Hiring. It’s the topic of nearly every conversation I have with my clients coming out of the pandemic.
It’s a great challenge facing business leaders. But it’s the one thing that usually has the largest impact on your culture and is an opportunity to strengthen the long-term health of your business.
What makes it especially challenge today are two seemingly contradictory realities.
High unemployment AND a record number of open jobs.
This contradiction is the topic of an article from the Harvard Business Review, “Attracting Talent During a Worker Shortage,” which was published last month. In it, the authors suggest something quite startling.
“Briefly after the layoffs caused by the pandemic, some thought leaders expected to return to an employer’s market. In an HBR piece published a few months after the shutdowns, we cautioned against too heavily using old rules-of-thumb to predict how Covid might impact hiring outcomes and argued that the ensuing labor market would not be ‘like anything anyone has observed seen since the birth of modern capitalism.’”
Think about that. “Since the birth of modern capitalism.”
That’s a big statement from some very smart people in the world of economics and hiring. You can read the entire article here.
There’s been a lot of speculation that the end of expanded unemployment benefits, which happened this month in many states, would bring people back to the job market. And that may be true, to an extent.
But the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear a business leader suggest that a change in government policy will ease their suffering is, ‘why would you pin your success on the performance of workers who based their earning future on an extra $300 a week in unemployment?’
To the broader point – and this is where the opportunity comes in – the key to building a quality workforce is not simply filling holes.
Now more than ever, you must “select” your team, not “hire” workers.
The authors of the Harvard Business Review piece have some practical advice for companies, ranging from making it easier for people to get to work, adjusting salaries to meet reality, offering daycare or other services to working women and considering older workers, who actually tend to have higher productivity.
These are fine points.
But I think it goes to that larger idea of “selecting” over “hiring.”
It’s more than syntax.
Selecting isn’t done in desperation. It means making some short-term adjustments to meet the goal of finding that person who is a good investment.
I was talking to a CEO of a company recently that went from $10 million to $100 million in annual revenue. I asked about the factors that drove that growth.
The response? “We started hiring for our plan, not to the immediate need.”
How much do you want to grow in the next year? What will your company look like if you double your revenue?
You need to build the team for the goal, not for the present.
The way to get ahead of the hiring curve is to differentiate yourself in the marketplace.
It’s an old phrase because it’s true: What got you here, won’t get you there.
And once you get the right person, you have to invest in them. You have to develop and train them.
But that’s a topic for next week.
In the meantime, I’ve put together a hiring guide that includes the principles and system we teach at FiveFour.
You can get that guide by clicking here.
If you want to have a conversation about selecting the right people for your team, just grab a slot on my calendar.
Talk soon.
NS
P.S. I’m not kidding that almost every conversation I have with a business leader today gets back to hiring at some point. I’m going to be talking about this for the next couple of weeks, so if you know someone who needs help with their hiring, would you help them out by forwarding them this email? They’ll appreciate it. And so will I!