Three tips to an effective long term recruiting strategy

In case you haven't heard, over the weekend the final match for the World Cup set a viewing record.  More people than ever tuned in to watch the re-match between USA and Japan.  Four years ago the Japanese women's team beat the U.S., and they found themselves in the championship again this year.  This time the U.S. team was victorious and in pretty resounding fashion.

Admittedly I am not much of a true soccer fan, but I was drawn to a few of the stories that I believe draw a parallel with the world of recruiting.  As you look to build a team and a culture within an office setting, there are a few things I think we could all learn from this resilient group of women.

1)  Balance veteran leadership with mentoring young talent.  I can't tell you how many times we get asked by candidates who they will be working with.  This includes who they will report to, who else they work alongside, and any other departments they will have interaction with.  If someone is newer in the industry, they will want to have someone guiding them in their new job.  If you cannot show them they will receive that at your organization it will definitely be a mark against you.  On the flip side of that coin there may be a candidate with a great deal of tenure in the industry that could be a key member of a younger team to provide expertise and perspective to the team.  

2)  Use the failures of the past to help build the future.  I guarantee the four-year lapse between matches was not enough time for the U.S. team to forget the gut-wrenching loss in 2011.  They used that to fuel their fire to win this time around.  Sometimes it isn't even true failures, but just lost opportunities.  Earlier this year I had a client interested in a candidate, only to have that person take another job.  For a number of reasons that move did not work out for the candidate.  My client was open to the idea of talking with her again, they really hit it off, and she accepted an offer to join them in a perfect match of a role.  Win, win!

3)  Ignore outside distractions.  I am not here to debate any of the relevance of the side stories spun in the media with a few of the players on the U.S. team.  The bottom line is that they did not let any of that negative attention distract them from their goal of winning the Cup.  Oftentimes I see companies let outside noise affect hiring decisions.  Whether it be an informal reference saying something about a candidate or speculation about someone's past work history or even choices about where someone has worked in the past, sometimes you just have to rely upon your own recruitment process.  If that is working, trust it.  Don't allow outside distractions to prevent you from making a good hire.  

Just as the recent performance in the World Cup will certainly draw some new fans and players to the sport, what else can you do to affect your long term recruiting strategy?  Do you have a winning formula right now that includes some of these ideas?  As always, I would love to hear from you as we work every day to build these championship teams for our clients.