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Silly money isn't a good recruiting tactic in my experience (from the original dot com boom days - which was the only time I ever had silly money available :-):
by adrianhoward 15y ago
Silly money isn't a good recruiting tactic in my experience (from the original dot com boom days - which was the only time I ever had silly money available :-):
* It motivates B and C players more. So you get a lot more chaff to filter out in your application process. You also get many more D players (the ones who are knowingly incompetent and are actively trying to deceive you into recruiting them).
* The major motivation of A players usually isn't money (once you reach the "fair wage" stage). So you don't attract that many extra A players.
* Some of the A players who do get tempted by the extra cash discover that it's not quite as wonderful as they expect and leave for more interesting work. Wasting large chunks of your time and money.
* It may turn some A players off. There's a unwritten rule that you get more cash to make up for dull work. So offering silly money implies to some that the work is going to be exceptionally uninteresting.
The absolute best way I know to recruit A players is:
0) Understand the role that needs filling and the kind of person that needs to fill it
1) Have a really interesting job
2) Know how to access the A players
(I'm amazed at the number of organisations I come across that skip step 0...)
- pacaro 15y agoSilly money may not be a good recruiting tactic, but the importance of understanding what the market actually is for the A players cannot be understated. So to add to your excellent list 3) Be prepared to be truly market competitive in salary - your target A player may have a 20 year consistent track record of getting sh*t done, respect their sense of self worth. Being immodest I consider myself an A player, when a startup offering "competitive salary and benefits" low-balls my current income by 50% they've wasted my time and theirs
- jquery 15y ago> the importance of understanding what the market actually is for the A players cannot be understated. This can't be emphasized enough. What you consider "silly money" probably isn't silly money to an A player. In fact they may even find it low.
- adrianhoward 15y agoNope. It was definitely silly money..... ahhh... the 1990's :-)
- adrianhoward 15y agoAbsolutely. Indeed I'd argue that it's an implicit part of performing step zero - understanding the role and the person. If you don't understand what your potential employee is looking for in a role - be it money, responsibilities, working environment, or whatever - then you're never going to find 'em. For example I'm continually amazed at the number of companies who decide that they need an uber-geek with a ten year track record of delivering e-commerce platforms (or whatever) - and then go about recruiting them as if they were unemployed. Sigh.