Anyone who has ever been in a position to hire employees knows how difficult it is to find the right people. Too often, employers find themselves in situations where they need to quickly replace someone or add staff, and they don’t have time to do the due diligence to hire the best people. Other times, it seems like the best people just aren’t there, or end up going to the competition.
Jeff Jensen understands these issues and suggests ways to solve them by recruiting people to the forefront of your business processes. He has been recruiting for over thirty years for various companies that he has owned or held executive positions. Now, he shares his experience and his methods for success in his new book What a Hoot! Let’s recruit!
Much of Jeff’s advice and information can be used right away to start making a difference for your business or organization, even if you have no plans to hire any time soon. He should always be looking for good prospects who fit into his company culture and help him succeed. Jeff walks readers through all the ways you can find recruits, many of which they probably never even considered, including networking events, asking for referrals from others, using social media, and making your company attractive to people. want to work there.
Jeff then goes into more specific details about the hiring process, like interviewing and negotiating with a potential client. Having conducted many employee interviews myself and, I’ll admit, made some bad hires myself, I greatly appreciated all of Jeff’s advice and wished I had had this book to read years ago when he was in a management position. It covers everything from when are the best times to interview, to how to read and mirror body language with interviewees, handwriting analysis, and what questions to ask. It also discusses how to negotiate, when to make an offer, when to raise an offer, and what to do when a candidate is inclined to go to work for a competitor. Most of all, I appreciated Jeff’s insight on how to win over a candidate by showing how much you appreciate their time to discuss a possible career with the company. He talks about creating the “Wow” factor for prospects, part of which includes expressing gratitude to prospects’ spouses for sharing their partners’ time with the company.
Of course, it’s no good hiring the right people if, once they start, they find they don’t like working for you. So Jeff explores how to create a culture people want to work in, how to get rid of people who don’t fit the culture, and how to show your employees that they’re appreciated. Jeff’s employee retention skills shine as he discusses the fifty-plus ways he has shown his appreciation for his employees, as well as why it’s important to promote from within.
I personally found the networking chapter one of the most useful. Jeff provides tips on remembering people’s names, opening conversations, and how to think outside the box to see new possibilities for ourselves and our businesses. Potential recruits for his company are everywhere if you just look, as Jeff reveals:
“By locating yourself around people who make things happen, you move further away from your routine of typical acquaintances and expand your environment into one of unforeseen relationships that keep multiplying. I see a lot of recruiters who sink into their own little comfortable environment. If you keep doing that, you will always get the same results.”
Another part of the book that I found valuable was the discussion of understanding the different generations that are in the workplace. Jeff goes into detail about the different beliefs, work ethic, and expectations of traditionalists, baby boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials, and Gen Z. Learn how to communicate with employees of these different generations and how they will expect to communicate with each other. It will make your workplace run smoothly and help you in your employee recruitment and retention efforts.
Finally, I want to briefly mention Jeff’s approach to the importance of momentum. The problem most of us have is that we get excited about something like recruiting after attending a seminar or reading a book like What a Hoot! Let’s recruit! Then, after perhaps a bit of success, we stop our efforts. Instead, Jeff tells us how important it is to keep the momentum going:
“Too many people will stop and take a break after reaching some milestone or goal. When your competition thinks they deserve a reward, they take a break. If you take a break after every little success, you’re stealing momentum.” You can achieve it. You just hit a deadline and gained a lot of energy and confidence from that action, so take advantage of it and take the next step.”
While Jensen doesn’t have all the answers, he does offer plausible recruiting strategies that will make your company better in the long run.
