How Do You Find the Best People for Your Business?

We are currently in the process of recruiting an HR Administrator/ Trainee HR Consultant using a battery of tests and structured interviews. We are very demanding about the qualities we require of the right team member. It’s worth it. Success in this process predicts a high level of success in the role.

One of the points on which successful business people agree that is getting the right people into your organisation is fundamental. The question to ask is: First Who, Then What?

In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins compared a business to a bus and the leader as a bus driver. Collins argues that leaders must be rigorous in the selection process for getting the right new people on the bus. Invest substantial time in evaluating each candidate and make systematic use of at least three evaluation devices (e.g., interviews, references, background, testing, etc.). When in doubt, do not bring the person on the bus. Let a seat go unfilled—taking on extra work as needed—until you have found the right person. Ensure your company does an exceptional job of retaining the right people on the bus to perpetuate your good hiring decisions for a very long time.

Once you’ve got people on the bus, get the right people in the right seats. Ensure 100% of the key seats on the bus are filled with the right people. This doesn’t mean 100% of all seats have the right people, but 100% of the key seats. If you think there might be a “wrong who,” first give the person the benefit of the doubt that perhaps he or she is in the wrong seat. Whenever possible, give a person the chance to prove himself or herself in a different seat, before drawing the conclusion that he or she is a wrong person on the bus.

The tough bit for all concerned is if after having supported the person to succeed you conclude he or she is not in the right seat (in fact is not on the right bus),you have to think about removing that person.

Once you have filled your bus with the right people in the right seats, it becomes less a question of where you’re headed—and instead, how far you can go.

Some of the most successful businesses live by this principle, including Pret a Manger, Google, Hyatt Hotels, Deloitte and Mars.

Getting the right person on the right seat on the bus is all very well. It’s easy to say, but the difficulty in finding and attracting good quality people is damaging British businesses every day. It is the single biggest HR problem that Britain’s business owners have today. I have struggled with it and so have most of the businesses with which I work.

It’s getting harder to find, attract and recruit the right people. The best candidates aren’t responding to traditional tactics and we need to be more proactive to connect with them.

These days sales and marketing is not confined to bringing in new business. You must sell your business products and services to the best talent as well and improve your process for predicting success in the workplace.

We have helped many other businesses think differently about attracting and recruiting talent, selling themselves to the best candidates and developing innovative and efficient ways to recruit new people.

We deal with the good, the bad and the ugly of HR. If you need help recruiting talent for your business or any other HR issues, give us a call on 01908 262628.

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