The War for Talent
My learnings after years of recruiting really talented people in a 50km radius.
A couple of years ago, IBM did a survey of 1,500 top CEOs around the world. The report revealed 2 interesting patterns. They were all facing fast-moving economic & social conditions, and shared a firm belief that the thing their companies needed most was creativity. What happened next was not so hard to predict. Attracting creative talent became a top priority for companies of all size.
The past 3 years IBM itself has hired & trained over 1.300 designers, working in 31 studios across the world. Big corporations like Google, Facebook, Accenture, EY and PWC bought a bunch of marketing and design firms. And when VC funds like KPCB start publishing annual reports on design trends in entrepreneurial and corporate ecosystems, you know something’s up.
I think there’s been a real kind of awareness of the value of design in the last ten years or so. As a result you’re seeing companies increasingly putting designers at the leadership team-level of companies.
— Karl Heiselman, CEO of design firm Wolff Olins.
I’m not here to tell you that The War for Creative Talent is on. What’s more interesting is how you can behave on the battlefield. Don’t let the big competition scare you. Did you know you have a huge advantage over all these awesome and wealthy companies? Let me present it to you loud and clear: people don’t have to travel to the other side of the world to join you.
It’s a huge thing to give up your friends and family for work, which is why only a small percentage actually do. So here’s the good news: there is plenty of talent nearby. You just need to identify them and get them on board.
Sounds difficult? No clue how to begin? Already tried? Here’s what I’ve learned after years of recruiting really talented people in a 50km radius.
1. Recruitment is not an afterthought
Let’s be honest here. Most managers focus only on 3 things: finding clients, giving them what they want and making profit. We pay commission fees to people who bring in revenue, spend most of our marketing efforts on client relationships and review internal operations through performance sheets in excel.
Recruiting talent often becomes an afterthought, even though we consider it as a vital priority for our teams to grow. I’ve spend years going into recruiting mode only when internal planning exploded or when someone decided to leave. Responding to abrupt scenarios is what makes recruiting difficult and stressful. Great talent doesn’t pop up when you suddenly need them to.
The first step is to change the way you look at recruitment, and make it a top priority for your team. Once I switched to a mindset of constant recruiting, incoming applications increased with 400%. All it takes is focus.
2. Reach out constantly
Here’s something you need to know about ambitious creative talent. They are eager to learn and improve themselves. So they look for inspiration every single day. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, Medium, Behance, … you name it. They figure out what’s going on quicker than Sherlock Holmes & John Watson.
Now, what you really want is a growing audience of people with a deeper interest in your company. You want to be on their list of inspiring places to work. So that once you promote a job opportunity, the response rate is fast, high and promising.
The only way to do this is by reaching out to these people regularly and earn their trust. Like in any other good relationship you have to show them you care. Ask yourself: how can you reach your audience? How can you inspire them and help them grow?
Here are 5 things you can do to speed things up:
- Create an internal communication channel where colleagues can share inspiring content. I recommend Slack, Facebook or a simple email address that forwards messages to everybody in the team.
- Create a public inspiration channel and share popular stories from your internal channel. A simple twitter account or weekly newsletter is all you need.
- Share important lessons learned via a simple presentation on Slideshare. (Once a month would be awesome)
- Speak at community events. (Or host one with your team)
- Add a career page to your site and keep your online doors open. Never stop promoting important job descriptions and inviting people for coffee. It’s crazy how many teams forget to do this!
3. Figure out why others joined
When I ask leaders why someone should consider joining, I often get answers like how cool the portfolio is or how exciting the upcoming projects are. And that lunch and Friday drinks are on the house.
While this is all very nice, the truth is that these are not the main reasons why people join your team. The answers go deeper, so you need to figure out the real triggers behind great colleagues, exciting challenges and a nice portfolio.
Great leaders move the conversation from explaining why they think people should join to why others already did. It makes their story real, authentic and trustworthy. A very powerful difference to most promo talk if you ask me.
So just go and ask your colleagues why they applied, and more importantly: why they want to stay on board? I promise you the answers will surprise you.
Feedback often tells more about the person who is giving it than about you.
— Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
4. Job descriptions should reflect deeper purpose
In the heart of recruiting lies a concept most people struggle with: the job description. Its main goal is to describe what a team needs and what it offers in return. Most of them sound a bit like this:
We’re looking for a great web designer to join our team. In return we offer a fair wage, a computer and health insurance. Apply here.
The thing with job descriptions is that they are actually perceived as self-descriptions. We use them to describe what we do and why this matters. What people most look for in a job description is a reflection of their identity.
This is why the best job descriptions start with expressing why the company exists in the first place. Why it matters to come to work every day. Then they introduce a few challenges and sell the opportunity to be involved.
And of course they end with a list of required skills and company benefits. Having clear expectations is great. Just make sure you get to discuss them with people who want to join for the right reasons.
Here’s a great example: Product Research Lead at Intercom.
5. Bye bye job interview. Hello personal review!
When I first started recruiting, my interviews were pretty straightforward. We went through the visitor’s portfolio and I asked some clever questions. What have you learned? What excites you? Why are you applying? All to help me gain insight into the candidate’s strenghts and weaknesses.
Yet I often formed wrong opinions about people. Some new team members surprised me with hidden abilities while others struggled for no clear reason. So after a while I changed my approach and started running job interviews like internal brainstorm meetings. Its main goal: honestly explore the best ways to move further.
Here’s what happened during the brainstorm. We reviewed their portfolio and I summarized the strenghts and weaknesses I observed. After that we’d spend all our time exploring how to amplify the candidate’s strenghts and support their weaknesses.
After 1 hour we had a clear understanding of what working together could look like. And what it would require from both parties to make it happen. I experienced at firsthand how they responded to feedback and gained better insights in their ability to collaborate.
Since then I ran over 100 interviews without the uncomfortable confusion. I always felt confident making the decision whether or not to move forward. Next time you run an interview I’d recommend you to give it a shot. Drop the interrogation and open up to each other. Works like a charm.
Finding motivated people is one of the most exciting things of Creative Leadership. I hope these tips help you attract more talent and inspire them to join the club. Switch to a mode of continuous recruiting, reach out, help them grow and welcome them when they’re ready.
Go have fun,
Thomas
Thanks for hitting the 💙 if you enjoyed this article. It helps me to inspire more people here on Medium!
— Thomas helps people grow their ability & courage to lead creative teams. He provides in-house coaching and writes weekly publications on Creative Leadership. Previously Creative Director & Managing Partner at Little Miss Robot.
