Hiring Instructions

Find a job you love, the saying goes, and you’ll never work a day in your life. 

A related though less popular is: Find a low-cost way to hire great employees and your job as an entrepreneur will be made infinitely easier. Eh, not as well known. 

When IKEA expanded in Australia they faced the common question: How do we find the right people?  Like Daryl Morey in the NBA or Ken Jarosch in Chicago, IKEA Australia came up with an out-of-the-box idea. 

Put it in the box. 

Created in the traditional style of an IKEA instruction manual, the single-page job flyer offered, “If you’re more into arranging sofas than pouring sodas, have we got a job for you.” 

The thinking was that people who shopped at IKEA would be people who could work at IKEA. 

The unusual advertisement brought a lot of attention. Over four thousand people applied for the few hundred open positions. It was a win-win. IKEA hired customers who liked the brand, and customers who liked the brand had a chance to build it. 

First who, then what is Jim Collins’ advice. But how? So many resources go into retention when maybe we need to think more creatively about employee attention, even if it’s hidden away in a box at first.

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