EMPOWERED

CHAPTER 27Recruiting

Most people think that staffing begins with sourcing, but as you'll see, in strong product companies staffing begins with active recruiting.

In an HR‐driven approach to hiring, a hiring manager might provide a job description, but things don't really get going until HR starts providing resumes (known as sourcing). In fact, one of the obvious symptoms of this problem is when the hiring manager complains that she's not getting enough high‐quality resumes.

Yet for strong managers, it's the opposite. The hiring manager identifies what she wants, and then she goes out and recruits.

It's analogous to a college or professional sports team. While a coach might get an occasional “walk‐on” (the rough equivalent of someone sending in their resume), mostly the coach actively works to recruit the necessary talent: visiting prospects, getting to know them personally, and working to persuade the desired talent to join their team.

It's worth pointing out that recruiting rather than sourcing is the fastest way I know to improve diversity. Especially when the hiring manager understands that innovation thrives in a team where each person thinks differently. We generally don't want or need more of the same. We need people with different educations, different approaches to problem solving, different life experiences, and different strengths.

The truly strong manager knows that, through recruiting, she is crafting product teams, and not just a collection of people.

So, where ...