Your hiring strategy might be the very thing keeping the talent you want from ever finding its way into the conversation.
I’ve thought about that a lot over the years. We can spend weeks talking about the person we need, writing the job description, figuring out compensation, getting everyone aligned… and then use the same hiring process we’ve used for every other position. Post the job. Wait for applications. Review resumes. Schedule interviews. And sometimes that works. But when it doesn’t, we tend to question the candidates before we question the process.
Sometimes the person you want isn’t looking
This is probably one of the biggest things I’ve learned in recruiting.
Some of the people companies would love to hire aren’t spending their evenings scrolling through job postings. They’re working. They’re leading teams, managing projects, hitting numbers, solving problems. They might be perfectly content where they are.
Or maybe not perfectly content, but content enough.
That distinction matters.
I’ve had conversations with people who started with some version of, “I’m really not looking to make a move.” Then twenty minutes later, we’re talking about what they wish was different in their current role, where they want their career to go, and what kind of opportunity might actually get their attention.
That doesn’t mean they’re automatically going to leave. And it certainly doesn’t mean every passive candidate is secretly waiting for a recruiter to call.
It just means the right conversation can uncover something a job posting never could.
If your entire hiring strategy depends on who happens to apply, you’re only seeing one portion of the talent market.
And sometimes the person you’re looking for is sitting outside of it.
More applicants doesn’t always solve the problem
There’s this assumption that if a position is difficult to fill, we just need more candidates.
I get it. It feels logical.
Ten applicants aren’t enough? Let’s get fifty. Fifty aren’t producing the right person? Let’s get a hundred.
But more resumes don’t necessarily get you closer to the hire.
I’ve seen teams spend an incredible amount of time reviewing applicants when, really, the issue wasn’t volume at all. The company needed a very specific person with a particular combination of experience, personality, leadership ability, compensation expectations, and interest in the opportunity.
That’s a narrow target.
And throwing another hundred resumes at a narrow target doesn’t necessarily make it wider.
Sometimes you need to change where you’re looking.
Sometimes you need to change the message.
Sometimes you need to actually go find the person.
That last part gets overlooked.
Recruiting can become very reactive. A role opens, the job gets posted, and then everyone waits to see what comes back. But for important positions, I’ve found that waiting can become its own strategy without anyone intentionally choosing it.
And that can get expensive.
An important seat stays empty. Someone else picks up the workload. A manager starts doing two jobs. Projects move slower. Maybe sales opportunities get missed. Suddenly that “open position” is affecting five other people.
That’s when I start asking a different question.
Are we really struggling to find talent, or are we using a hiring strategy that isn’t designed to reach the talent we actually want?
Those are two very different problems.
The job description isn’t the opportunity
This one took me some time to really appreciate.
Companies spend a lot of energy describing what they need from a candidate.
Five years of this. Experience with that. Manage this team. Own these numbers. Know this software. Hit these goals.
All fair.
But the person reading that description is wondering something completely different.
Why should I leave?
Especially if they’re already doing well.
That’s where hiring can become a little too one-sided. We know why we want the candidate, but we haven’t clearly thought through why the candidate should want us.
And I’m not talking about adding a few generic lines about culture or growth opportunities. People have read those phrases a thousand times.
I mean the actual opportunity.
Maybe they’ll have more ownership. Maybe they’ll build a department instead of inheriting one. Maybe they’ll report directly to the founder. Maybe the company is entering a new market and they’ll get to shape it. Maybe there’s a compensation structure that rewards the kind of performance they’re already producing.
Or maybe the opportunity simply gives them something their current position doesn’t.
That matters.
I remember conversations where the compensation wasn’t even the first thing that got someone interested. It was scope. Or autonomy. Or the chance to build something.
You don’t always know until you talk to people.
And that’s part of recruiting too.
The process has to match the person you’re trying to hire
You can do everything right on the front end and still lose someone during the hiring process.
I’ve seen it happen.
The company finds someone they’re excited about. The candidate is interested. First interview goes well.
Then… silence.
A few days become a week. Another interview gets added. Someone on the leadership team wants to meet them. Then someone else wants to meet them. Feedback takes another few days.
Meanwhile, that candidate is still living their life.
They’re talking to other companies. They’re thinking about whether leaving their current job is worth it. Their current employer might suddenly offer them something new. Things move.
And we sometimes act surprised when the candidate does too.
That one always gets me because it’s avoidable.
A thoughtful hiring process doesn’t need to be rushed. I don’t believe in making major hiring decisions just for the sake of moving quickly. But there’s a difference between being deliberate and being disorganized.
Candidates can feel that difference.
So before a search really gets moving, I like having some basic things clear:
- Who actually needs to meet the candidate?
- Who makes the final decision?
- What are the true requirements versus the nice-to-haves?
- What compensation range can realistically be offered?
- How quickly can feedback happen?
- And maybe most importantly, what would make the right person genuinely interested in this role?
Simple questions. But you’d be surprised how often the answers aren’t completely clear.
I’ve watched searches change once everyone finally got aligned on those things. Not because the talent market suddenly improved overnight, but because the company became clearer about who it wanted and how it was going to hire them.
That’s a big difference.
Sometimes the search itself needs to change
There’s no single hiring strategy that works for every position.
That’s probably the point I keep coming back to.
Hiring an entry-level employee isn’t the same as finding a department leader. Recruiting someone actively looking for work isn’t the same as approaching someone who has been with the same company for eight years. And filling a role where there are hundreds of qualified applicants is completely different from searching for a very specific person in a limited talent pool.
The strategy has to move with the search.
Sometimes posting the position is enough.
Sometimes referrals are the answer.
Sometimes you need direct outreach.
And sometimes bringing in a recruiting partner gives you access to conversations you simply weren’t having before.
None of those approaches guarantees the right hire. Hiring people doesn’t work that way. There are too many variables, and people are… well, people.
But I do think companies can get stuck repeating the same process and expecting a different candidate pool to show up.
I’ve been guilty of that thinking too.
Then a difficult search reminds you.
Maybe the talent isn’t the problem.
Maybe we just need a different way to reach them.
Conclusion
The people you want to hire may not be the people actively looking for you. Sometimes finding the right talent simply means being willing to rethink the hiring strategy you’ve always used. A different approach can open conversations you weren’t having before… and sometimes, that’s exactly where the right hire starts.
