In the first three parts of this series, I focused on the content you should be messaging in order to attract top talent. However, even with the best job posting, companies with great branding and the willingness to be patient, often miss terribly in the most important aspect of attracting candidates; they don’t reach nearly enough of them.
Most everyone has heard the myth that sharks can detect a drop of blood in the water from up to a mile away. That’s not really the case, and although highly sensitive to odors in the water, you won’t see any shark experts dropping in a line with a lone sardine hooked to it in hopes of catching another Jaws.
We all know how it works. First, you go to the specific waters where the big guys are swimming. If you want to bring them to the boat, you start dumping buckets of chum in the water and then drift along, letting the currents spread bloody fish parts across hundreds of yards or more. The first to show up aren’t typically the ones you’re looking for though. Reef sharks, blues, maybe a bull shark; but soon, the stars of the show, the Great Whites (Discovery Channel’s top talent) come around.
Shark Week starts in just 10 days, and one thing is for certain, it’s all about attracting viewers and big sharks. They even have the biggest name in hosts, Duane “The Rock” Johnson, on billboards, social media, and filling up every network commercial break in the month of July.
You need to take a similar approach with hiring. When you are looking for candidates, you can’t drop a single job posting on indeed or LinkedIn and let it sit for weeks or months hoping it gets noticed. You need to spread that posting over a wide area and make sure everyone knows about it.
Whether you have an H.R. person that can own it or not, the whole company, from the organizational leaders to every employee should be posting and reposting across all the social media platforms they use, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and others. The more people that see it the better, because everybody knows somebody.
You should also be asking for referrals from your manufacturer partners, friends, professional colleagues, networking groups, and even your clients. Let them know you are hiring, and you are growing.
Often your clients have worked with other companies in the past, where a key employee left or is no longer servicing them, and they would gladly welcome them back as part of your team. They don’t even have to be from the industry. You are just looking for names. When clients and manufacturers help you land high performers, it helps them as well, so leverage your networks and start having those conversations today.
Don’t miss the big ones because you are using the wrong bait or not nearly enough of it. You should be looking for the right people, ones who fit your culture and have a winning attitude. Skills can be taught later, but first, you’ve got to get them in the boat.
