One of the most challenging parts of building a business is finding great people. I think that’s probably a universal struggle that businesses have. Everyone knows that great people are out there. But finding them and attracting them is decidedly difficult. But what if there was an easier way to find them?
Well I’m glad that you rhetorically asked. And yes, I have some thoughts on a way to do just this. It’s much easier to attract great people if you have other great people attract them on your behalf. Especially if they already know who they might be. So every time you hire someone new, ask them to write make a list the following:
2 people that you would like to work with again, what they do, and why
Keep the data collection simple so it doesn’t feel like a lot of pressure on people. Cap the list at 2 or 3 and let them write bullets. Maybe include LinkedIns so you don’t get the wrong Eric Lubow when you are trying to reach out to perspective candidates. Also keep in mind that sometime people have non-competes and need to be protected.
Now you are not only building yourself a pipeline of great potential hires with actual names attached, but you are also building a stable list of people who are potentially great at their job functions.
I mean think about it, if you have 50 people in your company, and they all write down at least 2 names, it’s likely that given the cross-section of skills in the organization, you’ll have at least 100 people’s names with a dozen or more different job functions. You can now turn that list over to your HR team/hiring managers/etc and create a pipeline. You will still have to do the research, outreach, and proper due diligence on the perspective candidates. These include the simple questions of:
- Are these people available? If not, can be they be convinced to become available?
- Are they in your price range?
- Do you have openings for those skill sets? etc.
Either way, that’s way better than constantly yelling into the void that you are a great company, that you are hiring, and people some come work for you. Since the goal is to find great people, it’s easiest to start with a map.
