It’s Easier Than You Think… To Name The Best Employee In Your Industry (A recruiting tip from “Deadliest Catch”)

I never had TV-hiring tips until Freddy was labeled as the best worker in his industry.

Like most recruiters, I haven’t found TV shows to be a great source of hiring tips, until one episode of Deadliest Catch (a crab fishing documentary). It was clear that deckhand Freddy Maugatai was literally the best deckhand that the industry’s captains had ever worked with!

One captain even remarked, “He does the work of two.” And the “best I’ve ever worked with” label startled my thinking.

If dozens of captains could quickly and universally agree on who was the best worker in their industry (in a specific job family). Then, there might also be a corporate method for identifying “the best that you’ve ever worked with” in the corporate world. It’s worth the effort because…

this “best that I’ve ever worked with” person may literally be
the highest value recruit in your industry.

If You’re Skeptical, You Can Test This Premise

After putting some time and thought into this extremely valuable potential recruiting opportunity, here’s what I discovered.

Test the premise by asking your own employees – start out by testing the assumption that the well-connected people who work for your company know the best that they’ve worked with. Executives and those who work in the job family are always talking about the best and what they’ve accomplished. Start your internal validation of this premise by informally asking a handful of your own top performers in that job family to independently name the best. This will show whether they quickly come up with a name and whether the names are consistent. And because many of your company’s best employees have moved between other industry companies, some of your employees will have had a chance to work with “the best” while they were employed at other industry companies. So, ask your employees who have “worked around your industry” the important question. 

You can test the premise with actual industry leaders – if you are attending an industrywide convention soon. Consider it a great chance to test your premise with outsiders. Informally ask a handful of speakers to determine if they’re willing or even eager to provide you with a few top names. 

And if you decide that this recruiting approach is worth a try, here are some implementation tips.

---

Implementation Steps For Identifying “The Best That You’ve Ever Worked With”

When you think about it, ask people who the best employee they have ever worked with is.  It’s a low-tech, low-cost concept that’s easy to understand. It is a sourcing tool with the potential to identify amazing prospects. All the program requires is a process for continuously asking connected industry people the same key question. Below are the five implementation steps.

Step 1 – Be Precise In The Question That You Ask

You need to be careful not to ask a less powerful question. For example: “Name the best employee in your industry.” That question will generate inappropriate names. Such as names of employees that this person believes to be the best. When, in fact, you only want the names of individuals “that they have actually worked with” who are industry stars. So always include the ending component of the question (“that you have worked with?”). By including that phrase, you are helping to ensure that the person nominating the name has actually worked with the person they are nominating. So the final question that you use every time is. Can you help me?… 

“By giving me the name of the best person that you’ve ever worked with in our industry?”

(And then specify the job family)

Step 2 – Narrow Down The List Of Who You Will Ask

You needn’t be overly precise about who you ask. But whenever possible, ask your question to industry executives and COOs. As well as managers, team leads, and your own top performers in the job family that you are targeting. 

Step 3 – Trade Association Conferences Are The Best Place To Start

So many who know your industry and are well-connected attend. These large events will always provide a good yield of names.

• Association leaders – because they build the future of their industry. Trade association officers almost always know top talent. Part of their job is to spot top talent as future officers, conference speakers, potential authors, or Association subgroup team leads. 
• Conference speakers know talent – many of the conference speakers may themselves be “the best”. In my experience, most speakers have already worked with top talent both as part of their company’s work and/or on association committees. You can best approach speakers before they speak in the “speakers lounge”. Most speakers are also more than willing to answer questions after their talk. Or anytime throughout the event if you thank them for their exceptional speech. 
• Ask attendees who work across many companies – most quality consultants, trainers, and vendors work with multiple top performers. And because they frequently move between companies. If they consider you to be a potential client, they will gladly answer all of your questions. 
• Other events – when you attend monthly local events that cover this job family. You should be asking event organizers and speakers.

Step 4 – Other Opportunities To Ask For Names

There are a variety of other ways to gather names from people that work at your own company. They include:

• Ask your COO – COOs are among the most knowledgeable about talent across industries. If you have a chance to ask your current or past COOs, jump at it. You should also be asking every senior executive who joined your company from a large industry competitor.
• Ask the managers in your job family – because your managers are likely to know the best in the industry. Before regularly scheduled management meetings in your job family begin. You should come early and ask for names. And any time that a group of managers in your job family gathers (like at retreats). You should be there asking your question. 
• Call back top references – because top job references are almost always knowledgeable and well-connected. You should call back the strong references of top candidates in your job family whom your company has recently hired away from an industry competitor. 
• Ask new hires in your job family – during onboarding, you should be asking experienced new hires who have joined from another major industry company to provide names.
• If you are a B2B company, ask your major clients – as a B2B company, you will likely have many clients throughout your industry. So when you get a chance, ask them and any of your strategic partners for names.
• Ask your corporate alumni – finally, because your former top employees are likely to still be loyal even though they are working elsewhere. You should ask alumni who worked in your targeted job family. 

Step 5 – Narrow Down Your Best In The Industry List And Put Them In Your Talent Pipeline

If you end up finding that there was a strong agreement among your list of “best they’ve ever worked with” names. You should immediately put your universal choice on your “most wanted list.” Then, begin subtly courting them. I also recommend assigning a top recruiter or manager in their field to start building a strong trust relationship with them.

However, whenever there is no clear agreement on who is the best, I would suggest that you do a confidential reference check on the employees who were among the top three vote-getters. In order to further narrow down your list of names. And when you finally choose the best person in this job family to hire, you should also screen them to determine if they are a team player as well as a top performer. Of course, a third recruiting option is to put all the top-nominated workers who got multiple votes in your talent pipeline, for further assessment and for consideration as a future recruiting target. 

Final Thoughts

Those who follow my writing will instantly realize that the sourcing approach I am recommending here uses human memory and emotion. And as a 100% data-driven talent advisor, this is literally my only recruiting exception to my data-driven rule. It exists because after you have completed several hires under this approach. You can easily measure how much improvement it has provided over the average on-the-job performance (quality of hire) of recent other hires. 

Incidentally, I would answer Chris Forman as the best that I have ever worked with in recruiting.

Thanks for reading and reposting this article.

Notes for the reader.

This is the latest article from Dr. Sullivan, who was called “the Michael Jordan of Hiring” by Fast Company.

Please help spread his ideas by sharing this with your team/network and posting it on your favorite social media.

Dr John Sullivan is its author – it first appeared in the 9/8/26 issue of Aggressive Talent Management.