

We were retained to conduct a search for a VP of Marketing . The position had been open for more than six months, during which time the company had interviewed ten people who showed little interest in the position or the company. In fact, one offer had been turned down. At first glance this seemed strange, since it was a good company offering reasonable compensation.

Shortly after contacting prospective candidates working for competitors and in related industries, the mystery became clear. The company had a reputation for high turnover, lack of innovative products, poor leadership and low pay. One candidate stated, “It’s known as a “burn ‘em and churn ‘em company.” Another candidate stated, “I’m interested in hearing about the position as long as it isn’t X company” of course it was X company. All of these issues had been true three years back, but new management had since come on and started changing things. The reputation, unfortunately, lagged behind.

In conjunction with the company we put together a marketing plan beginning with changing the Web site. We encouraged the company to address the baggage of the past while emphasizing the changes that had been made. The redesigned site also included testimonials from happy employees, information about the improved company benefits and management’s new commitment to employees. Another section discussed the company’s new products and how they were performing in the marketplace, as well as the company’s dedication to R&D. Finally, we changed how potential candidates were treated when they came in for interviews. All interviews were now viewed as a PR event.

As a result, even if a candidate didn’t end up getting the job, they still walked away with a completely different image of the company. Most walked away now wanting the job.

We ultimately filled the search with a candidate who originally told us she didn’t even want to interview. In fact, she told us the same thing three times before finally agreeing to an interview. She came away overwhelmed by the change and impressed with the new management. She was eager to go to work for the reborn organization.

Understanding your company’s reputation is an important issue when conducting a search. Regardless of your reputation, developing a compelling marketing plan is key to a successful search. Ensuring your company’s image is well received by candidates will help you attract more top candidates and reduce the cost per hire.

Start with your Web site, as this is the first place all candidates go once hearing the name of the company.

Remember all interviews are a PR event.

We offer a wealth of free resources and tools to help you attract, hire and retain top talent. To review these resources – Click here.

A sourcing check-up might just what your company needs. So click here to get one.

Featured in Forbes.Com Article on Hiring During the Recession

Forbes.com recently interviewed me about an article on hiring during the recession. You can read the full article at Forbes.com – The title of the article is “Hiring the best of the left-behind”.

The article reinforces a few key ideas – especially for small business owners and entrepreneurs:

Recession offers opportunity to hire top talent

First, The recession offers a wonderful opportunity to acquire top talent. Some outstanding candidates have been cast off for no fault of their own. Many companies in this recession have moved beyond getting rid of their deadwood and are now well into cutting right down to the bone – having to let go of some of their best talent for business survival.

However, these top 25% candidates are not desperate. They are very selective about which opportunities they will consider. These top talent candidates are well-networked, have multiple opportunities and “irons in the fire”, and don’t need your job. You still have to apply the right mix of marketing, relationship building, and  compelling opportunity to attract these great candidates.

Just because they are out of work doesn’t mean it will be easy to acquire them.

Top talent will take your recruiting call

Secondly, almost all individuals in the top talent ranks who are currently employed will take a phone call from a recruiter, friend, former co-worker, network contact about a new opportunity. Almost everyone is concerned about their company’s future success and whether the axe might fall next on their neck.

It’s a great time to reach out into your network and see if there are some outstanding currently employed candidates who might want to consider your compelling opportunity.

Short window to find great candidates

Third, I see the opportunity of the recession to acquire great talent lasting about another 12-18 months. After the recovery begins, we’ll be shifting back to a candidate’s market in which you may never be able to acquire the type of talent available right now.

What strategies and tactics are you employing right now to find and acquire great talent for your company? Have you done a top-to-bottom assessment of your entire organization and selectively identified a few key roles that could be upgraded?

Don’t procrastinate or you’ll be kicking yourself in 12 months that you didn’t act sooner.

Most Important – A Great Hiring Process

Fourth, and perhaps most important, you still need a great hiring process to separate the average performers from outstanding talent.

Our simple but effective Success Factor Methodology provides the tools, techniques, and strategies to allow you to train all your hiring managers to become great at the process of hiring top talent for their teams. Thousands of companies around the world have implemented the simple steps of the Success Factor Methodology and have dramatically improved their ability to find, assess, and hire top talent at every level in their organization.

Barry