Category: hiring

The City of San Diego, California, has employed a herd of 300 goats to help remove dry vegetation as a fire prevention measure. The goats devour brush in difficult to reach areas and have been serving as “official fire safety goats” since 2021.

Can the City’s use of goats inspire you to think of additional ways to accomplish your work without hiring new staff? Maybe you can prompt one of the AI models to handle some of your processes. Perhaps outsourcing can save resources. You could consider hiring an intern or apprentice, or partnering with a college on a class project. And, of course, there’s always the option to rethink the work you do and to eliminate aspects of it that are not contributing value.

There always seems to be more work and fewer people to do it. Get creative about how you can accomplish your goals in nontraditional ways.

Originally published in modified form on April 5, 2018. Repeated here as it is the 25th anniversary of this dinner — something that proved to be life-changing for me.

How do you make a lasting impression on a candidate? Go meet them in person. This happened to me on this date in 2001, when my eventual boss called me up in Detroit and asked if he could meet me (for the first time) for dinner that night to talk about a job I had applied for. Impressive enough, but more so given that he lived in St. Louis.

Keith flew up to the Motor City, we had dinner, and the rest, as they say, is history. Sure, I went through the obligatory campus interview and did all the other standard things in the hiring process, but that day was when the real decision was made.

Keith said all the finalists had the right qualifications, but at this stage, it all came down to chemistry. Was I a fit with him and vice versa? The only way to tell is to spend time together in person. He invested time on the front end, and the fit was so good that we still talk every year on April 5, even though he has long retired and it is (now 25) years later.

Maybe you aren’t as fortunate as Keith to have the ability to go to dinner on the home turf of all your candidates, but you do have the option to spend time alone with them when they come to interview or to have multiple conversations before a hiring decision is made.

You don’t marry someone after the first date, even if you like them. One quick Q and A with someone isn’t enough to know whether the hiring match is right, either.

When in Las Vegas, I couldn’t help but think about the infrastructure required to keep the Strip functioning. There are over 160,000 hotel rooms alone — all of which require registration, housekeeping, maintenance, laundry, trash removal, pool attendants, etc. All the casinos need dealers, bartenders, finance support, housekeeping, compliance monitors, and more. The city welcomes over 40 million visitors each year, requiring transportation, entertainment, food, and necessities. I wondered where they get the immense staff to serve all these needs.

It turns out there is a separate industry to handle the human resources aspects of the town. Giant “employment centers” have ongoing recruiting, hiring, and training for the hundreds (thousands?) of new employees. Entire parking garages are for “employees only.” Instead of being an afterthought, the people side of the business is a business in its own right.

While you likely don’t have the volume to create a separate employment center, you can see HR as an integral function and the search for talent as an ongoing pursuit. You are only as good as your people. Be on the continual lookout for those who can help you achieve your mission and dreams.