How to find screen, hire & retain superstar employees

How to Find and Hire Superstars in Santa Barbara’s Tight Employment Market

111 East Arrellaga Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101805-965-0511 www.nationalcareerscorp.com gary@nccx.com

Gary Kravetz, CEO

National Careers CorporationSanta Barbara Staffing

Defining employement

• Using human capital can take many forms

• The term employment legally means W-2 employees

• Other form of staffing may include interns, independent contractors or subcontractors.

• There are legal and practical differences among staffing status.

Summary• There is a shortage of employees in the local area

for most professions.• Almost all good employees are currently working

and not looking for a new job.• You can get outstanding employees to move here

if you screen correctly.• Direct recruiting can find the best employees. (find

candidates who are not looking)• Use an organized screening method to select the

best employees for your company.

Job Market Changed from Too Few Jobs to Too Few Employees

• The unemployment rate reached its peak in 2010 and the rate has gone down since.

• There are few qualified people looking for jobs and there are many jobs. Salaries are going up significantly

• Many employees left the area since in 2009 because of fewer jobs and high housing costs and have not come back.

Who is Currently Hiring ?

• We have many companies hiring locally

• Mostly small and mid-sized companies that survived the recession.

• Largest employers-Raytheon& Government

• Santa Barbara has hundreds of unfilled openings for admin, accounting, sales, technical, operations and healthcare.

How to Hire Superstars

• Superstars are the outstanding employees who help make successful companies.

• Superstars are not looking for new jobs.

• You must seek out superstars to find them

• The following steps will show how to find and screen for superstar employees.

Why Hire a Superstar?

• A top employee can produce two to five times as much as an average employee.

• Twenty per cent of the employees in the work force produce 80% of the work. (Pareto Principle).

• If you hire the top 20% you can increase your productively up to fivefold.

• Paying a little more for a superstar can save you a lot. Get a 2-for-1 Employees

Define What Employee Needs to Accomplish 

• Use the “Power Hiring” system

• Profiles w/SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achieveable, Realistic,Timely) goals.

• Objective Evaluations-past performance

• Wide Range search for candidate

• Emotional Control in interview

• Recruit & reference right

Profile- Get Consensus of Hiring Decision Makers in the Company

• All the people in the company who will be making the decision to hire your superstar should sign off on desired accomplishments.

• This list of desired accomplishments can be expected performance milestones to track after you hire your new employee.

• Many superstars are better motivated when they have specific goals they are trying to achieve and are recognized for these goals.

Objective- Use a Consistent Hiring Process

• Very few companies use a good system for finding the superstars. Create procedures for finding, screening and selecting the best.

• Studies have shown that the cost of hiring an inappropriate employee ranges from 25% to 500% of the annual salary of the employee.

• Costs include paying the unproductive employee, hiring the second employee and the lost opportunity, sales or production.

Wide Recruiting- Find Many Quality Candidates

• Identify many candidates from a wide range of sources. Don’t limit the search to the average or less employees that answer ads or Internet postings.

• Of the 4% unemployment rate, about 3% is unemployable. The other 1% are mainly unproductive employees that companies have laid off.

• Find passive candidates who are NOT looking for a job. The best are not responding to postings or ads.

• Most companies select employees from the limited pool collected from ads or Web resume banks.

• Companies assume these unqualified candidates are the only candidates to choose from and select the best of these mediocre.

Newspaper and Online Advertising Seldom Works

• Since the best candidates are not looking for a job, they will not see the ads.

• Contact people who are NOT looking for a job from database, and referrals.

• Find people associated with organizations, industries or companies.

• Most candidates want to keep their job search confidential.

Proactive Recruiting(PR)

• PR Find top performers, who are not looking for a new job by using direct recruiting, sometimes called headhunting.

• After establishing the requirements and duties and goals, PR first reviews candidates in our own database from previous searches to see who fits the requirements.

• PR also contacts candidates from databasse that can refer to potential employees. Potential employees may be at the employer, suppliers, competitors, associations and previous employers of our contacts.

• PR ask candidates not to limit their referrals to people looking for a job, but for employees who can do the job.

• PR contacts the referrals and do a preliminary screening. On a single search recruiters may contact over a 1,000 people, interview 100 in depth and present the top five to our interview.

• Individuals who are contacted but not an exact match are added to database for future searches.

Emotional Control-Interviewing • The interviewing process should be structured to avoid

hiring poor employees and recognizing the good ones. • Studies show no correlation between ability to perform

well in an interview versus the ability to perform well on the job.

• Interviewer should have a list of questions that each candidate is asked and should take notes on the answers to the questions.

• Studies have shown that past behavior is the best predictor of future success. Ask about past accomplishments.

• After the interviews have been completed, ratings of the candidates should be compared.

• The interviewer should wait at least a half hour into interview before making a “first impression”.

Recruit Right

• Check references carefully

• Verify past performance

• Find why they want to change job

• Relocation Is Difficult But Possible

• Handle the counteroffer upfront

• Prenegotiate before formal offer

Why Employees Change Jobs

• Problem with company or supervisor.

• Better chance for career growth.

• More total compensation.

• Benefits, bonuses and stock options.

• Feel unappreciated and uninformed.

• Personal (commute, hours, childcare).

• Want to relocate.

What may attract them to you

• Salary

• Bonuses

• Stock

• Smaller or larger staff

• Learn interesting skills

• Great team

• Great company

• Great management

Relocation Is Difficult But Possible

• You may may contact many technically qualified candidates before we find one who can relocate here.

• Candidates may move here because of family, having previously lived here, or if renting and not looking to buy a house.

• If the candidate wants to buy a house here, offer rental as an alternative if they cannot afford buying.

Conclusion

• This an employees’ job market• Define what you want your superstar to

accomplish with consensus of all the decision makers .

• Develop a consistent hiring process, including outlining goals expected. 

• Identify a broad number of candidates from thorough research and narrow to the best.

• Keep interviews highly structured. • Hire the best possible, not not just the best of

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