Hiring Hurricane – 5 Tips for Managing the Urgent Hire

The tech sector is fast paced and always evolving. Hiring in such an environment can be fast and furious when the sales season is ramping up, the project deadlines are set, new releases are ramping up. The hiring process when done with urgency can feel like a hurricane. How do you hire talent in a fast paced environment without succumbing to the storm?

Here are 5 tips for managing the hiring process when urgency has taken hold:

1. Be prepared. Know what you need, what you want, and how to articulate that to those involved in the hiring process. HR can be much more agile if they have clear instructions. Sourcing becomes more streamlined when the role and profile are clearly specified. Articulate your needs once, and move on to the next step.

2. Be agile. If you needed to onboard your new account executive, marketing director, product manager, or mechanical engineer yesterday, then get out your calendar (and the team’s calendar) and make a plan. Share the calendar with your recruiting partners, and delegate. Accommodate off hours, non-traditional venues (airport, coffee shop), and other agile hiring practices – be flexible.

3.  Target the top performers. Focus on sourcing assessments that identify talent that has a proven track record of going above and beyond (sales targets, time to market, innovation).  Even when you need someone on the ground now, it had better be the right person. And there’s no greater impact to your bottom line than exceptional performance by the employees.

4. Hire your competitors. Not only does this allow you to have key personnel up and running with their eye on the prize in light speed, it will slow down the competition as they scramble to recover their own game plan.

5. Figure out why you got behind the 8-ball. Hiring with urgency can always be done, but it is typically a lot easier on you and the team if you can manage your hiring process and accomplish your talent onboarding before there is such urgency. Review processes and identify how you got yourself in this situation, so you can adjust your hiring process to avoid such a rush in the future.

Redfish Technology, Inc. is a longtime recruiter in the high tech and cleantech sectors, serving Silicon Valley and the nation since through the dot-com and the dot-bomb. We recruit top management and executive talent for exciting technology companies in software and high tech as well as clean technology and renewable energy. Need an urgent hire? Call us today. Planning for tomorrow, call us today.