The Secret to Hiring Great Talent? Don't Wait for Them to Apply

If there's one thing I've learned in my 25 year recruiting career, it’s that the state of recruiting is a mess. But why?

Most companies struggle to attract and retain top talent. But the best candidates are often right under their noses – dissatisfied but not actively job searching. To hire A-players, you need to proactively identify and engage passive candidates.

According to Gallup, 60% of employees are disengaged, doing the bare minimum required. This lack of engagement takes its toll. The average turnover rate was 25% in 2021-2022, meaning 1 in 4 new hires leave within a year.

These dismal statistics point to systemic issues in recruiting and retention. But surprisingly, with so many unhappy workers, companies still struggle to find suitable candidates. Per Glassdoor, 76% of hiring managers say recruiting the right talent is their #1 concern.

The reason? The top passive candidates - though dissatisfied - won't respond to job ads or recruiter outreach. But they likely are inspired by compelling stories that attract good people. The key is inspiring stories about your culture and how it provides meaning.

Think about it – for years the zeitgeist around work is that it is not supposed to be a tool for satisfaction and self-fulfillment, rather a chore to be endured. We have been fed a message that states that work is a tool to pay the bills and possibly get ahead but nothing more. And that's produced pretty miserable results for a long time. The Gallup disengagement survey has not measurably changed in the last several decades with disengagement rates consistently above 70%. And we have desensitized ourselves to this message with phrases like “thank God it's Friday” and “happy hump day.” Even more pernicious is the phrase “work life balance” as if work were separate from your life and something to be balanced as opposed to integrated.

This ingrained cultural mindset around work being just a paycheck has contributed to the current recruiting crisis. But so has the over-reliance on technology in the hiring process. While applications have become incredibly easy to submit with just a few clicks, this torrent of applications has, ironically, made it harder for candidates to get quality attention.

The influx of applications floods recruiters, yet few meet the job requirements. Applicant tracking software scans for resume keywords, filtering out potentially qualified candidates who didn't format or phrase experience just right. As a result, most applicants never have their resume reviewed by a real person.

The very technology meant to enable an abundance of candidates has yielded a miserable experience. Candidates spend hours scouring job boards and customizing resumes just for a small chance of moving forward.

And I think that is the reason why we are in such a conundrum when it comes to worker engagement. In the last several years people’s expectations for the workplace have changed dramatically: studies that look at the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting consistently identify two main reasons: Employees are looking for agency and meaning at work. People want to know their work makes a difference and they want to know that they'll have some say in how they go about doing that work.

Because we start the recruiting process after the hiring need arises, applicant tracking software often filters out qualified candidates who don't have the exact keyword requirements. The technology meant to increase applicant volume has actually decreased candidate satisfaction.

Because we've been conditioned to accept that work is miserable and know that the job search process is horrible, most people are willing to put up with a mediocre work experience indefinitely to avoid the pain of searching and interviewing for a job. So, executives who are looking to attract the best and brightest out there need to take a different approach. In my last company I worked with the managing director of a mid-sized consulting firm; he was ridiculously successful and he took on recruiting as his own responsibility and he declared it was one of the principal reasons for his success. When he sells a new engagement, he always knows a few people who can take that role, people who knew him and were eager to work with him because of their relationship. Throughout my career I've seen that those executives who are most successful consistently handle their own recruitment. They're out there on a regular basis telling compelling stories that attract good people. Now is the time that we look at scaling the referral process through storytelling.

If starting the hiring process after we realize we need to hire is the cause for a rushed and inefficient process then it stands to reason that we need to start the process much earlier and start to engage with top talent well before there is an active need to hire. This would allow us to create relationships, answer questions and convince people in a natural and conversational way of our companies’ commitment to purpose, values, and culture. When people experience these conversations in a non-pressured way, they're able to believe them and have that positive impression made outside of a transactional relationship. And once these relationships are built there is an ability to have honest and meaningful conversations about good people making a switch and a career move.

So, if you're looking to hire immediately, by all means, continue with the hackneyed and inefficient approaches that are available today. But if you're looking to ensure that all your hires over the next year or so are engaged, intelligent, highly skilled and culturally aligned, you need to take a different approach. The gift of social media is that it allows us to form one to many relationships. I suggest using this tool not to talk about your need to hire, but rather, talk about what it is that drives you. Tell stories that come from the narrative themes of your company's purpose and values. Because of those values, how do you see your industry? What's important to you, what are some examples of that particular value in action? Telling these stories on platforms like LinkedIn will have people within your network and their secondary and tertiary connections engage with your post. Your job then is to simply track that engagement and nurture it into a productive relationship. That way when it's time to hire you will have a group of people who know you, people who trust you, and more importantly people who desire the same things that your organization and team has to offer.

Isn't that a better way?

So remember, recruiting is broken and companies are struggling to find and retain top talent. But there is another way. The best candidates are out there - they are just disengaged and not actively looking. To hire them, you need to proactively build relationships before you even have an open position.

Imagine having a talent pipeline full of superstars who already know and trust you. By starting the recruiting process early and focusing on genuine engagement, you can build an ongoing network of promising, culturally-aligned candidates.

Here are three steps to get started:

1. Leverage social media to authentically tell stories about your company culture, values, and purpose.
2. Proactively look to engage with strong performers who share your values well before you have openings.
3. Track engagement from potential future candidates and nurture relationships over time.

Adopting this proactive recruiting mindset can transform your ability to hire great talent quickly. And by engaging people when you don't need them, you can build relationships that lead to higher retention.

Don't wait for open positions to start recruiting top talent. Begin now by focusing on engagement first and job offers later. Your team will thank you.

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About the author -?Peter Laughter ?– after a 25-year entrepreneurial career in the recruiting and staffing industry I walked away. Recruiting is screwed. I founded True Bearing to transform it by telling stories about purpose and culture, allowing companies to connect with the incredible talent that doesn't know they exist, yet.??