Remember that person who you really wanted to hire but they took a job somewhere else? Now is the time to reconnect. Through no fault of their own, great talent is being displaced due to the pandemic. Now is the time to proactively hire and raise the level of performance through opportunistic hiring! This crisis will pass. And when it does, emerge as a much stronger organization and be positioned to crush your competitors!

Our guest today: Jeff Erle, Former CEO of MobilityWare

Jeff has held numerous C-level positions throughout his career.  His experience spans across start-ups, small privately-held and large public enterprises including ADP, Western Digital, MobilityWare and most recently as the COO at Blast.  

Jeff focuses on building high-performing teams and evolving award-winning cultures focusing on multi-generational workforces, developing/coaching key executives, and helping companies develop strategies to scale for growth and/or exit. 

Today we discuss

• Why it is a great opportunity to hire

Why is this important evaluate and proactively hire now?

• Talent is your #1 asset

Obviously, the Covid-19 virus has changed the world’s landscape like never before in our lifetimes. In particular, for businesses of all sizes, the nature of the workforce has and will continue to evolve, especially given the looming changes to the large number of workers that will be looking for work. Whether already or soon to be unemployed, or working for a company whose business model has been adversely impacted, millions of people will be applying for open positions later this year unlike anything we have seen in a very long time.

What's an A-player?

• top 10% of experience, capability,  for the compensation you are willing to pay for the role. 

Given that, for most companies, people are their greatest assets, the challenge will be to retain your A-players. And the opportunity would be to use this historic dynamic to “upgrade” your team and your organization. We’ll focus today on the latter, using the talent either already available or soon to be to assure our businesses come out of this cycle stronger than ever before. 

Rick’s Input

• SalesForce, CEO Marc Benioff (tweet- 2200 jobs open…… prioritizing referrals of friends & family who have lost jobs. 

• Desire should be workable

How do we start?

First step is to develop a definition of what an A-player looks like for your organization.

• One who is among the top 10% “available” for the open (or too be upgraded) position

Second step is to take an inventory, or a snapshot of your people assets and the level of their quality on an individual basis:

• Identify the “Pioneers” (A-players), “vacationers” (maintainers), and the “prisoners” (those always complaining… but they never leave; they feel handcuffed...)

Last step is to assure your recruiting strategy, methodologies and capabilities can fulfill this goal

Be diligent

• Shift focus to finding the best; this may mean balancing identifying and vetting “passive” candidates with “active” candidates.

• If you have internal recruiting teams, assure they are aligned with your remit of seeking passive candidates as well as active.

Embrace increased volumes and/or new modes of interviewing

• Phone screens

• Learn best practices on how to do these; many do’s and dont’s lists now available

• What are the top key capabilities you all want for the role?

Remember:

• The more time you spend up front the less time you spend in the interviews themselves

Rick’s Nuggets

• Build a list and say Hi

Key Takeaways:

• Now is a great time to re-evaluate your talent, your greatest asset, and upgrade as necessary