SelectOne Blog

Thinking Like a Passive Company

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I always hear how passive candidates are the best candidates and the true value any staffing agency can create is uncovering these candidates for the agency’s clients. But it got me thinking; companies need to have the same thought process as passive candidates.

Identifying and hiring for the future can greatly benefit your company and help you hire the best talent for growth areas. Hiring for the future eliminates the pressure of the “need to hire now” mindset and allows companies to take their time to identify higher-level candidates, while also incorporating a stronger onboarding process and schedule for training new employees.

I look at smaller companies and startups and realize they hire with the anticipation of filling future holes within their organizations rather than holes that exist today. This agile approach allows companies to build out high performing teams within the organization that add value above and beyond their main reason for coming onboard.

So what prevents larger companies from taking this approach? 

Strict budgets, org charts that have to be followed to a tee, or maybe the push to keep FTE count in accordance with high-level executives’ directions? While it is important to follow the overall strategy of the company and the direction as a whole, I believe the current hiring practices of the "as needed" mindset inhibits large companies from innovation and creating new market growth opportunities. 

Envision this: your company could have 3 to 4 of the best sales people on the open market today, but right now you only need two.

Would you hire the other two?  What if you could predict that those extra two would double the revenue of your company? 

So you just hire the two and a year later you need two more. At this point, it's likely you will have to settle for less stellar candidates and as the old saying goes, "if you snooze, you lose".

Over the long run how much growth potential did you cost yourself by not hiring the best candidates, but only hiring according to your short-term needs?

We all want to hire the best employees, but I see it more often then not, when companies are presented with great candidates they hesitate and find excuses not to hire them. If you truly want to build the best workforce, you need to challenge the status quo and be opportunistic when the best and brightest appear on your doorstep, especially before your competition swoops in and hires them.

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