Book description
How to find great employees, make great hires, and take your business to the next level
It is always easy to find people who want a job, but it's never easy to find and hire A-players. In How to Hire A-Players, consultant Eric Herrenkohl shows owners, executives, and managers of small and medium-size businesses where and how to find A-player employees. It is these individuals who will help keep quality high and growth and profits strong.
Herrenkohl explains how to use your existing marketing, sales, and networking efforts to find top candidates. He provides current examples of companies that consistently hire A-players without big recruiting departments as well as step-by-step explanations for making these strategies work in your own company.
Shows you how to find and hire top employees.
Ideal for owners of small businesses, executives and managers of large businesses, as well as corporate recruiters and HR specialists who need new ideas
Herrenkohl's client list includes privately held businesses in over 50 industries as well as big corporate names like Bank of America, Edward Jones, and Northwestern Mutual Life
A-player employees are the life blood of any growing business. This handy hiring guide shows you where to look, what to ask, and who to hire to boost your business today
Table of contents
- Copyright
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Introduction: Where Do I Find Great People?
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1. The Value of A-Players
- 1.1. Thriving Businesses Are Built by Teams of A-Players
- 1.2. The Impact of Just One Great Hire
- 1.3. One A-Player Can Give You Your Life Back
- 1.4. One A-Player Can Keep You from Getting Divorced
- 1.5. One A-Player Can Help You to Sell Your Business
- 1.6. You Can't Turn Midgets into Giants
- 1.7. The Best Coaches Are the Best Recruiters
- 1.8. Get Passionate about Finding and Hiring A-Players
- 1.9. Make Money Next Year from the A-Players You Hire This Year
- 1.10. Focus on the Value of A-Players
- 1.11. A-Players Beget A-Players
- 1.12. Isn't This HR's Job?
- 1.13. The 80/20 Principle Is Alive and Well
- 1.14. Where Are Your Talent Choke Points?
- 1.15. Challenge Your Leadership Team
- 1.16. Payoffs from This Management Discussion
- 1.17. The Team You Need versus the Team You Have
- 2. Would You Know an A-Player if You Met One? Defining Your A-Player Profile
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3. Three Steps to Creating an A-Player Team
- 3.1. Create an A-Player Mind-Set
- 3.2. Interview All the Time
- 3.3. But What if I Don't Have a Job to Fill?
- 3.4. Building Your Farm Team
- 3.5. Recruit Before You Need To
- 3.6. Should You Advertise for Your Farm Team?
- 3.7. Explain the Farm Team Approach to Job Candidates Up Front
- 3.8. The Power of Staying in Touch
- 3.9. The Secret to Dealing with Poor Performers
- 3.10. Employee Referrals
- 3.11. Referrals Wanted—Always
- 3.12. Develop an Internal Farm Team
- 3.13. Building Your Brand to Attract A-Players
- 3.14. Create a Great First Impression
- 3.15. Authenticity Is Attractive
- 3.16. Attract A-Players by Serving the Community
- 3.17. Keep It On
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4. Right under Your Nose: Leveraging People You Already Know
- 4.1. Friends and Family
- 4.2. Your Customers
- 4.3. Turning Customers Down
- 4.4. Use a "Soft" Approach to Recruiting Customers
- 4.5. Have a Simple Employment Application Process
- 4.6. Treat Everyone Well
- 4.7. Customers as Referral Sources
- 4.8. Your Vendors
- 4.9. Create an A-Player Target List
- 4.10. Don't Make Up People's Minds for Them
- 4.11. Remember that C-Players Often Sell Themselves Better than A-Players
- 4.12. Internal Hires
- 4.13. The Critical Role of Assistant Manager
- 4.14. Turning B-Players into A-Players
- 4.15. Tapping into the Contacts of New Hires
- 4.16. Taking Action to Tap into Your Network
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5. Don't Just Sit There. Reach Out
- 5.1. Recruiter in Chief
- 5.2. Running with the Big Dogs
- 5.3. Industry Conferences and Continuing Education
- 5.4. A Note on Recruiting Salespeople
- 5.5. Stay until the Quesadillas Are Scorched
- 5.6. The Difference between a Contact and a Business Card
- 5.7. Don't Wallow in the Shallow End of the Networking Pool
- 5.8. Quality Is More Important than Quantity
- 5.9. Develop Connections to Influencers
- 5.10. Recruiters from Other Companies
- 5.11. Office Managers
- 5.12. Take Your Time
- 5.13. Follow Through
- 5.14. Become an Influencer Yourself
- 5.15. Become an Adjunct Professor
- 5.16. Cultivating Referral Sources
- 5.17. Do I Really Have Time for This?
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6. Finding New Pools of A-Player Talent
- 6.1. Women Reentering the Workforce
- 6.2. Spouses of Relocated Executives
- 6.3. Single-Mother Waitresses
- 6.4. Big-Firm Lawyers Who Don't Want Big-Firm Hours
- 6.5. How Do You Find Them?
- 6.6. Restaurant Personnel
- 6.7. How Do You Find Them?
- 6.8. Teachers
- 6.9. How Do You Find Them?
