Finding Great People is the Toughest in 40 Years

This means your chances of finding a good candidate are worse than at any time in the last 40 years. If you hire wrong, it will set you back months. You need someone good now.

The biggest problem is not hiring the wrong people. It’s keeping the wrong people.

You are very likely to retain a marginal performer too long and decrease your chance of growth. What is your system to recruit and interview? Like a lot of financial advisors, you use job boards like Indeed, Zip Recruiter, and LinkedIn. Then you wing the interview. The hiring decision can’t be a guess or a gut feeling. It has to a mix of your interviewing skills, placement testing and past performance.

But it starts with finding good people.

Here are a few ways to make your next hiring decision the right one.

1. Don’t waste time in the hiring process

There are many sources you can use to find good people. Job boards like Zip Recruiter, Indeed and LinkedIn can get you more resumes than you can read. But 75% of those contain exaggerations or sometimes, outright lies. At some point you will need to talk to the best ones. The problem is good ones are hard to find. Assume that 98% aren’t right for the position and two seem good. The trap is spending your valuable time filtering and wasting hours each day trying to find a good candidate.

You could hire a headhunter costing six months of your new hire’s pay. After the trial period is up, the new hire may quit, leaving you with the fee.

The answer? Virtual voicemail

Post on a job board and include a brief description of the position. Include at the end of the post a “voice mail only” line candidates can call for more information. Leave an extensive message on the duties, hours and benefits. Then use these words, “Please leave up to a one-minute message describing what you have done that has prepared you to be successful in this position.”

A few will hang up. More will ramble without answering the question. A precious few will leave a coherent, articulate message with a contact for you to follow up. This method allows you to listen to messages on your cell during commute time. The most important benefit: You will find a great person without wasting your time.

As you listen to candidate voice mails, select for energy and past performance. You can train for skills. Do they sound energetic? Do they sound enthusiastic? Did they talk about their experience and successes? Did they answer the question?

A bad candidate will leave an unenthusiastic voice mail stating, “Yeah, my name is John. I want to hear more about the job. Call me at 817-444-2222.” Click! But a candidate you want to call back will say energetically, “Hi my name is Betsy. I have worked as an administrative assistant for the past 10 years and helped my boss create a new team and department in the company. It now leads all the other divisions. I look forward to talking about your opportunity. Please call me at 714-333-2222.”

The bad candidate left no information about experience while the other presented herself as a good performer worth interviewing.

2. Always be recruiting!

The reason most of my coaching clients are unsuccessful at first at finding candidates is that they only recruit when desperate. During COVID, remote work seemed like the only option. Now many workers have left. Some permanently resigned in the great resignation. If you lost an employee and are now struggling to find a replacement, it’s because you forgot the marketing lessons you used to build your business. Always be growing your practice and recruiting every day. Dig the well before you are thirsty.

According to U.S. government statistics, 68% of those now working are currently looking for another opportunity. They are called active candidates. But another 15% are passive candidates. They aren’t looking but would make a change in employment if presented the right opportunity. You will never find passive candidate without recruiting. Don’t rely on job boards. Treat the recruiting process like a sales process.

Tell your colleagues, friends and even clients about the job and type of person you are looking for. Make it part of a daily conversation. Then ask who they know who could be good. They will initially hear you say, “Who do you know who needs a job?” You should repeat again, “Who do you know who could be good regardless of whether they need a job?”

Managers and owners like you have files of candidates they have interviewed over the years. They may not have hired someone only because they found a better candidate. But that person may be right for you.

When you get the name of a potential candidate, call them as if you were calling a referred lead. I will give you the exact script to use in future articles.

I would love to send you a free video on “The Virtual Voice Mail.” Write me at [email protected] or call 714-368-3650. We will spend 10 minutes talking about your goals for increasing your business this year.

Dr. Kerry Johnson is “America’s Business Psychologist.” He is the best-selling author of 17 books Including the just released, How to Recruit, Hire and Retain Great People. He is a frequent speaker at financial conferences around the world. Peak Performance Coaching, his one-on-one coaching program, promises to increase your business by 80% in 8 weeks. To see if you are a candidate for this fast-track system, click on www.KerryJohnson.com/coaching and take a free evaluation test. You will learn about your strengths and what is holding you back. Or call, 714-368-3650 for more information.

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