Four ways to win the talent war

Mario Laudi, founder of the Toronto-based executive search firm Laudi Group, recently blogged about how similar the current tech market is to the late 1990s bubble. In his post, It’s looking Like 1999 again, are you ready for the party? he writes that jobs at tech companies are going unfilled longer as the war for talent escalates.

I agree with Mario wholeheartedly (and not just because we share an office space and are both grizzled tech veterans). There is nowhere near enough world-class talent to go around in the Canadian market.

Here’s why. We’ve got a great start-up environment right now, thanks to lower barriers to entry and web-based products that entrepreneurs can get to market sooner. The downside of this stampede is that the talent pool is getting watered down. Attracting the best is now a massive recruiting issue.

So what can you do to attract the best talent?

First treat hiring the best people with the same urgency and energy that you focus on gaining customers and strategic partners. Treat hiring like any business prospect that you must win for your company. This means having a concrete engagement plan, understanding in detail what it will take to hire the people you want.

Second, understand that paying more will not guarantee success. Options that are years away from maturity are nice but everyone throws that in the mix. The best are going to ride your vision and passion – or not.

Third, make hiring a few extraordinary people a priority. Companies that have had extraordinary outcomes are run by handful of extraordinary people.

Finally, decide which roles and skill sets will impact the growth of your company most. Then zero in on very targeted hiring. Make poaching the best and brightest a job for your best and brightest. The best are not looking for jobs – they have jobs. You have to convince them to leave because you have a better opportunity. You must define how you differentiate your culture, show passion, and clearly identify the company’s big opportunity to your hiring target.

If your company is not yet mature enough to compete at this level, hire the best talent you can possibly attract now and be prepared to upgrade quickly when you gain momentum and have a better story to tell (most companies wait too long to do this). Also, get on campus and build your own talent funnel that will enable you to find and leverage raw talent before others do.

If you do not have huge anxiety over this issue today, one of three things is happening:

1. Your company is a juggernaut and the best people are knocking down your door (1 in 1,000 companies)
2. You can’t differentiate great talent from average talent.
3. You have your head in the sand.

Please, lose sleep over this one. Then go do something about it.