Hire Great People Fast

It's the toughest -- and most important -- challenge in business today. Lessons from Netscape, Cisco, and Yahoo! on how to find the right people and get them up to speed -- fast.

Jim Barksdale, CEO of Netscape Communications, is standing before 50 new recruits at an orientation session. He's a congenial guy with a wry sense of humor. He's old enough to be the father of many people in the room, which is precisely what he doesn't want to be.

First he asks a question: "What's the purpose of this business?

"To make money," replies one new employee.

"Wrong!" Barksdale snaps. "Our purpose is to create and keep customers. Somehow each of you has to be a part of that purpose."

Next he sets goals: Netscape wants to land 200 new corporate accounts by the end of the quarter, to deliver its software on time all the time, and to double revenues every year.

Then he does some attitude adjustment: "We are not a family at Netscape," he insists. "That would put a lot of pressure on me. It would mean I'm the dad." Think of Netscape as a basketball team, he suggests, opportunistic on offense, tenacious on defense. "Then I can be the coach."

The coach runs through a set of hand signals, the last one being fists punched skyward. Then he leads a group cheer: "NETSCAPE! EVERYWHERE! TEAM! FIGHT!"

What's happening today on the Netscape campus in Mountain View, California happens every day in fast-growing companies around the country. The scarcest commodity in business is not customers or technology capital. It's people. More and more companies simply can't recruit great people fast enough. This talent shortage is their biggest obstacle to growth; solving it is their biggest strategic priority.

Barksdale's company focuses relentlessly on acquiring talent. Netscape has distributed more product (at last count, 60 million copies of its Web browser) and generated more revenue than any software startup in history. Which means it has to keep adding people at a ferocious pace. Netscape was founded in February 1994 with 2 employees. A year later it had 350 employees. It now has more than 2,000 employees. Margie Mader, who runs recruiting and staffing, is clear: "Hiring is a strategic initiative here. Every person is involved in the process."

Netscape is not alone. Cisco Systems, the fast-growing network-equipment manufacturer based in San Jose, California hires as many as 1,200 people every three months -- but still has hundreds of open slots. All told, there are 18,000 unfilled positions in Silicon Valley today. High-tech companies in Austin, Texas expect to add 15,000 people this year. Last year Boeing hired a mind-boggling 20,000 employees, sometimes as many as 500 people in a single week.

Call it power staffing. If you want to keep growing you have to keep hiring. The real challenge isn't finding people. It's finding the right people and turning them into topflight contributors -- fast. First there's recruiting. Most great people already have great jobs. Why should they work for you? Then there's selection. How do you pick the right people without compromising your standards? And don't forget the learning curve. What good is adding new members to your team if they don't know how you play the game?

A handful of fast-growing companies, including well-known innovators like Netscape, Cisco, and Yahoo!, are as rigorous about sourcing, selecting, and shaping new people as they are about designing new products and conquering new markets. Their experiences, and the tools they've developed to keep moving faster, can help you create your own techniques for power staffing.

Build the Buzz

first the bad news: fast-growing companies are chronically short of talent. Now the good news: fast-growing companies are in a unique position to attract the most and the best candidates -- if they leverage their success to build a buzz. Put simply, the best way to find great people is to encourage them to find you.

Consider Netscape. Sure, the company is adding people at a fever pitch. But even more people have Netscape fever. The company receives as many as 6,000 résumés and interviews as many as 700 candidates per month. (That's 60 résumés for every person hired.) At Netscape the demand for talent creates its own supply.

This wave of interest is no accident. From the beginning, says CEO Barksdale, the company's basic recruiting strategy was "to get known." That is, to become the kind of place where great people want to work. That's easier for some companies than for others. Netscape is more than just a fast-growing software outfit. It's a cultural icon, the flagship company of the Web. Netscape recruiters are full of stories about people going to extraordinary lengths to get their attention. One hopeful wrapped his résumé around a package of cookies. Another arrived for his interview on a skateboard.