(b) Creative Ideas for Recruiting "The Right" New Employees

In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins offers the claim that great companies begin their journey to success by first making sure they "have the right people on board the bus". In today's ever-changing business world, having the right people on your side is indeed one of the most important keys to success - people who have the right attitude and learning skills that will help them push the organization forward.

In order to help you do so, I offer below several ideas that will help you draw the best people to your organization. Obviously, this is just the first step towards keeping them on the bus with you - you must build the organization so that they can realize their potential and grow their power, to the benefit of both themselves and the company.

1. Using a Real Bus: Rent a bus. You may call it "The bus to Greatness" (and paint the name on the side). Drive the bus to strategic locations around town where there is a high concentration of people who have the basic skills you are looking for (e.g. - near a college, next to the offices of competing firms, etc.). In your "bus stops" invite people to board the bus for a short ride if they fit a basic candidate profile. Then - as they travel with you for 30-60 minutes - challenge their learning and motivation with various unexpected tasks. Keep a close watch and identify the ones that deal best with the changing requirements of the bus ride, and invite these highly motivated and eager to learn candidates for a more conventional form of testing of their fit to your organization.
   
   
2. Playing Board Games: When people play board games they reveal a lot of their communication skills, their attitude towards learning and towards success and failure, their behavior in conditions of uncertainty and change, and lots more. You may incorporate sessions of playing board games in your recruitment and screening processes to discern these essential personal traits in prospective employees. You may find my article on Management Training through Board Games helpful if you wish to implement this idea.
   
   
3. (Online) Competition: Think of a competition which is related to your current business. For instance - if you are an insurance firm, the competition may be to come up with the best new insurance plan for a specific target population. If you are a non-profit organization, the goal might be to offer new ways to raise funds for your cause. Another option may be a competition which is related to you core values and culture. If your firm attaches great significance to personal integrity, the competition may be to present moral business dilemmas and ask candidates to write the endings to these stories. These kinds of competitions may easily be posted on a company website or blog and call for the active response of website visitors who fit your candidate profile.
   
   
4. Do Nothing!!!: In a certain part of the recruitment process create this unexpected situation - tell the candidates that at this point your are letting them come up with the best ways to prove that they are the right people for your organization. You may give them from 1 hour to a full week (depending on the available time and resources, and on the complexity of the role) to come up with ideas to demonstrate their own abilities and personal skills. This situation tests their ability to deal with ambiguous business challenges in the future. If they show initiative, an ability to gather relevant information and creativity - they might also use these capacities when your organization has to deal with unexpected opportunities and threats.