As a Manager – Why You Need to Pay Attention to Recruiting

Print This Out – and Give it to Your Managers The most common recruiting question I get whether consulting or speaking is “How to I get managers to pay attention to recruiting”? Well that answer is worth a million dollars. But today, courtesy of the electronic recruiting daily, you can have the answer for free. Print the following list and distribute it to you managers. You will see results immediately! As a Manager – Why You Need to Pay Attention to Recruiting Business Impacts of Great Hiring:

If you hire a superstar they will produce as much as 2 times more than an average performer

If you hire a top performer they will produce as much as 50% more than an average performer
Hiring has the second highest ROI (after retention) of any people practice. Don’t let others do it for you. Managers must “own” all people processes and problems!
Customers can tell when we hire great people (and poor ones). Vacancies send a message to customers that we don’t care. Great hires increase customer satisfaction
On-time project completion will decrease by as much as 1/3 with key positions vacant
New hires bring new ideas, patents and can energize your team. Great hires increase your capability to expand your business and products. If you are in an industry that needs new ideas hiring new talent fast is essential
Time To Market and product development suffer; the longer you have a vacancy (the cost of a vacancy in a key job is likely to be hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue)
Profits and productivity will go up as the proportion of “great hires” increases
Poor hires increase your error rates and they require additional management time to “fix”
Hiring great people gives you a competitive advantage and means that your competitor can’t hire them!
People decisions are the hardest decisions you will have to make. Developing great hiring practices will help you increase your ability to make these and other decisions
Talent Matters:
Hiring “A” players will attract other “A” players (even in lower level positions). Future recruiting is easy once you have “A” players
Your turnover rate of current employees will go up as they get frustrated and overworked due to team vacancies
Learning how to hire around the globe will increase the quality (performance after hire) of your hires in a tight job market
Training in how to do great hiring (and involving quality recruiters in the hiring process) will increase the quality of your hires by as much as 25%
Offering flexible work options will increase the candidate pool and increase the quality of your hires
Speed Matters:
If you don’t contact SUPERSTARS within a week you will lose them
Every week you delay the odds of hiring a TOP PERFORMER goes down by 25% (they get other offers and see your indecision as an indication of how you manage)
The quality of the hire goes down when you take more time to make a decision
The earlier you hire them the sooner they can get up to speed (time to productivity)
Managers failing to find time to interview candidates is the #1 reason hiring takes so long
Slow hiring sends a message to applicants that the firm is slow…which may impact your brand image and future sales
You may lose the chance to hire if a hiring freeze occurs during a long hiring process
Slow hiring increases the cost of hiring (out of pocket and management time)
Your Reputation and Image:
The reputation of slow or low quality hiring sends a message to top management and other managers that you are weak at “people management”
Recruiting and talking to candidates will increase your learning in other business areas. Recruiting keeps you “in touch” with the market and it will help you understand the needs and wants of your candidates as well as increasing your “sales” ability and your offer acceptance rates
Great hires will increase your likelihood of getting your performance bonus and maybe getting a promotion
Poor hiring will be reflected in your performance appraisal by your manager
Great hiring techniques will decrease complaints and lawsuits which take up a great deal of management time (and take the fun out of it also)
Fun and Effort:
Using poor hiring techniques takes just as long as using effective ones and hiring weak performers takes all the fun out of management
If you dislike hiring then stretching it out, like going to the dentist, only prolongs the pain
Miscellaneous:
Making yourself available during nights and weekends will dramatically increase the quality of your hires because top performers are employed and are often only available then
Spending time with the candidates during the hiring and orientation process can decrease turnover by as much as 20% (meaning you won’t have to go through hiring again very soon)
Slow hiring means that you will lose diversity candidates
If you are replacing an average performer a new hire is likely to increase your over-all productivity
Hiring the right people reinforces our culture
HR people will put less emphasis on your positions as you get the reputation of not taking hiring seriously
Working with HR to “cut out rules & delays” will increase the quality & speed of your hires

*Statistics are from a composite of top performing firms. Hiring Michael Jordan…makes management easy and fun… hiring Dennis Rodman can make your life miserable!