A Recruiting Approach: Swapping Seats

Given the continued hiring boom, organizations are still struggling with hiring.  A few weeks ago, we shared a number of ideas to help with this here and wanted to suggest another approach that may work for your organization.

Jim Collins has a concept that was developed in his book “Good to Great” called First Who, Then What.

“If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.”

Jim Collins

While the context for this concept deals with corporate transformation (with the bus representing an organization and seats representing a role within the organization), I would like to primarily focus on the part that says, “the right people in the right seats” and view it with a recruiting lens.

Questions to Ask

• Do you feel you have the right people on the bus and that they are in the right seats?
  
  
• If so, are you struggling recruiting for the seats that remain unfilled?
  
  
• If those seats remain unfilled, what is the impact on your organization?
  
  
• What if someone shifted seats and filled a seat you are hiring for? You could then recruit for their previous role.

For example, let’s say you are looking for an operations manager who will help run your organization. So far, none of the candidates have been strong enough to progress to the final interview stage. However, there is a project manager that works at your organization that has expressed an interest in the operations role. If the recruiting team interviews the project manager and feels they are a fit, then the recruiting team could recruit for a project manager instead. (Yes, recruiting for the project manager role may still have its challenges, but could prove more fruitful than recruiting for the operations manager role you initially set out to fill.)

Some Steps to Take Regarding This

• Review with your internal team the roles that you are recruiting for and see if any of the employees show interest.
  
  
• Of those that show interest, do they have the skills and experience needed to fill the new role?
  
  
  • If not, could the company provide training and mentoring to grow the employee into the role?
    
    
  • If they do, have the recruiting team still interview them.
     
    • NOTE: It can be tempting to skip some of the interview stages since the person is an employee – but don’t. You want to treat internal and external candidates the same to make sure you are being fair and consistent.
      
      
• If the unfilled position is filled by the internal employee, the recruiting team can now focus on backfilling the internal employee’s previous role.

In the end, the harder to fill role is swapped for an easier one (potentially) and an internal employee receives a great career opportunity.