I’ve gone out of my way on this blog to explain that I’m not a salesperson, but that’s only partially true. My primary job isn’t revenue-producing. Yet to be successful as a tech leader, I sell ideas and strategies all the time. Even more than that, I spend an awful lot of time selling my company as a great place to work, with my existing team, and with prospective employees. If you haven’t figured it out by now, this is a core reason for this blog even existing. Like Lloyd Christmas, I put out the vibe. (Okay, not exactly like Lloyd).

I’m nothing without my team

Leaders are measured by the quality of their teams. At the end of the day, that’s it. When leaders realize that, recruiting and retaining top talent shoots straight to the top of the priority list. But here’s the thing: leading a team is a long-term, relational investment with no guarantees. If someone joins your team, then leaves, you are back where you started, but worse, because you lost time and money.

Marketing

Sales and Marketing are sometimes grouped together, but they are very different disciplines. Marketers develop brand equity. They tell compelling stories. They raise public awareness. They create an emotional connection to a brand. Marketers put out the vibe. In this way, I think what I do with recruiting is more analogous to marketing than sales.

Recruiting

This article is about recruiting, but I’d like to specify my target audience: the hiring manager. This article is for you. I realize there are folks reading this right now that work in executive search, talent acquisition, and staffing. You are all professionals, but you can’t do it alone. You need to be paired with an engaged and savvy hiring manager to succeed.

Putting out the vibe in modern times

I’ve enjoyed some good success recruiting and retaining a world-class team. There are a few recent phenomena that influence my approach:

Great Resignation

Last year at this time, the “Great Resignation” was the hot trend. In the wake of Covid and for some, the loss of remote work flexibility, many took the opportunity to find a better job, or leave the workforce altogether.

I wrote about our approach here. While we took our lumps, the great resignation was a net advantage to us. In general, we are able to offer many people the flexibility, mission, and culture that people were looking for.

Quiet Quitting

Then, about six months ago, Quiet Quitting became a hot topic. It was a new term, but mostly an old concept describing a disengaged and burned-out workforce that does just enough to get by. Gallup Research claimed in 2022 that 79% of employees globally are not engaged in their work.

That’s a frighteningly high figure that directly reflects the quality of leadership out there. Be a better leader, and you’ll get better results.

The Tech Layoff of 2023

I’ll add one more dynamic to the list that directly affects the tech industry: the tech layoff of 2023. The interesting dynamic here is that it mostly affects companies where technology is their primary product. Traditional companies with an IT department haven’t been affected nearly as much.

The common thread is that high-tech companies over hired during the pandemic. Now post-pandemic, their revenues can’t support their payroll. For the first time in a while, I’m getting a very healthy response to my job postings. Hooray for that!

The recruiting leader

In light of these trends and my overall belief about the importance of recruiting for leaders, here’s my advice:

First and foremost, Create the vibe. By vibe, I mean culture. Culture means many things, but one quote makes it very clear: “Culture is how employees’ hearts and stomachs feel about Monday morning on Sunday night.” – Bill Marklein, Employ Humanity. When you have a team that is overwhelmingly excited about their work, not only will they stay, but they’ll tell others about it too.

I spend an inordinate amount of time and energy building and protecting our culture. Culture degrades over time and gets attacked constantly. Leaders put in the effort. Read more about that here.

If you’ve done the work to create a good culture, then do the next step, and put out the vibe:

1. Write LinkedIn Content. I write a blog and podcast. You may not have time or interest in that, but you can at least share photos, articles, and write posts about the positive cultural elements in your workplace.
2. Post LinkedIn Jobs. Don’t share job posts with the generic “know anyone interested?” Instead, take the opportunity to highlight the positive cultural aspects of the team and make an invitation to join that team to achieve a worthy mission. Here’s one of my examples that got a lot of traction.
3. Be a podcast guest. I get invited to speak on other people’s podcasts and often get the opportunity to plug my company as a great place to work indirectly through the content of the conversation. I’ve been doing this for years, but I have a few recent examples here and here.
4. Speak in public. I love speaking at events about topics I care about. It’s a chance to give to the community, share stories, and spread brand awareness of my company as a great place to work. I have a few public events coming up soon. I’d love to see some local ZoL readers in the audience. Check them out here and here.
5. Talk to people one-on-one. I do informational interviews. I talk to students. I network with people who are considering a job change or were recently displaced.

This is why I think of myself more like a marketer. People may forget my name. They may even forget my company’s name (by the way, it’s CHS), but they remember the leadership lessons. They remember the stories. They remember how I made them feel.

Then, people find themselves in the job market for one reason or another. Then, they start looking. Then, they see an opportunity at CHS. That jogs their memory. They make the connection. They may still not remember my name, but they make a positive association that CHS=good culture. They apply. They join.

Folks, it works. I’ve been doing this for a while. But you know what’s even better? When there’s a bunch of us doing it. CHSers, join me. Everyone else with a positive culture: you can too. I don’t mind a little healthy competition. There are way too many lousy places to work out there. The world needs to know about the good ones. Let’s go!

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