The hardest part of making the transition to the Attract/Repel model of hiring is the fear. The truth is that it is really scary to begin repelling people before they even get in the door. Where you might have seen 100 or 150 resumes for a position you might only get 10 or 15. Instead of interviewing 5 or 6 people for your open position, you might only interview 2 and sometimes 1.
The fear sounds like this: “How do I know I didn’t miss that diamond in the rough?”; “What if I alienated a lot of people?”; “There aren’t very many people that seem to fit into our culture, isn’t that bad?” By focusing on the fear you forget that those 10 or 15 resumes are the same 10 or 15 resumes that you would have gotten to eventually after weeding out the other 120. You forget that those 1 or 2 interviews take much less time than the 5 or 6 that you used to do.
We understand that fear, we had those same reactions. After thinking it through we realized that our time was more valuable than our fear. We took a deep breath and dove right in.
There is a certain amount of relief associated with being fully yourself, no putting on airs to impress a candidate, no tiptoeing around the not-so-glamorous aspects of a job. You present the job as it is with no warranties or guarantees. (Except plenty of hard work.) The candidate that is sitting in front of you has already passed through your initial screening process. You know that he/she is worth every minute of your time.
And, why be afraid? If you hire the people that fit your company’s culture you are much less likely to make a bad hire and are more likely to have the time you need to work on moving your company forward.