Truth 31. The candidates you’re seeking may not be the ones you need

As this book is being written, the United States is suffering record high unemployment rates. One report states that there are 3.5 Americans competing for every job opening. From the perspective of the recruiter, that could be good news: a buyer’s market for staffing. Theoretically, you could be having your pick of great talent—if those available candidates were actually qualified for the open positions. On the contrary, though, perhaps it feels like you’re still going begging for the best. From what you can tell while sorting resumés and conducting interviews, “All the good ones are taken.” Is it really that impossible to catch the eye of great candidates?

Maybe part of your problem is that you’re putting out the wrong bait? Have you updated your own expectations for the people who will fit into your team culture? Have your long-term employees matured and moved on to different life priorities without you noticing? Considering how your company has changed over time, might you need to update position responsibilities descriptions? After all, would the best candidate for the position you created and wrote the description for a decade ago be a good fit for that same position today?

Maybe part of your problem is that you’re putting out the wrong bait?

Depending on your industry and your geographic location, you probably spent the past 10 years or so positioning your company as a fun place to work. Maybe your company isn’t so much fun these days, but it’s still nice to have that reputation that yours is a company where time flies. In fact, maybe that feeling is still in your online Careers tab.

One company I worked with was so committed to being a tantalizing magnet for high-talent, high-tech resumés that its Careers tab actually featured a candid picture of a poker game in progress, with one guy looking up at the camera while making an L on his forehead. Now that’s a really fun place to work! Fun, that is, for people who don’t want to work, who enjoy burning up the business hours playing poker with others who will gladly tell the world that they’re losers.

That message to the outside world during the high-tech company’s ramp-up phase might have been fine in its early days. But that was then. And this is, well, now. The early employees grew up. Got married—even the L-guy found someone who would marry him. Had kids. Began to take their work very seriously, especially as the company was positioning itself to go public. They weren’t so much interested in the much ballyhooed margarita machines or the fact they could wear flip-flops to work. And they came to resent the sound of pock-pock-pock from the Ping-Pong table down the hall as the new hires took part in the “fun” of the work culture but not so much the “work” part of the work culture.

This company’s top talent really didn’t want to work with new hires who were attracted to the company because word on the street was that the company was a party place. They wanted to work with serious-minded colleagues who were focused on getting the job done.

If you’re getting a rash of losers lining up for the few jobs you have open, it’s definitely not because the pickings are slim out there. It could be because your recruitment message is so 2003. Plenty of really wonderful, dedicated, seasoned professionals out there are looking for an opportunity where they can do more than pull down a paycheck or the tap handle for free beer.

If you’re in the enviable position of being able to hire new talent for your team, take a proactive role in making sure that you attract the right resumés:

• Confer with your team already in place. Beyond what skills and experiences they need from the new hire to help them meet corporate objectives, what kind of person are they looking for as a colleague? To be clear, you’re not taking an order from them. The conversation will help everyone gain clarity about what personality and work style would be a good fit in a culture that has evolved while you were focusing on other priorities.

• Take a tour of your own department. To an outsider looking at your workspace for the first time, would the posters, decorations, and toys accurately reflect your team culture? Do they overwhelm any emphasis that your employees place on the quality of customer service and high performance? Or do they augment your team’s core philosophy that great work and joie de vivre go hand in hand?

Are you attracting the right candidates for the right reason? Now’s your chance to improve the quality of your bait to improve the quality of your candidates. You’re not only helping your company. You’re also helping qualified candidates out there who are looking for a great next career move. And you’ll be doing your current employees a really big favor.