{"id":596808,"date":"2024-04-09T18:15:27","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T22:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joangarry.com\/?p=596808"},"modified":"2024-04-09T18:17:28","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T22:17:28","slug":"rockstar-recruitment-how-to-hire-the-best-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joangarry.com\/rockstar-recruitment-how-to-hire-the-best-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockstar Recruitment: How To Hire The Best People"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A year and a half ago, we finally met the person we had only known as #97. We knew only that #97 scored off the charts on the skills and competencies we were looking for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miguel Espinal from Miami, Florida arrived in the U.S. at the age of 20 from the Dominican Republic. He is very, very good at his web developer job and a team player of the highest order. We often call him Lucky 97. But to be honest, we are the lucky ones to have hired him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know how to find clever emojis on Slack, the platform our firm uses to communicate because our team is fully remote, but Crystal Casares \u2013 our project coordinator \u2013 sure does. One morning recently, I saw a cute little red backpack next to her name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ask my colleague Christie if Crystal is doing something for professional development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nope, said Christie. She is finishing her bachelor\u2019s degree and there was one course she could only take in the mornings a few times a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had no idea that Crystal was not a college graduate. I had zero judgment but I had all these feelings. I realized I had no idea about the educational status of Crystal. Or Miguel. In fact, I knew nothing about the educational status of any of our past four hires (all made in the last two years). Each one of these individuals is terrific and we feel very lucky to have them on our team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember talking to each of them on their first day with us. I love to ask folks how they felt when they saw our job posting. Several of them told me something that was music to my ears:  That\u2019s it! That\u2019s my job! THIS is what I am looking for!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of our work to be a culturally intelligent organization where everyone feels a sense of safety and belonging, we transformed our recruitment process in two very important way<\/a>s. These two simple strategies brought us many more qualified and diverse candidates (I use this word broadly) and were key to making four hires that are great for us and our new team members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those of you out there who struggle to find great candidates for open positions, often leading you to fill roles with a sense of urgency – which is never a good approach – I believe these two strategies will help you with successful recruitment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spoiler alert: one of these strategies is simple and hard all at the same time. I\u2019ll start with the easy one first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SELL YOUR JOB IN THE JOB POSTING<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My younger daughter Kit has been looking for work in the nonprofit sector and has asked for my coaching advice. As a result, I have looked at hundreds of ads on Indeed and Idealist. Together we looked at the facts, skills, and experience required. Fortunately, given what I do for a living, I can provide Kit with context for the kind of work the nonprofit does and why it matters. It has opened her desire to submit many<\/em><\/strong> more applications. There have been situations in which my daughter does not have the qualifications but because of the enthusiasm our conversation generated, she applied anyway with fingers and toes crossed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To use your job post as a sales tool will not cost you more money – except maybe a little bit more based on word count. A very small price to pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two components to a successful job posting:<\/p>\n\n\n\n