4 Laws of Attraction for Landing Top Talent

Every time you hear an unemployment statistic these days it’s a high number,  most recently, 7.6%.   At first glance you might think that as an employer or hire-er of leaders that you are in the driver’s seat.

WRONG!

Fact: The unemployment rate for those over the age of 25 with a degree is closer to 3.9%.  Dig a little deeper and ask yourself what is the unemployment rate for those who perform in the top 20% of their peer group, with 10-20 or more years of experience and the right education base?  While I don’t have the exact number handy, common sense and about a couple hundred successful searches under my belt tells me that number is close to zero.

What this means to you: The true top performing talent, the type that can make a real difference in your organization, is as hard to find as it ever has been.  It is even more important now that you keep your star leaders on the bus and that you get positioned to attract the ones to your company that you don’t have yet.

Keep your coveted “A Players” and attract new ones with these 4 laws:

1)    Hire then get out of the way and let leaders lead:  Talented leaders want to be in a place where they can put their stamp on the success of an organization.  Often, they might be looking to leave their current situation because their boss or the board often get’s in the way not allowing them to do what needs done.  Don’t be that boss as they will sniff you out.

2)    Offer flexibility and more vacation:  Ya, you heard me.  High achievers don’t need to be micro managed and the fastest way to turn them off is to do so.  Still the 1950’s mentality of the standard 2 weeks vacation and the “you aren’t getting things done if you aren’t here” dominates too many company cultures today.  So be different, manage go-getters’ by objective not the clock and calendar.  Who cares if they need to go to a personal appointment, or a family member’s event in the middle of the afternoon if they are creating value?  Who cares if they create that value working from home or in your office either? Time to evolve or lose that top performer to your competitor who is.

3)    Pay attention to the little things: a client of mine offers a stipend for lawn or home cleaning services.  This $100/month perk is a small investment and the mental impact is enormous.  Heads of high performing desirable candidates turn their way despite being a smaller, lesser-known company.   This small investment also goes a long way to win the heart’s and minds of the candidate’s significant others.

4)    Offer a good opportunity and pay accordingly: yep, it’s just that simple.  You have to pay for talent and they didn’t get to be exceptional if they have poor opportunity evaluation skills.  If your job doesn’t offer promote-ability, a chance to learn something new or connect them to a larger purpose then you need to re-evaluate.  Are you better served by filling the job with a role player?  If the gig isn’t that important to you, it won’t be for them.

Just by following these simple laws you will be light years ahead of your competitors.  As always we would love to help so if any questions shoot me a note chrishock@griffonpartners.com

All the best,

Serving high performance clients since 2000, Griffon Partners is a highly focused, effective retained search and consulting firm. Known for unmatched service and responsiveness, we do two things that accomplish one mission: build world-class leadership teams.  For more information please visit www.griffonpartners.com or email chrishock@griffonpartners.com.