No great company without great employees, right? But how do you find the right employees? And the most talented employees? Maybe you are considering hiring a consultant or an agency to help you out? I had a chat with John Doherty about finding, hiring, and retaining the talents to keep your company growing.
John Doherty is the founder of Credo, which is a marketplace connecting businesses that are looking to grow and increase transparency in the industry, so the good people get more business and the not-so-good don’t.
Here are the major takeaways from the John Doherty interview:
- The best talents are not unemployed, so do your research well and find out who is excelling in the area.
- Use your network to find the right people.
- Once you have hired, you must trust the new people and give them responsibility and autonomy. Find out what motivates them and give them that.
Give your company a lift with the right employees and outstanding talents. Find out where to find them, how to hire them and what you should do to keep them. Let’s get started!
Locate the talents
Finding the talents can be really hard to do. The best marketing talents are obviously the ones not looking for jobs. They are doing their own thing or working internally. So when you are hiring, you should find people who are doing interesting things online.
John has found many of his best employees by looking online at who is doing well or by using LinkedIn. He emphasizes that you do not find the best candidates by posting online.
Attract unicorns
The unicorn talents are the top people who can go in and work anywhere, so they need a company and values in which they believe. So, when you want to attract them, you should make clear to them who the founders are and what your mission and vision are. You need to clarify how you are going to make them successful – can they hire a team, assistants, and so on?
Reach out to the candidates
How you reach out depends on your company. Some have recruiters, and at other places, it will be you reaching out. It is important for the hiring manager to reach out and make a personal connection. It makes the candidate feel special. You can reach out by using Twitter direct messages or LinkedIn, get them on a Skype call or whatever. Spark their interest. Remember: everyone is always willing to entertain other possibilities. Listen to John giving great tips on finding candidates on LinkedIn:
Alternative ways of finding the right one
Do research. Go to the big blogs, and see who’s writing and who is being referenced. Look at case studies, and find out their costs. John recommended that you cast a wide net, maybe contacting up to five agencies. Talk to them and see if they are willing to put together a project for you. Are they going to be a good partner to work with? When you are hiring agencies as consultants, you must be reassured that you can trust them and work through hard times with them.
Red flags when hiring consultants
If you do not know anything about the area of expertise you are hiring within, you should gather as much knowledge as you can on the topic so you can ask them relevant questions. The red flags are the same as hiring any other consultant – if they do not have case studies or any other companies they have worked for, they might not be right. If you expect communication, and they are not great communicators, it is a great big red flag.
Network, network, network
If you are looking for marketing talent, the great thing about the marketing world is that so many are willing to help each other out. John had one agency where he knew the founders, and they were hiring a director of search. John shared it on Twitter and LinkedIn and had loads of people messaging him. Some companies also have newsletters where they will list who is hiring.
Interview advice
There is one thing people aren’t looking for in an interview situation – but definitely should. Listen to John explain what it is:
Relevant experience is necessary too. If you are hiring for SEO, it might be great to have someone with ecommerce experience, but other websites that have the same ecommerce-like issues could yield a potentially good fit as well.
A schoolbook example of a hiring process
John has always done it this way: Put up the job requisition with your needs and what you expect, ping the network to get help, and look through resumes. John also likes to have a questionnaire, and if he likes their answers, he gets them on the phone or Skype. Skype is to be preferred as you can talk to them face to face and then bring your favorites into a personal interview. If you are hiring a team, and you are going to be working closely with the director, it can be a good idea to ask him or the team out for lunch. It is somewhat similar to hiring agencies.
How many chefs
The amount of people you involve in the hiring process depends on the level they are going to be working on. The higher the level, the more people you need to interview him or her. It is a great idea to involve everyone they would be working with in the process.
Retain them
Now you have spent all that time and effort finding and hiring the right ones, and it is super important to keep the new and fantastic employees. Give the high-level positions a lot of autonomy, and trust them and allow them to try new things, even though they might fail because they could succeed as well. Google and Facebook are fantastic at that. Companies do a great job when they give the staff opportunities, so let them speak at conferences and encourage everyone to learn new things. Some people are also happy just operating. It depends on the employee’s individual motivation, and the managers should know these things. One thing is key to keep in mind:
Wrap up
By now, you should have gathered plenty of great ideas on how the ideal hiring process should be, and how you find the best coworkers possible.
Have you ever tried using your network for recruiting? And how did it go? Comment below, and let everyone in on your best tips.
This article was originally published at sleeknote.com
