Where is your business heading? Are you employing people (the right people) that are aligned to getting your company where you want it to be?

Most people we speak to say that it’s really tough to get good people. But perhaps we need to start thinking about employing people (the right people) for your business a little differently. When we think about going out there to get good people we need to realise that it’s essentially a marketing campaign. The campaign most people use is to say “X wanted, with Y skills, and Z experience, you will be doing ABC”. The danger of doing this is two fold. Firstly, we are using the same approach as every other business out there — thus we’re going to get the same applicants.  Secondly, we aren’t going to get candidates that are particularly aligned with the organisation’s vision.

Where is it this business heading? What does it need to look like? Who is the type of person that will get the business there?

In marketing we have a formula to follow, AIDA. ‘A’ stands for ‘attention’, having a great headline on the job advert. We only market to one particular person at a time so we have to appeal to the specific person for that job. Then we need to create ‘interest’ (the ‘I’), who are you joining, what’s the vision and mission of this business, what is it that’s going to allow you to be a part of the community and flourish? Then comes the convert stage, ‘D’ that stands for ‘desire’. This is the part and role they will play in moving the business forward as a collective towards the vision and mission. Finally the last ‘A’ in a marketing plan stands for call to ‘Action’, this is to send your CV and be prepared to sell yourself.

This way of recruiting is a far stronger way to get the right people but very few businesses do it. As a result, they don’t get many of the right people to be with them because the job is the same as any other job, leaving it all down to salary.

First Things First

So what sort of things should we consider first when it comes to employing the right people for your business? Well first of all we need think of this as more of a deselection process as opposed to a selection process.

If we go back to the marketing analogy we can imagine we can imagine this similar to a marketing funnel. Many companies will look at the skills and experience first where the number one entry point at the top of the funnel should be attitude. Skills and experience within that role can be developed. The one thing that can’t is attitude.

So in our advert we need to market what is the attitude of the person we want not just for the role, but for your businesses mission and vision. Ask yourself some great questions. Where is it the business is heading? What does it need to look like? Who is the type of person that will get the business there?

Deeper Routed Problems

So we have spoke about recruiting the right people for your business, but what about the people that are in the business? This is a lot deeper router problem. Just because somebody has been in the business forever doesn’t mean it’s healthy for the business. Development, training, and alignment become critical. Are your team even clear on what the vision and mission of the company is?