Big Red Car here on a day with brilliant sunshine, bit of a chill, and off to church to pray for all of us. Glorious Sunday!

So, the other day we were talking with some overcaffeinated CEOs about hiring.

One point that was left off was the utilization of recruiting as a part of the hiring mindset.

When the lion lays down with the lamb, the lamb is not going to get much sleep. Recruitment, back on topic.

Stop — recruiting is different than hiring.

In recruitment, for purposes of this discussion, we are talking about soliciting someone who is currently employed and is not looking for a job.

The best workers, team members, professionals are going to be people at the top of their profession. They have jobs because they are the best.

Those are the people you want.

OK, Big Red Car, how do we do it? Recruitment?

Therein lies the rub. It is not easy. You can do it in the following ways:

 1. Hire a professional recruiter and instruct them to find you candidates who are currently at the top of their game and fully employed.

The best recruiters have built a lifetime database of top professionals in their specialty. Need a CFO? Hire a recruiter who works the C-suite slums.

If you get stuck, call me. I know a bunch of good recruiters.

 2. Use industry groups to identify the best talent on a peer-to-peer basis. Ask around.

Bit messier to be sure.

 3. Target talent at companies who are at the top of the food chain in your industry. Now, you are looking for the company first, and the individual at that company second.

That’s all you can do.

Remember that we said that a good CEO is constantly looking for, spotting talent. A good CEO has a list of folks she wants well before the need arises. Still, it is tough.

Admonition about hiring v recruitment

If somebody is looking for a job, there is a reason. It is not unfair to suggest that the reason may be because they are not at the top of their game.

In hiring with multiple candidates, I always used to chop off the ones I knew I would never hire.

If you have 20 candidates, it is easier to get to the top 5 by getting rid of the bottom 15 than it is to try to find the top 5 amongst the entire smorgasbord of 20. It also consumes less of your valuable time.

When I had subordinates who were weeding through a list of a hundred applicants, I would suggest they use an app called “Take the Interview.” Take the Interview is now “ConveyIQ.com”.<<< LINK

I haven’t used them since ConveyIQ absorbed Take the Interview, so you’re on your own. Good luck.

Think about it. Not to be mean, but if somebody is looking for a job, could that be a disqualifying characteristic if you’re looking for top talent? Hell yes!

So, dear reader, there you have it.

But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Hey, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!