Cheezhead

Do we need to develop talent in the US? Do we have enough technical workers, service workers, etc? Many think not while others believe the global market will supply needed talent just fine. It’s not a bad idea to plan for the worst - not enough talent and start finding ways to develop the talent we need.

So a simple process that worked in the middle of the Y2K scare and beginning of the Internet boom. Remember we were all scrambling for talent, including cobol programmers, CICS systems programmers, sales, marketing and all things internet. In the midst of this, Dell was building their first Account Executive sales force in the field and needed to hire 15 top AEs, soup to nuts in 60 days. Not an easy task.

The company came up with a winning strategy.

Source top talent and go to the cities to interview in person - hard for talent not to take a look

Theme - the truth…Hire the best 15 in the country, period.

Lay out a time line for interviews, reviews, questions, validation, decision and start date - formal training…And stick to it!

Pick the top three candidates from each city and invite them to corporate to interview

Set up interview teams of three hiring authorities

Train them in behavioral interviewing and assign each an area to explore

Interviews conducted as a panel

The team had to pick one of the three candidates to hire

Force the panel to ‘discuss’ feedback in person immediatley after the interview

If the team had any concerns that the talent was deficient in any area, they had to come up with a development plan, discuss with the prospective candidate, agree on plan of action and take responsibility for getting the talent up to speed

The development process had to be completed in the normal ‘time to productivity’ stated in the company business plan

The strategy worked and Dell hired 13 of the 15 AEs needed. This team turned out to be some of Dell’s best and remained with the company for a long time. Interestingly, the company hired AEs that had no deficiencies. As a matter of fact over half took cuts in base pay to join Dell and participate in upside and the company’s growth.

The lessons learned:

Talent wants a plan, a process with a timeline that the company sticks to
Talent appreciates honesty
Talent appreciates accountability
Talent appreciates being told where they need extra work and that the company hiring is willing to provide

Logical and worked in this example of a public company with a growing brand and evident upside. Will the strategy work for a private company or for a start up? May not be needed, but let’s watch this year and if the competition for talent heats up this is a strategy to consider.

Have a Great 08!