A key position in your organization needs to be filled, and you need to hire someone.  What is the first thing you do?

Panic?

Where on earth will you find the right person with the right skills who is the right fit?

Feel complacent?

Maybe you figure there are so many people looking for work out there, it will be a breeze to fill any position you like.

Procrastinate?

With so much else on your plate, you will get around to doing something tomorrow, and in any case, you’re getting by without making that difficult hire, aren’t you? (nevermind that everyone on your team is already stretched beyond their limits).

Call your friendly search firm?

You hope they will do all the heavy lifting to find that ideal person.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong!

There is something you have forgotten.

And that is, before anything else, to do some hard, but necessary, organizational self reflection.

You may be very clear about the mission of your organization and the stakeholders you are trying to serve.

But, are you equally clear about your Employer Brand?

What kind of organization is yours? What is it like to work at it? What is its reputation among potential job seekers? What kind of culture exists? How attractive do people find your organization relative to competitors? What kind of response do you get when you advertise for new hires?  And, is that response because of the state of the economy or because of how desirable it is to work at your organization?  What statistics have you gathered about how long people stay working at your organization? Do you notice any patterns?  Do you conduct exit interviews when people leave?  Do you ever ask your people their opinions about your organization?

If it is so important to find someone who is “the right fit,” then it is critical to be totally clear and explicit about what you are expecting candidates to fit into.

So, before you conduct your search for a new employee or leader, take the time to answer the above questions.

If you are happy with the answers, if you are convinced that the Employer Brand of your organization is everything you want, and if you are able to articulate your brand clearly and succinctly, then you are ready to conduct a successful candidate search.  Use this information as the cornerstone of your job description or position profile so potential candidates understand what you are looking for beyond specific skill sets and how they might contribute to your organization.  This also provides an explicit framework of your organizational values to help you screen, evaluate and select candidates which saves time and increases the likelihood of a successful search.

If, on the other hand, your answers reveal inconsistencies or areas needing clarification or improvement, get to work on those.  In the next few blogs, we will address what you, as organizational leaders, can do to deepen your understanding of your Employer Brand and what you can do to enhance it.

Fredia Woolf, Principal of Woolf Consulting, is a leadership coach and change management consultant.  Fredia works with clients to build their capacity to manage career and organizational transitions, and to accelerate positive results.  She dreams about organizations with wise leaders and engaged people having a positive impact on the world – and in the meantime, blogs about careers, leadership challenges and workplace survival strategies.

She can be reached at fwoolf@woolfconsulting.com.

#execSearches #frewoo

Last updated on December 17th, 2009 at 08:50 am