Where Have All the Workers Gone?

Finding the right team starts with marketing

To find great employees you need to be great at marketing your business.

Marketing always starts with clearly defining who your target is. If you don’t know exactly who you are looking for, it is extremely difficult for you (or someone you outsource hiring to) to find someone who is a great fit for your company.

“Hire for Skill: Fire for Attitude” is the wrong approach

I was just speaking with the owner of a family hair salon who was having trouble filling her second chair because the people who were applying didn’t like working with children. Upon further discussion, it turns out that she was not marketing that position for someone who loves kids…

Even if you find someone with all the skills and experience to be competent at the position you are trying to fill, if they don’t fit into the mission and culture of your company (we will be discussing this further in coming posts), they are not going to be a good fit.

Start with Attitude – If you think you are going to find someone with the right skill set and a different set of passions/values, you will find yourself repeatedly beating your head against the wall trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Even if they know the technical parts of the role, after the excitement that comes from starting a new venture wears off, you will find it increasingly difficult to keep that person engaged.

Remember you call always build and develop skills. It’s far more difficult to change someone’s attitude and personality traits.

So where do I start?

Think about what are you passionate about in your business…

What is your why?

You are looking for someone who shares that passion.

Where are you Fishing?

Once you know who you are looking for, you can be creative around where to find them. Now this is not to say that traditional platforms like Indeed and ZipRecruiter are ineffective. They can be great tools if you use them correctly... especially once you’re clear on who your target is.

Where else does your target spend their time/ money?

Your suppliers are a great place to start. Reach out to them and see if they are willing to post a flyer in their shop… we recently did this with one of our clients and they had 3 prospects approach them in the first week!

You can also consider having a referral bonus for your suppliers and other businesses who send you potential employees that you end up hiring. Think, who else has the same target market, but isn’t in direct competition to you…( for some ideas, check out our post on Cross Promoting)

Hire a Staffing/Recruiting Agency

This can be a big pill to swallow for some as the hard costs of outsourcing your hiring can be significant.  But if do a time/task analysis of how many hours you are spending trying to do it on your own, you may find that the investment is worth your while.

Factors to consider:

- How many hours are you spending on hiring?  How much per hour is your time worth to the business?  This is roughly your employee acquisition cost (plus any other hard costs for ads, etc.)

- How much is it costing you per week to not have this position filled (time, energy, and money)?  This is your opportunity cost.

- Compare your opportunity cost to your acquisition cost.  You might think differently about what you are willing to “spend” to fill your position.

**If you are crystal clear on who you are looking for, you have a much higher chance of you, or someone you hire finding the right person in the least amount of time… so get clear on who your target is**

Now it’s time to get into ACTION!

HOMEFUN this week:

1)      Define who your target is

- Start with attitude

   What values/passions should they have?

   - Skills/ Experience

2)      Where do you need to fish?

a.       What platforms would be most effective for reaching your market?

b.      Who can you partner with to help source prospects?

c.       Should you be searching yourself or should you outsource?