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Categories: Career Blogs
Are you in the process of contemplating that next big hire? Someone who will perform, be a great fit for your organization and leave a positive legacy with donors, staff, volunteers and stakeholders when they leave. Someone you can say improved your organization for the better, much better.
While that might be daunting, given the competition for talent in the NFP sector and the high degree of turnover and failed hires, we believe that there are things you can do to improve your chances of success.
There is a lot of pressure to hire quickly, minus the necessary due diligence. We’re always surprised when people say to us, “wow that was the most intense reference I’ve ever completed”.
With retention rates of 4.8 years for our average placement, we thought it would be helpful to share some of our best practices to help you with that next big hire.
It Takes Time To Hire The Right Person
  • Be committed to hiring the right person and don’t get caught up in trying to do it as fast as possible. There have many times when the absolute right person has come along when everyone was ready to give up. It takes a lot more time to undo a mistake.
  • Get very clear about the role you are recruiting for and the qualities that work best in your organization. Use the qualities of other successful hires to build your list of traits.
  • As a leader, get others to challenge your thinking on what you truly need versus what you think you need. Going out into the market with the wrong role profile is a costly mistake.
  • Get to know everything about your finalist candidates. Don’t ignore warning signs. While they might not amount to anything, best to know. We use a SWOT analysis to keep ourselves honest.
  • Be transparent and honest with your candidates. Tell them the challenges you are facing and make sure they are up for it.
  • Be flexible in your thinking about the right candidate. The ability to pivot from your original position profile is important in a tight market.
  • Challenge your thinking with a candidate you are super excited about. The more you think you have the perfect candidate, the more you need to challenge your assumptions.
Big picture, hiring great people takes time, perseverance and honesty. You can do it!
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