1. Are You Hungry To Find Top Talent?

Health experts will tell you that you should never walk into a grocery store when you're hungry. Why? Because you're bound to walk out with a lot more than you need. It might seem counter-intuitive, but we've all been there. When you're dying to grab something to eat, those packages seem like they're screaming from the shelves. You've got a deep, sudden craving - for everything. And so, giving in to the urges, you grab a few boxes of this, and a couple more cans of that. Sometimes, they're foods you wouldn't even normally want, and won't end up eating until the next time you've missed a meal.

Even worse, you're far more likely to pick up junk food than you are to choose food that's nutritious. Your body, still programmed to hunt for berries and run from mammoths, sees your hunger as a threat of oncoming starvation. Its natural response is to ask you for foods that leave you with some reserves to spare. More often than not, that means ice cream, sausage pizza, or a good old bacon cheeseburger. Believe it or not, this is actually a fantastic analogy to the art of hiring.

2. What Are Great Managers Doing?

After taking a good look at how the best managers find their top performers, I've come to realize that the secret isn't in the where; it's in the when. And the answer, for those who truly want to hire top talent, is always. That's because looking for a new employees is a lot like looking for new customers. If you're always doing it, then you stand a pretty good chance of always having somebody new with which to work. But, if you wait until the last minute - when your stomach is growling and you absolutely have to make something happen - then you're likely be disappointed.

One reason is the time available. Searching for a new hire when you need someone means doing it quickly; there's less time for scouting and interviewing than you might otherwise devote. Another more important factor is pressure. The worst time to find a new employee is when you need one, because every day that you don't have somebody means lost sales or decreased productivity.

So the tendency in that situation is to hire the first person that seems at all close to what you're looking for, just so you can get the position filled. With that in mind, don't think of recruiting as something you do quarterly, periodically, or when you have a job opening. Train yourself to do it constantly. Even if you can only devote an hour a week to looking for fresh faces, start doing it. It doesn't matter how many openings you have, or how many you don't. Just make a point of getting out there to look for top talent.

3. Where Do You Find Top Talent?

One obvious place to look is within your own staff. People tend to know other people who are a lot like themselves. In fact, if you think within your own circle of friends, I'd be willing to bet you can think of more than a couple that share a similar background, experience level, and work ethic with you. It's the same with your staff. If you have a good team, and need a few more just like them, asking them for referrals is a good place to start. In the same way, your customers can be a good source of new names. If you have worked with someone for many years, and trust their opinion, why not ask if they know someone?

4. Should I Hire Retreads?

You could also check out your competitors. In many industries, it's not uncommon for companies to bring in retreads, that is, sales or customer service people coming from other firms in the same industry. Be careful! On the surface, hiring them makes a lot of sense. After all, how can you do any better than somebody who already knows your industry, product, and territory? Lots of managers, having these thoughts, will hire their competitors' staff with a lot less scrutiny than they'd give somebody off the street. But more often than not, this is a mistake. When someone, especially in sales, decides to find a new employer, you have to ask yourself why. A superstar salesperson at any firm will already be making a lot of money and have a pretty big customer base. So why would they want to change that?
Granted, there are some legitimate reasons they might look to make a move.

5. Pay Now Or Pay Later!

I meet lots of managers who avoid, or outright refuse, to hire people that come to them through headhunters. They figure that after the headhunters' commission is figured in, these people will be too expensive. On the one hand, I'm inclined to agree. Everybody knows that middlemen increase costs, and it's no different with labor than anything else. However, I would point out that the right person is the right person, regardless of how they come to you. The best thing you can do for yourself is to bring in top talent, even if it costs you a little more. I just want to point out that you're much better paying a decent salary and a headhunter's commission than you are hiring the wrong person, paying them a salary and benefits while they don't work out, and then going through the whole thing all over again.

6. New School vs. Old School.

These days, the Internet can be another great source of new hiring leads. Sites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com are virtual clearinghouses of new talent, as are the hundreds of local community pages and job boards. Of course, the downside of any kind of online search is the high number of responses - mostly from people who aren't qualified or a good fit - that you have to go through to find suitable candidates. Still, the same caveats apply to traditional off-line methods, like newspaper or magazine ads, and at least you can narrow your criteria online. Regardless of where you place an ad, whether it's online or offline, know that it's a game of percentages. In other words, you're probably going to spend a lot of time sifting through the responses before you find the person you're looking for. Besides, these are just the obvious places.

As I mentioned before, the best managers are always looking for fresh faces. That means that they've got their eyes open all of the time, even when they're away from normal recruiting channels. For instance, one manager I know hired a performer he saw at a local theater production. The young man showed great delivery and instincts throughout his performance.

Toward the end, the supervisor thought, "Wow, this person could be great in sales." So, he talked to him after the show, and the rest is history. Another hired her package deliveryman to work in her customer service department, because she recognized in him a talent for dealing with people. These are just a couple of examples, but the point is that you run into potential superstar salespeople or customer service agents in your everyday life. The problem is, you're not thinking about hiring, so you don't notice them. Then, when the time comes to get somebody, you're starting from scratch. You always have to have your eyes and ears open. Your campaign to find top talent should be ongoing.

7. Always Keep In Touch With Top Talent.

You should be looking for talented employees all the time, even if you don't have any openings, or don't expect to have any in the near future. It's better to have one or two superstars on staff, even if you haven't figured out a permanent place for them, then it is to need one urgently and settle for hiring a warm body.

If you don't have that luxury, then you should at the very least keep a file of candidates that you think might be great for some spot in your company or department in the future. You don't have to take a great deal of time with it, just keep growing your list and check in with people from time to time and see what they're up to. By giving it that small bit of effort, you can jump way ahead of the curve when it comes to filling open jobs with the most talented people around. Having an ongoing recruiting effort is something that pays huge dividends over time.

To see how, just imagine that tomorrow morning one of your very best employees said they were leaving. Now imagine, instead of feeling stressed and wondering how your department would survive without them, you feel the security that comes from having three or four really strong candidates ready to take their place. That's the power of continuous recruiting, and you should have it working for you and your company.

Carl Henry is a sales and customer service coach, keynote speaker, and webinar presenter. He is the author of several books on sales, customer service, sales management, presentation skills and hiring top talent.



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