Why Would Great People Want to Work Here?

Perhaps this is the ultimate question both job seekers and employers alike should be asking themselves as they go about choosing career opportunities and bringing on new talent to the business. 

The truth is great people are drawn toward other great people like moths to a flame. 
But how do you know whether the moth you’re courting is indeed a moth or really a butterfly waiting to spread its wings?

According to blogger, author and former Starbucks marketeer John Moore, it’s a mix of “verve, candor, and can-do spirit, and a highly likable personality” Starbucks sought in employees that catapulted the coffee chain from nobody to international stardom. 

In his book, Tribal Knowledge, Business Wisdom Brewed from the Grounds of Starbucks Corporate Culture, he explains

how Starbucks set out from its earliest stages to recruit fresh-faced customer focused employees who exhibited a sense of personal integrity, and put them into action on the front lines of the business at every level. As a barista-turned Starbucks marketing guru himself, Moore was tapped to help drive the Starbucks brand from the inside through word of mouth marketing. 

His downloadble online manifesto hints at  some aspects of the secret concoction that drove the firm’s WOM success including the belief that Starbucks’ employees were the critical X driving that brand forward from day one. As a company that has eschewed advertising since its founding, Starbucks relied heavily on word of mouth to propel it forward. The company successfully drove WOM success through not only the consistency and flavor of the coffee, but in the way store employees treated customers and exhibited a true positive attitude and even participated in local community and charitable events.

A case in point where great people drove the success of a great company. 

So just how should companies go about finding and hiring the right talent?  The questions will differ depending on your own corporate culture. But savvy hiring gurus suggest you focus on questions that will uncover traits such as honesty, dependability, thoroughness, discretion, creativity, flexibility and attentiveness,  Its just as important to share with your candidates your company’s ultimate sense of purpose and to be clear and passionate about what ideas your company is fighting for. 

If your organization keeps these concepts in mind and a keeps its passionate purpose close at heart, great people will find you and will want to be a part of it.  The truth is high performers are incented less by money than by the opportunity to be surrounded by other smart people who challenge them and give them the chance to grow.  In addition, connection and success are their drugs of choice and they need to feel like they are having a positive impact on the business to excel. When you get a team in place that exhibits these qualities, and you give them the freedom and opportunity to stretch, you will be rewarded in spades.