Never Stop Recruiting

Author

Dave White
November 20, 2024

Never Stop Recruiting

  • Never stop recruiting: Why and how

    • đź“™ “Never Stop Hiring”

    • đź“™ “Why Most Successful Businesses Never Stop Recruiting”

  • 3 Quick Tips - Update Your Employees’ Job Descriptions

    • đź“™ “The Importance of Regularly Reviewing and Updating Job Descriptions”

  • đź“™ Recommended Reading: Startup compensation and equity

  • Parting Thought

  • You can help

“Hire a great person every time you have a chance, not when you have a vacancy.”

- Eric Schmidt, Former CEO of Google

Why You Should Never Stop Recruiting

1 Allows you to plan hiring based on best available talent

2 Increases opportunistic hiring of top talent as it is available to build the best team possible

3. Allows you to understand the hiring landscape and competitor hiring

4 Avoids reactive and “urgent” hiring of lesser skilled candidates; especially for hard to find skills

5 Showcases your company and employer brand on a continuous basis; no need to restart with each job

6 Builds interest in your company as a great place to work

6 Ways to Never Stop Recruiting

1 Seek out potential future candidates and broadcast your company as a great place to work as you attend events

2 Continue to talk with your network to identify top talent and candidate pools

  • Continue to ask “Who do you know that…” of people you know and meet

  • Actively reach out to build your talent pool even when you are not hiring

3 Meet with top talent even if they are not actively seeking new roles

  • Be honest about your timing and interest

  • Have them think about their timing for a future move

  • Set plans to stay in touch

  • Ask them who they know to expand your network

4 Carve out time every week to:

  • Build, connect, and reconnect with your network

  • Review LinkedIn and other sources to identify potential candidates

  • Connect with people that have skills you may need in the future

  • “Sell” your company as a good place to work and one to watch

5 Be prepared to hire someone you did not expect to hire that:

  • Brings in a new expertise earlier than expected or was not on your radar

  • Provides the opportunistic ability to go to market faster, build your company, or grow in new ways

6 Continue to broadcast your employer brand even when not actively hiring

Update Your Employees’ Job Descriptions

The one thing that is guaranteed in a startup is change. It is critical startups review and modify every employee’s job description to ensure alignment with these changes. Sometimes jobs shift in ways that are not seen on a daily basis and other times jobs change completely and rapidly.

Why:

1 Ensures alignment with company needs over time and through changes

2 Increases employee satisfaction, focus, and dedication

3 Helps define goals and objectives for each employee

4 Increases employee retention

5 Helps define overlapping or missing critical skills

6 Identifies hiring needs

How:

  1. Review company needs and alignment with current employee job descriptions on a quarterly basis or when there has been:

    • Significant changes in the business

    • Recent hiring

    • New funding or changes in finances

  2. Set a quarterly review of job descriptions with each employee

  3. Document changes in descriptions to be clear with your employees and gain buy-in

  4. Bonus tip: Keep a file of all job descriptions so you have a history of how jobs have changed

    đź“™ Great read: “The Importance of Regularly Reviewing and Updating Job Descriptions” - MOSH JD

Parting Thought

“In almost every successful startup, there’s a moment when hiring great people is the most important thing you do.”

- Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI

You Can Help

Simply reply to this email and let me know what you think. What would you like to see in upcoming issues? Your feedback is appreciated. Dave

👉 Know someone?

Pass this along and they will receive my new ebook “Hiring Success for Early-Stage Startups” when they subscribe.

Our Mission

Help early-stage startups grow, recruit, hire, and stay true to their values and culture. Provide timely information and resources that help founders, CEOs, and hiring teams save valuable money and time. Listen to our audience and adjust as requested.

Reply

or to participate.