After a sports team beats yours, you try to hire their highest impact player away. Corporations can also prevent losing future competitions using a “hire those that beat you” recruiting program. Which is a program that targets directly hiring at least one key employee away from a competitor’s team that …

Hire one key person from a competitor’s team and instantly gain all of their operational knowledge (i.e., non-product secrets). Yes, Team-level Competitor Recruiting is a targeted recruiting practice (some mistakenly call it poaching) that operates at the team level. This approach is designed to hire one key person away from …

Firms compare their products to their competitors, so also make it easy to compare jobs side-by-side.  Win Most Employer Comparisons By Weaponizing Opposition Research Making stark side-by-side comparisons may be uncommon in recruiting, but they are a standard practice throughout business, especially during these times of fierce business competition. Most …

Sadly it’s rare to find “gaining a competitive advantage” on any list of strategic recruiting goals. This is a strategic thinkpiece. And that omission from our goals is troubling. Because every other strategic business function that operates in a “highly competitive environment” like finance, product development, and supply chain.”  For …

Losing Michael Jordan hurts but losing Homer Simpson rates a party, so avoid lumping all turnover together.

It’s naïve to think you’ll win a talent war without the elements of a war strategy.

Employee referrals are the top hiring source, and among niche subprograms, proactive referrals from top performers are the best. So why not prioritize your top-performing employees as a primary source for referring additional exceptional candidates.  All employee referrals are not equal. Because a referral from a top performer employee will …

Even after the initial negative impacts from voluntary buyouts fade. It’s important that executives and shareholders be aware of some continuing dollar costs that may take some time before they negatively impact your balance sheet.

If you are a shareholder in a major company, voluntary employee buyouts should alarm you. First, I find them to be the single most costly strategic blunder* of all HR actions. Second, their bottom-line result may actually become negative when you calculate the real costs of paying your best employees to “take the money and run.”

If you work in the conservative world of corporate or agency recruiting, it never hurts to occasionally take a quick look at the wild side of recruiting. Such a look is especially valuable if you’re looking for a competitive edge in recruiting (and who isn’t). You gain a competitive advantage …