In the world of business, there is never enough time in the day—especially when you have the demand of wearing multiple “hats” as an employer.
Do What You Do Best and Outsource the Rest
If you were to ask the great masses of business leaders “What makes a business successful?” The reply would be “The people.” For some, it may not always be the first answer, but it would fall no shorter than the second. The challenge, however, is in finding the “right people”—those who share in your vision, who are willing to go the extra mile.
But where are these go-getters, these dream employees? You know they exist, because well, you are one of them, or at one time you were because that’s what got you where you are today.
So, where is the challenge? Why is your turnover high and your retention low? Why do you have positions that chronically remain vacant? Because the talent acquisition hat doesn’t fit you! And that’s okay!
“Do what you do best and outsource the rest.” – Peter Drucker
You would never ask your mechanic to perform open-heart surgery on you, and chances are they would never ask you to look under their hood.
Having the right people in the right seats is not only important for a business; it’s vital, if you want it to run an effective and efficient business. Easier said than done, right? Absolutely, without a doubt! It requires time, time that needs to be dedicated to searching, researching, interviewing, and interviewing some more, and then holding your breath and hoping you made the right decision. Sound familiar?
We waste a lot of time doing things that we either don’t like to do or don’t have the natural aptitude for—not surprising that those two things often are the same.
One of the worst decisions we see far too often in companies is not filling the vacant positions, just dispersing the tasks of the position throughout the team or, worse yet, adding the entire position to another team member’s role. We all know too well what an overwhelming failure that results in, with the guaranteed outcome of now having to fill two positions.
Time is valuable and it’s the only thing you can’t get back.
Part of being a great leader is allowing those who are passionate in their vision to support you in yours.
But how do you do that? Delegation! Any leader will agree—not enough do it, but many will agree. It is a leap of faith without a doubt to trust someone with your most valuable assets: your people. This should not be taken lightly, you certainly don’t need to pass this responsibly off to a company or a person who also has too much on their plate.
You have a responsibly to your business and existing team in your hiring decisions. Everyone is counting on you to make a great hiring decision, but most of all your customers.
This is why it is important to research “who” you are willing to trust with this important task initially. We are fortunate today in having the ability to find out anything and everything we need to know about organizations we are interested in conducting business with. Taking the time to research this will help to eliminate the hours you will reluctantly need to dedicate yourself to in finding or replacing a candidate.
Taking the time to sit down with or have a call with a potential talent acquisition specialist is time well spent; you will either be a good fit or you won’t. But this can be one of the easiest conversations you’ll have if you come prepared with some basic questions. Such as:
What is your passion?
Do you personally have testimonials of your success in candidate placement?
What do your best practices look like?
What does your dedication to my talent search look like, and do you have examples of time invested?
And finally…how many candidates do you on average have in the main stream at one time?
You should be looking at the level of dedication that will be available to you. Are the questions posed in the pre-screening generic or specific to your company culture, position requirements, and other needs?
After all, you’re not only wanting to fill a position, you are wanting to be purposeful in adding value to your team, your business, and ultimately increasing the overall success of your company.
Outsourcing talent acquisition is cost-effective, time efficient, and simply the smarter approach to your hiring strategies. And at the end of the day, it will allow you to free yourself up to do what you do best!
