Looking through some holiday photos and festive occasions that included eggnog reminded me of a story that demonstrated the importance of paying a premium for a perfect hire. It all started when my wife, Katrina, came down with a cold. I think I may have mentioned before that we are from the Midwest, where part of every cold remedy includes food. During December, it was no surprise she was craving the Santa shake, which we first found in Omaha at the Goodrich Dairy. They mix eggnog and peppermint ice cream together for the sweetest taste of the holidays. So, it was 10pm when the request came up, and we’re not in Nebraska any more; we’re in LA. But I was off to the grocery store for the ingredients. I headed for the dairy department and I had three choices for the eggnog. Two options were in paper milk cartons that were $1.79 each. Then, I spotted Broguiere’s Eggnog. It came in the old-fashioned, glass milk bottle and I could see that it was the perfect color, consistency and had the customary specs of nutmeg. It was $6.39, more than 3 times the cost of the others.
It was a simple choice, Broguiere’s was the exact profile I was looking for. It met a critical need and time was of the essence. How do you make sure you fit all of these on your next interview?
- Fit the profile: Learn what the company is looking for. Do your research; check all the online possibilities to learn why the company is hiring and what they look for. Find a current employee to talk to. If you are interviewing for a management role in a retail store, walk into a location and talk to one of the managers. Learn why that person is successful. When you first get to talk to HR, question them on what’s most important to the hiring manager.
- Meet a critical need: When researching jobs, find roles that are tied to strategic initiatives. For example, any company that sells to government agencies right now is expanding their public sector sales team to get a piece of the stimulus. This is more critical than, for example, a sales role focused on the home builder segment.
- Find time banded roles: Often the hiring team has a targeted hire date. Ask early about the time line for hiring. Find out what is driving the time line. Is it a product release? A new store? End of quarter goal? If it’s time banded, you could negotiate a premium as the date approaches.
I found the ice cream without incident and the Santa shake was in the blender. It was the exact eggnog Katrina wanted, critical to curing the cold, and delivered before she went to bed. I paid a premium to meet all three objectives, just like I would for the right talent.
Photo by Katrina Snaps. Used by permission.
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Too bad most employers don’t understand that you usually get what you pay for. Here’s another cost that can come from passing on the better but more expensive candidate. Instead of hiring the experienced guy, we hired a brash kid. A few months later that experienced guy beat us out for a big contract while our kid embarassed us with his boasting and swagger. We had to re-recruit, meanwhile that experienced guy has helped his new employer leapfrog over us. Just to save a few thousand dollars in salary!
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