I don't want to overestimate the power of money. I've studied countless exit interviews and countless post-exit interviews (questionnaires given out six months or so after someone leaves). Reason number one for leaving is usually some variation on the theme "My boss was a jerk." He or she didn't support me, didn't communicate with me. I think companies need a "bad-manager identification" program. Everybody knows who the bad managers are: "Would you please fire those idiots? It's embarrassing to be around them." The second most common reason is "I wasn't challenged." Money usually comes in as the fourth or fifth most common reason.

Understanding why great people leave a company has obvious implications for persuading them to join yours. Your biggest challenge isn't to impress them with money or stock options -- those are table stakes. Your job is to wow them with opportunities for growth, for freedom, for impact. Have your CEO call the person you're trying to hire and offer him or her a job -- that's a wow. Offer this person one day a week to work on projects of his or her choosing (which is what Genentech does for some of its scientists) -- that's a wow. Or give this person the opportunity to work for a visible, respected member of your senior team -- that's a wow.

From Interviews to Future Views

Interviews are about the past: "So what was your biggest success? Your biggest challenge?" But things move fast today; the past is becoming less and less relevant. Companies need people who will contribute in the future. That's why some companies have stopped relying on traditional interviews. Interviews aren't good predictors of future performance. A better alternative is assessment over time. After all, if you've created a learning relationship with someone, you won't learn much in an interview that you don't know already. Which doesn't mean that you'll never be surprised once someone arrives. But my advice is to bring people in fast, pay close attention to their work, and deal with mistakes quickly.

There's another approach to hiring that I call a "FutureView." It's the mirror image of an interview. When interviewers probe for what you accomplished at your previous job, what they're trying to figure out is, Are you going to cut it here? And what you (the candidate) are trying to figure out during an interview is, What's it like to work here?

Well, why talk in code? There's a technique that can help both sides answer those questions more accurately and more directly -- simulation. More and more companies are doing job simulations over the Internet. These simulations help a company see if a candidate has what it takes, and they can help the candidate get a taste of what it would be like to work in that company.

These "FutureViews" are much more powerful than interviews. Cisco recently did an assessment of what people who are considering a job want to know. The answer: What would my real tasks be, and who are the people I would be working with? Simulations let you answer both questions directly. You can let a candidate do some actual work over the Web, and you can provide a video feed of the team that the candidate would be working with. A simulation doesn't just let people show you their stuff. It also gets them excited about working with you. Be honest: Why do most companies still do traditional job interviews? Because they don't have a better alternative. This is a better alternative.

Sidebar: Relationship Recruiting

According to John Sullivan, a company that moves from coincidence hiring to continuous hiring can create relationships with talented people who aren't ready to join the company yet -- but who might join it someday. Here are some tools that you can use to build relationships with such people:

• Send them email newsletters.
• Invite them to technical seminars.
• Invite them to open houses or beer busts.
• Pay them to work on mini-projects.
• Offer feedback about their Web pages.

Sidebar: Scouting for Talent

Finding great people isn't just the responsibility of the HR department. It's the responsibility of everyone at the company. If you're serious about tapping great talent, you have to devise ways to identify talented people before other companies do. Here are some of John Sullivan's techniques:

• Train your managers to capture the names and coordinates of impressive people whom they meet at conferences. Over time, you'll develop a talent database.
• Don't just check the references that talented applicants provide. Consider people who offer references as job candidates in their own right, and capture their names as well.
• Be sure to ask new hires what people they would recruit from their former company. Why? Because great people tend to know other great people.
• Stay in touch with talented people who leave, and use them as a source of talent leads.

Sidebar: Keeping Great People