When Charles Gehring was named president and CEO of LifeCare Alliance, the nonprofit was spending $100,000 a year to advertise for open positions. Now instead of searching for employees, candidates are seeking out the organization, which offers senior home care services.
“You have to take who you want and not accept who comes in the door,” Gehring says.
The first step to hiring the right employees is to keep a list of people in the community you would like to work with. Second is careful interviewing, says Gehring, whose organization posted 2008 revenue of $19 million.
Smart Business spoke with Gehring about how to identify the right employees to create a stronger organization.
Q. How do you attract the right people to interview for open positions?
If you create a company that people know in the community, is respected in the community, then people are attracted to you, and the better candidates talk to you even when they’re still employees elsewhere.
Oftentimes, if you’re just accepting who comes in the door off of an ad or a sign you might have outside, then that’s all you’re going to get.
Instead, look for people. I ask my directors and my vice presidents here to know enough about the community that if somebody left them at a management level, they would be able to instantly come up with two or three names of people that work at other organizations who they feel would be great at our organization.
A lot of people use the reactive approach. Human resources departments use the reactive approach where it’s, ‘OK, we’ll put the ad in the paper or post it on a Web site or put a sign up, and those that come in we’ll interview.’
Sometimes the best candidates are not going to do that, especially at the management level. They have a current position they like, and they’re not actively seeking employment.
You (won’t ever) insult anybody by calling them up and saying, ‘Hey, we would like to talk to you about a job we have open.’
