Imagine your life if you were at 100% headcount with zero open roles to hire for.

It might seem as far fetched as winning the lottery but it is closer than you think and just as valuable!

It is easy to get distracted with delivering and responding to your CEO/Board/Customers demands which seem desparately important right now but nothing is more of a priority than filling your open roles. Here are five ways to rapidly do that:

1. Make sure the ball is not in your court

Consider all of your open roles you are hiring for, are others relying on you to send them information, make a decision, or make progress? - It is time to return the serve and make sure that the ball isn’t in your court to avoid preventable delays. 

2. Don’t rely on your recruiters to recruit for you

Every recruiter I have ever met is ridiculously overloaded. Business leaders have unrealistic expectations about what their recruitment teams can actually do for them. You have to take ownership for hiring key roles yourself, or provide the right capacity and capability for your recruitment teams.

3. Tell your network who you are looking to hire

Last week I launched The Wright Exchange, an invite only executive community event bringing together CEOs and Senior Executives. An unexpected bonus of the event was the spontaneous referrals and recommendations executives were giving each other for their open roles. Are you letting your network know who you want to hire?

4. Spend 50% of your time hiring

As unthinkable as this is, if you have a direct report opening on your team, you need to prioritize 50% of your time preparing, assessing, and interviewing candidates for that position. You won’t get fast traction without it. 

5. Temporarily over invest in your hiring pipeline

One company I worked with was desperately under resourced and their open roles were severely impacting their ability to deliver their revenue goals. I showed them how their hiring pipeline couldn’t even keep them up with their usual attrition levels, never mind the new roles they wanted to hire. We calculated the company had to invest seven figures to hit their hiring plan. Which they approved, we implemented, and they hit record profit levels that year because they had hit their hiring plan showing a 9x return on investment. Is your hiring pipeline dehydrated and costing you money?

You make choices every day where you spend your time and so does your team. How can you refocus today?

I'm going to be in London week of June 17 speaking at three Gartner Evanta Executive Summits for CIOs, CISOs, and CHROs - know someone who would like a ticket - or someone I should meet when I am that side of the pond? - I love introductions!

I am also going to be in Savannah, Seattle, Palo Alto, New York, and Phoenix over the next few months - let me know if there is someone I should meet in any of those cities.

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/