By Dawn Klingensmith
CTW Features
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article_html += " "; article_html += "It’s an exciting time and a daunting time to hire. The job market offers no shortage of applicants, so surely among them is a superstar whose exceptional performance will propel your company forward even in a sluggish economy.
"; article_html += "Not every star employee shines brightly at first. Some are still on the rise. Others show just a glimmer of talent that will ignite in the right atmosphere.
"; article_html += "How can you find and entice top talent for the good of your company and career?
"; article_html += "You needn’t look far to get started: Ask your best employees for referrals.
"; article_html += "Evaluate your top performers: What do they have in common? What are the similarities in their backgrounds? Without discounting promising mismatches, use the composite “as a model to find the best and brightest who are likely to succeed at your company,” says Mark Mehler, co-founder of CareerXroads, a staffing strategy firm.
"; article_html += "Don’t put a junior-level employee on the front lines of the hiring process. “You need someone experienced reviewing résumés and doing initial evaluations of candidates,” says Cathleen Faerber, managing director of the executive search firm The Wellesley Group, Buffalo Grove, Ill.
"; article_html += "When vetting candidates, don’t fixate on years of experience. Working in the field for 10 years without getting fired doesn’t make a candidate better than an up-and-comer with enthusiasm, smarts and fresh ideas. “Hire people for what they can become, not what they’ve already done,” says George Anders, author of “The Rare Find: Spotting Exceptional Talent Before Everyone Else” (Penguin Group, 2011).
"; article_html += "Don’t be overly impressed by “pedigrees or traditional yardsticks of past achievements,” Anders adds. A good hiring decision “centers on what the future will be like and how well someone’s growth will mesh with the company’s.”
"; article_html += "Regard bumpy career trajectories and outright failures in a different light. Visionaries like Steve Jobs had “jagged résumés,” or a tendency “to teeter on the brink between success and failure,” Anders says. Though likely to be shunted out of conventional hiring systems, “Such people can do spectacular work in the right settings, where their strengths are invaluable and their flaws don’t matter,” he adds.
"; article_html += "Look for evidence of resilience. Superstars come in many guises, but this is a quality shared by all. Your rare find “may not be someone with an uninterrupted ride up to the top — they were the best student, they went to the best college, they were in the best fraternity, they’ve got nice teeth,” Anders says. “It could be what’s needed is a survivor who’s faced quite a grievous set of setbacks and can roll with the punches.”
"; article_html += "Demand references not only from former bosses but also from at least one peer and subordinate, Faerber says. If your candidate is a star, all will say so.
"; article_html += "Dangle the prospect of upward mobility. “Very often I can steal someone from a company because they don’t know where they’re going in that organization,” Faerber says.
"; article_html += "If you are eying a star who’s already employed, call and say you have a great opportunity and ask for recommendations. “They may nominate themselves,” Mehler says.
"; article_html += "Use technology wisely. The executives she tries to hire away have “gatekeepers,” Faerber says, so it’s hard to get through to them discreetly by phone. Instead, she contacts her targets via online networking sites.
"; article_html += "Don’t hire someone who will be a poor fit culturally or your superstar will be a fallen star in no time. “Someone can look perfect on paper,” Mehler says, “but if they don’t fit into the culture, they won’t be successful.”
"; article_html += "With care, your bright, shiny new hire soon will be positioned to deliver an outsize performance where it counts most: at your company.
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