HIRING IS PAINLESS
secrets to running a flawless talent search — with or without a recruiter
Last year a multi-billion dollar company called me to discuss helping them fill an executive role.
It was a high-stakes and well paid position, and the search had been going for 1.5 years. Languishing.
They had tried two other recruiting firms, plus significant internal efforts, on and off over that period. I met the hiring manager and we clicked pretty quickly, so I just asked her straight up:
“What’s the main reason you think this search is still open?”
She thought for a few seconds and said “lack of concerted effort.”
Things happen, priorities change, budgets shift, people are busy, momentum is lost. Nothing new in corporate land.
But this is not just a big company problem. Around the same time a small agency called me about a Designer position they had struggled for months to fill.
We had a fun, inspiring chat and ultimately arrived at… doing nothing. “Someone on the board wants to check their own network before we can retain you.” Fair enough. They called me again a few months later — no hire yet, and also no action plan.
In both cases, the challenge was so evident, and the solution so clear, it was hard to resist just performing the damn search for free.
But my team is far too busy to work for free, so I’m writing this instead.
Here’s how to fill any role quickly, with or without help from an external recruiter.
NAIL THE VISION
For your search to kick off with momentum, it has to feel real from day one. For your search to feel real, you need a “kickoff slate” showing 3 benchmark profiles of real people who someone in the room knows personally.
Doesn’t matter where this slate comes from. You just need to be able to envision the role, filled, with an actual person, not a blue-sky candidate profile.
Most visions don’t materialize out of words or thin air. They are constructed around something existing.
Once you have identified “almost right,” you can now adjust your search criteria with intention until you arrive at “just right.”
You know the meme about how posting an open question on Reddit will get you crickets, but intentionally posting the wrong answer will get you all the right answers in 5 minutes? This is similar.
To get something done, humans need a starting point.
CRUSH YOUR ADMIN
Yeah, admin. The best recruiters (or whoever’s in charge of hiring) aren’t just talent whisperers. They’re project managers.
That’s because the most time consuming aspect of recruiting isn’t finding talent, it’s waiting. Waiting for feedback, waiting for stakeholders to return from vacation, waiting for 6 people to find 5 minutes to talk to each other.
A good recruiter has access to above average talent. A great recruiter runs your search like a skunk works military project: Organizing information, rallying people, minimizing downtime.
Process gaps take up most of the recruiting process. Close them.
NO NEWS IS STILL NEWS
Delays are inevitable. Most people think that if a delay occurs and there’s no new news to send, they should send nothing at all. This is a fatal mistake.
Nothing seeds doubt like silence.
Your top 3 candidates need a one-sentence email from you every 48 hours no matter what. Not because they’ll go complain on LinkedIn about your company ghosting (top talent doesn’t do that) but because they’ll take another offer.
When they do this, it won’t be personal. It will be because they want to work for, and with, people who make quick decisions. When quick decision making isn’t possible, quick communication is a wonderful substitute.
Respectfully, nobody is too busy to set a reminder and send a 7-second message on a Tuesday. Nobody.
Your message doesn’t have to have all the answers, and it doesn’t have to list all the excuses. It can just say “hey, quick note, we’re still serious. Appreciate you hanging on while we work out our issues. Talk soon.”
We have, more than once, done this for an entire year to help our clients land their dream candidate. (The thing about trading regular texts with someone for a full year is that you become friends. Friends forgive 12-month delays and sign offers. Usually.)
Communication smoothes over a million sins.
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