The Most Overlooked Hiring Method: Your Connections

There are plenty of channels that companies can use to find the right people - we’ve outlined most of them here.

Still, nothing beats personal connections and referrals.

This is the most effective method. It's hard to underestimate how valuable it can be in the early stages.

The reason for this is simple - when you're screening people to join your team, you’re actually looking for two main things:

1. Technical skills: does this person have the necessary capabilities?
2. Communication / Teamwork skills: can I work with this person effectively?

People you know tend to be less risky hires because you believe in their technical skills (or you wouldn’t even consider them) and you know you can work with them effectively.

Here’s a simple method that is helping founders leverage their networks for early stage hires.

The Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 Candidates Spreadsheet (example)
• 1 Email Outreach Script (template)
• Time

Preparation:

1. Start on your own. Go through all (yes, all!) your LinkedIn connections and add all of the people who probably have the right skills to the candidates spreadsheet, regardless of whether you think they’d be looking for a new job.
2. Repeat this exercise individually with each member of your team. Set aside about 30 mins for each team member.
3. Once you have an initial candidates spreadsheet, reach out to each person individually. Use the Email Outreach script as a basis but try to personalize the message. Mention the referrer in the email template.
4. If they don’t answer the email, follow up. People are busy and a follow up is perfectly expected.
5. If they’re interested, set up a call with them to go over the company’s mission and the role you're looking to fill; if they’re not interested, ask them “Who would you try to hire if you were in my position?”. Add their names to the list and repeat the process.

Conclusion

Your network can be an incredibly valuable asset. Use this simple workflow to take advantage of it and find the right people for your business.