- 6.10. Starbucks and Other Well-Operated National Retailers
- 6.11. How Do You Find Them?
- 6.12. On-Campus Interviewing
- 6.13. Students and Irregular Hours
- 6.14. Internships
- 6.15. Even One Intern Can Make a Difference
- 6.16. Alumni Networks of Large Companies
- 6.17. Former Entrepreneurs
- 6.18. How Do You Find Them?
- 6.19. Find a Talent Pool and Go Deep
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7. The Basics of Online Recruiting
- 7.1. Your Company's Web Site
- 7.2. Employment Web Page
- 7.3. A Great Example
- 7.4. Simple Works
- 7.5. Remember Your Knockout Factors
- 7.6. Following Up on Employment Applications
- 7.7. Make It Easy on Yourself
- 7.8. Online Job Boards
- 7.9. Will I Be Overwhelmed with Resumes?
- 7.10. Additional Sites to Check Out
- 7.11. Industry-Specific Job Boards
- 7.12. Craigslist
- 7.13. Social Media
- 7.14. What Is LinkedIn?
- 7.15. Posting Jobs on LinkedIn
- 7.16. Sending Direct Communication via LinkedIn
- 7.17. Conducting Due Diligence on Job Candidates
- 7.18. Facebook: Is a Candidate Giving You Reasons to Say No?
- 7.19. Twitter
- 7.20. The Advantages of Twitter over Traditional Job Boards
- 7.21. Great, but How Do I Make This Work?
- 7.22. Get Some Outside Help
- 7.23. Train Your Employees
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8. Using Recruiters Wisely
- 8.1. When to Use Recruiters
- 8.2. Finding the Right Recruiter
- 8.3. Criteria for Selecting a Recruiting Firm
- 8.4. They Know Your Industry
- 8.5. They Listen
- 8.6. They Have a Transparent Process
- 8.7. They Are Good Ambassadors for Your Business
- 8.8. You Have a Relationship Based on Trust
- 8.9. Contingent versus Retained Recruiters
- 8.10. Contingent Recruiters
- 8.11. Retained Recruiters
- 8.12. Specialists versus Generalists
- 8.13. Hire the Recruiter, Not the Firm
- 8.14. Checklist for Interviewing Recruiters
- 8.15. Check Recruiters' References
- 8.16. Negotiating the Contract
- 8.17. A Word about Fees
- 8.18. Lessons Learned from the Best Recruiters
- 8.19. Ask for Referrals Constantly
- 8.20. The Internet Is Not a Replacement for Networking
- 8.21. Cast a Wide Net
- 8.22. The Process Is King
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9. Interviewing and the Economic Value of Good Looks
- 9.1. A-Players Are Attracted by High Standards
- 9.2. Create an Interview Process that Works
- 9.3. Always Start with Your A-Player Profile
- 9.4. Capture and Quantify Your A-Player Profile
- 9.5. Create an Interview Scorecard
- 9.6. Conduct Multiple Interviews
- 9.7. Use Multiple Interviewers
- 9.8. Create Interviewing Teams
- 9.9. Interview Candidates, Don't Educate Them
- 9.10. Ask the Right Questions
- 9.11. Open-Ended Question
- 9.12. Closed-Ended Question
- 9.13. Always Ask Follow-Up Questions
- 9.14. Don't Be Afraid of Silence
- 9.15. Take Notes
- 9.16. Implement a Post-Interview Review
- 9.17. Avoid Hiring in Your Own Image
- 9.18. Leverage Reference Checks
- 9.19. Put People at Ease in a Casual Setting
- 9.20. Don't Oversell
- 9.21. "Live-Fire" Interview Exercises
- 9.22. Take Candidates with You
- 9.23. Have Candidates Make a Sales Call
- 9.24. The Paid Interview
- 9.25. Have Them Create an Action Plan
- 9.26. Passion Is Demonstrated by Preparation
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10. Popping the Hood on Candidates Using Assessment Tools
- 10.1. Solving the People Puzzle
- 10.2. Creating a Common Language
- 10.3. Avoid Hiring Landmines
- 10.4. Revealing the Gaps between People and Positions
- 10.5. The Sweet-and-Sour Effect
- 10.6. Who Will Be Motivated to Do the Job?
- 10.7. Avoiding an Organ Rejection: The Importance of Cultural Fit
- 10.8. Are People Driven to Achieve?
- 10.9. The Difference between Drive and Self-Esteem
- 10.10. Integrating Assessments into the Interview Process
- 10.11. Proven Tips for Using Assessments Effectively
- 10.12. Bring Job Candidates into Your Office to Complete Pre-Employment Assessments
- 10.13. Find Assessments That Work and Trust Them
- 10.14. Background Checks and Drug Tests
- 10.15. Legal Compliance
- Conclusion: Keeping the A-Players You Hire
- Web Sites for Free Additional Resources
- Notes
Product information
- Title: How to Hire A-Players: Finding the Top People for Your Team - Even If You Don't Have a Recruiting Department
- Author(s):
- Release date: April 2010
- Publisher(s): Wiley
- ISBN: 9780470562246
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