Landing the First Draft Picks: Setting Your Hiring Goals For the Year Ahead

Let’s pretend, just for a moment, that instead of hiring for a major corporation, you are actually in charge of completing the player roster for a major NFL team.

I know. Pretty exciting stuff, right?

If your job consisted of choosing the players for your major sports team, my guess is that searching for those players wouldn’t be limited to the weeks surrounding your openings. Instead, you would likely spend the entire year prior to filling those slots doing your research. Networking, paying attention to performance, and collecting stats would all be considered a valuable use of your time. Planning, research and preparation would be the name of the game for you.

So let me ask you why the same commitment doesn’t exist when it comes to completing your company’s lineup? Why is it that hiring managers so often wait to the last minute when fulfilling hiring needs?

I’m not trying to guilt you. This is a precedent that has been set industry wide – across multiple industries, really. Companies don’t always think about their hiring needs until they are right up next to those holes in their own rosters.

But imagine how much more successful you could be if you set your hiring goals at the beginning of every year, and if you then committed to meeting those goals throughout the year.

Why don’t you give it a try this year?

Respect the Budget: The number one thing to keep in mind when cultivating your annual hiring goals should be how those goals adhere to your budget. Pay attention to how much room you have given yourself to grow before creating lofty and unattainable goals.
Look Towards Future Projects: The next step is to analyze the projects you anticipate beginning in the year to come. We can’t always predict things like turnover, but we can evaluate staffing needs for projected growth.
Value Quality over Quantity: Never turn a resume away, even if you don’t currently have any hiring needs. Keep the promising resumes on hand, and maintain connections with potential applicants who seem to have the qualities you would be looking for during hiring season. Then, value quality hires. Yes, you may sometimes have to pay more for the perfect fit – but that investment pays out tenfold when you factor in less turnover and increased production.

But what if you’re sitting there thinking to yourself, “That’s all well and good, but who has the time for a year of planning and preparation surrounding each and every hire?” The reality is, most hiring managers have a whole lot more on their plate then just preparing for the NFL Draft of filling open positions. For those of you shaking your heads and thinking you are already stretched too thin – that’s where a quality recruiter comes in. Remember, my sole responsibility is to prepare you for that draft. It’s my full time job. So if you are feeling overwhelmed already by the prospect of focusing on hiring goals for the entire year, it might be time to start developing a relationship with a quality recruiter who knows your business and has the time to seek out the top draft picks for your open positions.