Companies looking to jump ahead in their industry today look far different than those looking to do the same a few decades ago. Today's most rapidly-growing organizations have eschewed the traditional focus on maximizing workforce productivity in favor of a more aggressive race for innovation.
Prioritizing the pursuit of potential game-changers over those they can only expect to work hard, companies like Apple have built a workforce capable of bringing to fruition paradigm-shifting products and ideas. As you might expect, they didn't get there by following traditional hiring practices.
In order to bring those "Purple Squirrels" (rare and talented recruiting targets) on board, companies must redefine the way they seek their next generation of talent. A vast majority of companies have no chance to attract the most talented minds in their industry, not because of their employer brand or the perks they offer, but because of a lackluster recruiting strategy.
Avoiding "immediate need hiring"
In most organizations, almost every new employee is brought on board under what Dr. John Sullivan calls "immediate need hiring," or situations in which managers need to quickly fill roles that open up. This can be a result of turnover or budget changes, and in these instances, hiring managers have to rely on coincidence alone if they hope to fill the open position with a Purple Squirrel. Because the most talented candidates are rarely on the market for very long, the chances of such a coincidence are astronomically small.
Even if you get lucky, and your hiring window aligns with an industry icon's time on the market, traditional recruiting methods will likely fail to catch the candidate's attention. Purple Squirrels typically have very different motivations than most candidates, rendering even the most polished pitch, inadequate.
Plus, an industry's top players rarely spend time actively looking for a job. They scan the market as passive candidates, not indicating they are ready to leave their current position until a tempting offer catches their eye. By the time you realize they are looking, it is often too late. Instead, you must establish and nurture a relationship with these candidates over time. Only through a lengthy, personalized recruiting process can you hope to win these candidates' attention when the time comes.
Proactively conquer coincidence
The ideal way to create this kind of hiring environment is to identify these candidates long before you have a need. Sit down with the executives or industry experts at your company and create a list of the industry leaders who could make an immediate impact at your company. Then, pinpoint the specific role they would play in your organization.
Remember, innovators are far less concerned with job titles than they are with the work they would be doing on a day-to-day basis. Once you have compiled a list of candidates, complete with the work that could entice them, it's time to craft personalized recruiting strategies for each member of that list. That's where working with an executive search firm can help.
Global executive search firms not only have the expertise to design recruiting campaigns that attract Purple Squirrels, but also have the network it takes to connect and build a relationship with them in the first place. When courting such rare talent, that experience makes all the difference.
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Finding people is easy, but finding the RIGHT people is not. YES Partners helps companies FIND the right people – for all company functions, across many industries and globally.
