One of the toughest parts of business is finding great staff.
This is made doubly hard by the fact that most CEO’s start looking for new staff only when they really need them.
This usually results in a mad rush to hire, which often means you employ anyone half decent because you must fill the position asap.
Or you have to devote huge amounts of your month searching for and interviewing potential employees as the hiring is now urgent.
Either one can be really bad for the health of your company.
Smart business owners do it a different way.
They start looking for good people before they need them. At industry events. At parties. By reading the trade press.
They ask others in their field who they admire. Who the up and comers are.
Then they write these names in a note book, for use when the time is right to hire.
By gathering a hit list of excellent people in advance, you ensure that you not only can complete the hiring priceless more quickly, it ensures that you hire better people in the first place.
There was a time when hiring staff was a buyer’s market – people hoped companies would be interested in talking with them. But now in most industries hiring is most definitely a seller’s market – anyone who is really good has numerous companies endeavoring to entice them. They can pick and choose.
This is an important change. Because it means that these days top performers are unlikely to ever be unemployed and looking for jobs – instead you have to do the searching, wining and dining. In advance. Before some other company nabs them.
The truth is, great companies are little more then a collection of great people. In fact most outstanding corporations became excellent because of only a handful of their staff.
Take Microsoft as an example. It currently has around 99,000 employees. Yet Bill Gates has said, “Take our 20 best people from us and I tell you Microsoft would become an unimportant company.” Think about that!
In best business coaching the tips above is very important it show how important it is to make sure your key players are the best you can possibly find. And the only way of doing that is to start looking for new team members early. Before you need them. Before they’re out looking for a job. And before your competitors have even discovered them.