Finding & Retaining Talent Just Got Easier

Rodger Jenkins, owner, president, and CEO of Excalibur Integrated Systems, Inc., credits a large part of his company's success to finding and retaining higher caliber employees than he's had in the past. Many of the changes he's made in his hiring process come from a book entitled Finders Keepers: Attracting and Retaining Top Sales Professionals by Dr. Russ Riendeau, senior partner of The East Wing Search Group. I had an opportunity to speak with Riendeau, who shared with me some of the key principles found within his book.

1. Become a better interviewer. Learn more about behaviors, and try to discover the candidate's passions and core competencies.

2. Forget industry experience. The easiest thing to teach is technology. Traditionally, people are hired based on industry experience to avoid having to spend time training the candidate and because they may have contacts they can bring with them once hired. However, there is a major challenge to hiring within the industry — it's nearly impossible to recruit someone from your competition due to non-compete agreements and confidentiality problems, and you may run into problems with your existing employees if you have to pay the candidate more money to steal them away from the competition.

3. Write accurate job descriptions that identify three or four strategic initiatives that you want the candidate to accomplish in the first year. Look for candidates that have completed similar initiatives in their other jobs. This is based on the idea that measuring the behaviors of the past can be used to predict the future.

4. Have the candidate interview with at least three different people in your organization. Don't share notes or give impressions until all the people have met the candidate. You don't want to bias anyone's opinion of the candidate.

5. Have candidates write a 30-, 60-, or 90-day strategic plan of what they would do to learn the job and become productive if they were hired. This forces candidates to articulate their thought processes and strategic thinking.

6. Interview references. Fewer than 50% of companies actually call references. Learn how to effectively interview references to learn more about the candidate.

But what about retaining employees? "If you identify core competencies and key traits, have candidates write a strategic plan, hold three separate interviews, and call references, you're going to make better, more calculated hiring decisions and will have the right person working for you," says Riendeau. "You won't have to come up with unique morale-boosting retention methods such as pet day care, cucumber facials, or team building exercises. You won't have to do things to get employees excited about working for your company because you've already made sure the fit is a good one. If your company has an inordinate amount of functions to build false morale, and you still have high turnover, you may need to change your hiring practices."

Mike Monocello is the Supply Chain & POS editor for Business Solutions magazine as well as a contributing editor for the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA). He can be reached at mikem@corrypub.com or at (814) 868-9935 x221.

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