Does Your Company Have a Commitment to Recruiting?

You will notice as you look around the landscape that the historically strong companies and the historically strong sports franchises all have one thing in common: Recruiting is a Top Priority! They don't wait for people to come to them; they go out and GET the top people. They do not endeavor to "fill positions"; they instead PLAN and EXECUTE to recruit the best player for each position.

Microsoft and New York Yankees come quickly to mind. They both hire exceptional talent due to a commitment and investment in recruiting and the recruiting process. These are both historically strong and winning teams deep with talent.

These companies and teams recognize they are limited to accomplish what their talent can accomplish. Resolved to this fate, they make it the highest priority to make every condition conducive to acquiring exceptional performers for each position. It is a corporate commitment from the top which causes this, and the effect of this cause is high profitability. Smart business!

Knowing this to be fact, why don't more companies get committed to recruiting? Usually because either they don't think of it, or they think it costs too much. In actuality, not having the commitment to recruiting costs a company countless times more money in higher turnover, headache employees and the real dollars in lost opportunity. And lost opportunity is not just the deals you lost, it includes the deals that never came to the table.

And it is not to late. Companies can begin now to put the processes in place to generate winning teams and winning seasons. All it takes is the commitment. Here are the four primary components:

Senior management discusses and identifies "Recruiting Top Talent" as a priority and commits the company culture. Akin to a sports team committing to build a winning team, a communication plan is developed and executed to create excitement for the new commitment.

Standards are established for hires in each practice area at every level company wide. These standards establish the minimum benchmarks acceptable in level of accomplishment in the performance of ones duties.

A review of the company is made to ascertain which employees are currently meeting that standard, top grading if necessary.

For each open position a conscious, concentrated effort is made to recruit top talent already possessing the experience necessary to meet or exceed the standard. Your inhouse recruiting staff can perform this recruiting, or it can be outsourced to SSC, or another executive search firm you are comfortable with. Recruiting a staff of demonstrated winners is what it takes to make a winning team. Hiring untested talent in the hopes of "building your own", though a noble idea, is not profitable in today's economy.

The components above are a general overview. If this sounds like a good idea and you are the executive, HR person or senior manager desiring to have a winning team, and would like more information on how to get this initiated, visit our resource section for articles and tools. If you'd like some help in getting this established, feel free to email or give us a call. We are committed to your excellence.