Hallways are Key to Hiring Top Talent

Hallways are critical pathways that help us transition from one place to another. A hallway may be what you need for a fresh approach to successful hiring.

Most of us have a favorite room in our house—it’s the one where we are most comfortable and at ease. It’s our go-to place when we want to relax, enjoy a good book, or watch something on TV. Many of us have settled into a comfortable place in our recruiting and hiring just like that comfy place in our home. That space where everything is known and feels safe. Unfortunately, that is the worst place to be in today’s recruiting landscape. To successfully hire the top talent your business needs, getting too comfortable is something you should actively avoid.

What is your favorite room in your house? The interesting thing is no one ever chooses a hallway. They choose their living room, kitchen, or a favorite sunny spot near a window. Have you ever met someone who raved about their awesome hallway? The thing is, hallways are critical pathways. They help us transition from one place to another. If your recruiting is not successful, a hallway may be the transition you need for a fresh approach to hiring.

Hallways are the way we move from where we are to where we want to be.

In recruiting, you will be moving from the old, comfortable way of doing things to the new, uncomfortable place where you are learning and creating something new. This should fill you with excitement, and yet many of us feel uncertain and maybe even a little afraid of what lies in wait at the end of the hallway. Most people dislike the “in-between” space because they are unhappy where they are but are unsure how to fix it and make it better.

Identify your discomfort.

Understanding what causes it makes it easier to overcome and move forward. Take a few minutes and write down all the things you are doing in your recruiting. You might be using job boards, a certain software, job ads that generate too many unqualified candidates, interview questions that leave you wondering what your candidates are really like, or even job descriptions and titles that no longer make sense.

For everything you write down, think about whether that piece helps you hire great employees. The pieces that are failing to produce results must be left in your old space. Now, it’s time to take a stroll down your hallway. Along the way, identify what causes you discomfort. This is your chance to focus on your next steps. It’s important to think of the discomfort as an exciting opportunity. In every challenge you face, there is always a way to create a new, more successful result. Your hallway is the pathway to achieving your goal of hiring the best employees.

Think about the results you want.

This is the room your hallway will lead you towards. Create that room. What does your hiring room look like? What kinds of people are there? What work are they doing? What are you doing? How are you feeling? Answer these questions and visualize how you feel. Your favorite hiring room is as comfortable as your favorite room in your house.

Have fun learning.

When you are transitioning from where you are to where you want to be, you are in learning mode. When you learn, seek out others who have been through the same process. If you are building a house, you would ask someone who built their house for advice. You would talk to other people and get recommendations, explore options, and gather all kinds of information to help you build your dream home. Use the same concept for building your hiring process.

Too often I see small businesses feel like they should know everything because the rest of the world seems to know what they’re doing and therefore so should they. Everyone needs to learn. That’s the normal state. In my upcoming book, The YOLO Principle: The Ultimate Hiring Guide for Small Business, I take readers through the steps of moving out of a comfortable place that is no longer serving them and moving towards a new place where they are hiring the best, most talented people. By the end of The YOLO Principle, you’ll be shocked at how easy it is to hire amazingly talented people, understand what it takes to find the top talent you need, and enjoy reduced stress, increased profits, and a good night’s sleep.

I challenge you to boldly change the way you recruit and hire, to break free from the endless cycle of bad hiring decisions and costly employee turnover. If you need some insights to create your hallway, schedule your insight session todaycall mesend an email, or text RECRUITER to 44222 to get a free sample of The YOLO Principle. And, the best part is that it’s FREE!

 

Rebecca Barnes-Hogg, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is The Small Business Hiring Expert and works with small business owners and entrepreneurs who want to end their struggle to hire the right people. She is the author of the upcoming book, The YOLO Principle: The Ultimate Hiring Guide for Small Business, and a co-author of Rethinking Human Resources. She can be reached at 843-779-YOLO (9656) or rebecca@yoloinsights.com.