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ATTRACTION - Attract The BIG Fish … Not The Carp!

Written by: Michael Shuster

Article Overview: All too often we hear Managers talking about how difficult it is to find good help. We all continue to advertise in the paper, collect applications/resumes, and interview the same way previous generations have for years. In fact, we’ve changed the way we do everything in business over the past 25 years … EXCEPT the way we hire and manage employees.

ATTRACTION - Attract The BIG Fish … Not The Carp!

What we don’t realize is that the first key to hiring success, is attracting the right applicants. If you are advertising in the wrong places, then perfecting your interviewing skills will not help you. You will merely be picking the “Best of the Worst” rather than the “Best of the Best”.

When you are responsible for finding and choosing people, you are very much like a tournament fisherman. Everyone wants to catch the world’s largest fish. Unfortunately he/she may not live in the pond in which you are fishing. Even if you are lucky, and the largest fish does live your pond, everyone else in your market/industry is also fishing in the same pond.

You have to settle for the best fish available. There is no inventory of what is in the pond. Some employers will take the first fish that comes along that looks acceptable. Others decide before they go fishing, what the smallest fish they will take home will be, and they start to measure against their standard. Others aim for the biggest, and don’t go home until they catch it. One thing we all agree on is nobody wants to catch carp.

Once you have decided what type of fish you want, you have to select your pond. There are various ways of choosing where you are more likely to find suitable applicants. Customers are one creative (yet not obvious) place to start. Perhaps posting an opening on tables will help, or asking customers if they know anybody who might fit within your team (if they’re loyal and you have developed a long and solid relationship with them). The advantage is that customers know the level of your service and your expectations of staff. They are not likely to recommend someone, if there isn’t an obvious culture fit.

Asking your employees (preferably your Top Performers) if they know anybody has also proven successful at times. Similar to customers, your employees know what to expect from the job (and the employer). If they are a Top Performer then they understand what it takes, and they are likely to only recommend people with similar characteristics.

Always keep an eye out in local newspapers and industry publications for companies who have announced cutbacks. There is nothing wrong with taking advantage of someone else’s mistake. If they announce cutbacks, they will likely be letting people go. Often it is their Top Performers who go first. Their loss can be your gain.

Some companies see great benefit in monthly or quarterly hiring events. Specifically hiring fairs where the public is invited to come to a specific location at a specific time for an interview. You might be inviting the whole pond, but at least you can focus on meeting the person (v.s just getting a piece of paper in your office) and then weeding out the carp, before you take time out of your busy day to interview people who don’t have potential.

Make sure your employees always portray an image that attracts the type of people you want to hire. A national courier company used to let their drivers dress casually for work. They noticed a big problem with too many under-qualified candidates applying. As a pilot project, they required all of their drivers in a province to wear ties while driving delivery trucks for 3 months. The result was that higher caliber candidates were applying for jobs in that province. They were attracting higher educated and motivated people.

Your front-line staff should also be trained on how to accept an application/resume. One of our clients, an international well known company, spends considerable money in perfecting their hiring process and attracting the best applicants on a daily basis. While I was recently in their store to purchase something, an applicant approached an associate with her resume. The employee did not smile, appeared tired and de-motivated, and did not know what to do with it. Furthermore he spoke down to the applicant to make her feel more intimidated than this process probably already was for her. Not to mention that he conveyed an image which isn’t the ‘fun and exciting place to work’, that they claim it to be in their job advertising.
Make sure your current employees do not scare away applicants who might be your future Top Performers.

The author, Michael Shuster is President: HIDDEN CONCEPTS INC.
His expertise encompasses strategic employee attraction and hiring processes, sales & customer service training, ongoing employee performance management, and curriculum design. His goal setting, coaching programs, and tracking formulas, have been used by managers within over 250 organizations across North America, to successfully inspire and achieve excellence at hiring and managing top performers!

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Related Forum Posts
Re: Playing sports or games with clients - I say, "Give it all you have!" If you win you'll get to see his/her true character in how he/she handles it. You can learn a lot about a person from how they react to situations. If this caused friction in your work environment, then you probably weren't really enjoying working there anyway and life is too short to work at a JOB. I know it's easy for me to say I'd quit if I was uncomfortable with my boss. Sometimes it's much easier said than done in reality. You just have to strive to be happy whatever you do. Read the books, Fish and Fish, too..... or Fish, Two. Can't remember the exact name, but they are great books.
Re: Keep your image or avatar distorted for more click-throughs - [quote="Kevin":1rxz4jk2]Keep your images or avatars distorted on your social networking site or forum for more click-throughs? Apparently this strategy actually works. In Jan/Feb 2009's issue of "Inc." magazine, writer Max Chafkin says "Fixing the wonky images, for instance (on PlentyOfFish.com), might actually hurt Plenty of Fish. Right now, users are compelled to click on people's profiles in order to get to the next screen and view proper headshots. That causes people to view more profiles and allows Frind, who gets paid by the page view, to serve more ads" (pg 68).[/quote:1rxz4jk2] I don't think what Plenty of Fish is doing is good. People had been compelled to click which is what google will tell you not to do when you are applying for adsense for your website
Keep your image or avatar distorted for more click-throughs - Keep your images or avatars distorted on your social networking site or forum for more click-throughs? Apparently this strategy actually works. In Jan/Feb 2009's issue of "Inc." magazine, writer Max Chafkin says "Fixing the wonky images, for instance (on PlentyOfFish.com), might actually hurt Plenty of Fish. Right now, users are compelled to click on people's profiles in order to get to the next screen and view proper headshots. That causes people to view more profiles and allows Frind, who gets paid by the page view, to serve more ads" (pg 68).


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