Dr John Sullivan Talent Management Thought Leadership

LeBron was recently recruited using a dream job offer, where the money offered him clearly came last in importance. LeBron took a whopping $97 million pay cut over two seasons to end his career with a dream job that included job factors that were clearly personalized to his current needs. So, if you want to land exceptional corporate candidates every single time (no matter how intense the competition), first identify the elements of a candidate’s dream job and then put together a dream job offer that incorporates those elements.

Incidentally, this “How to hire LeBron” approach is an alternative to my “How to hire Michael Jordan” recruiting approach. When I created it decades ago, Fast Company labeled me “The Michael Jordan of Hiring.”

A personalized dream job offer is literally the most effective candidate-closing approach that doesn’t require stretching your salary budget.

What Is A Dream Job And Why Are Dream Job Offers So Effective?

Although many in HR resist sports analogies, it’s a grave mistake to pass up the lessons that can be learned from the recent successful recruiting of LeBron James, the NBA star.

The recruiting approach that was so successful with him is known as a dream job offer. This personalized approach is possible for almost any job. It is amazingly effective because, instead of offering an exceptional candidate a rigid “take it or leave it” job that fails to excite them, it instead grants exceptional candidates significant input into each of the dream job factors that would turn a pretty good job offer into a “dream job offer.”

Typically, a dream job offer provides the new hire with input into where they work, when they work, what they work on, and who they work with. A list of the typical categories of dream job features that exceptional candidates can influence appears later in this article.

The Benefits From The Dream Job Approach

You can expect to receive numerous benefits from this recruiting approach. They include:

• The approach has a proven track record – since the concept was first instituted at Agilent Technologies back in 2000. It has a proven track record of consistent effectiveness. It is effective because the elements of a candidate’s work are especially important to exceptional candidates. In fact, personalizing the job around a candidate’s most cherished work factors may be the second most effective recruiting strategy (just after offering piles of money and just before encouraging top-performing employee referrals).
• You will get an employee with the highest level of motivation – after your candidate gets most or all of their dream job factors. Your new hire will start at their highest level of motivation. And because everyone knows their dream job factors, their manager and their teammates will easily be able to further build their motivation.
• You can expect amazing on-the-job performance – with all of the positive work factors and none of the negative ones that go with the average job. You can expect this new hire not only to reach their expected productivity levels. But they will also likely inspire others around them to boost their performance levels.
• This approach may gain you additional talent – as one of their dream job factors, if the candidate decides that they want to work alongside a former colleague. Your team will get more added talent without having to actively recruit it. And when the word spreads that this superstar has chosen your company over so many others. You can expect a significant boost in your employer brand. That will lead to a flood of applicants that might not have otherwise considered you.
• It often reduces a candidate’s salary demands – because so many exceptional candidates are willing to lower their salary demands in return for receiving other dream job features. Just like in the LeBron case, in return for your flexibility. This approach may save you significant salary dollars.
• You can expect longer new-hire retention – if a candidate continues to receive the factors in their dream job. They’re not likely to go anywhere. Especially if you agree to reopen your dream job discussions with them if things change during their first year.
• The dream job features can be made contingent – rather than offering an open-ended promise of forever dream job features. This approach should require the candidate to perform in order to continue receiving them. As a result, a common caveat in the offer is that the manager only agrees to maintain the promised dream job features for the first year. If the exceptional performance is not maintained, the manager has the right to renegotiate the dream job deal after the first year. 
• You’ll be surprised at how little they ask for – after advising companies about how to implement this approach for over 25 years. The biggest surprise that I have encountered is how little exceptional candidates ask for. Even though they could probably request the world, most only need a handful of things in order to sculpt their dream job.

“I was amazed at how quickly the dream job deal was made and how little the candidate asked for.

Improving On “Handing Them A Blank Sheet Of Paper” Approach

It turns out that simply asking your exceptional candidate to make a list of their dream job factors is problematic. Most of them have never been asked that question before. So smart recruiters have decided to drop the “blank sheet” approach. Instead, they prompt the candidate’s thinking with a prepared list of common dream job categories that others have chosen. You’ll find a complete list of these top 10 categories of dream job factors in the following section. Under each category, several of the commonly requested individual features are cited. The most requested categories appear first in the list.

Categories Of Dream Job Factors That Most Exceptional Candidates Care About

There are 10 broad categories of dream job factors that cover most of what exceptional candidates expect in their dream job.

1. Allow them input into… Work that is so exciting, they can’t put it down – it’s important to realize that “doing the best work of your life” is literally the top attraction factor for almost all exceptional candidates. They expect the work that they do will be so compelling, exciting, and challenging that they won’t want to put it down or expel it from their memory. Work options that exceptional candidates often care about include a choice of projects, the percentage of time set aside to work on their own project (i.e., 20% time), and the types of work that they won’t have to do. 
2. Allow them input into… Increasing their impact and fulfilling their purpose – exceptional candidates consistently want to fulfill their purpose and to make a difference. So let the candidate know about opportunities to interact with users/customers, a chance to impact the environment, and opportunities to make their community a better place to live.
3. Allow them input into… Who they work with – just like in sports, exceptional employees want the opportunity to work alongside exceptional employees like LeBron. So provide your exceptional candidates with input into “who they work with.” That can include who their manager is, a choice of teams, an opportunity to develop their own team, and an opportunity to work alongside a top colleague.
4. Allow them input into… Their personal learning, development and mastery – exceptional employees demand that they keep learning, growing and be recognized as experts in their field. So dream job factors in this category can include having their own development plan and their own development budget. Other factors include opportunities to become an expert, having a clear career path, opportunities to lead, and job rotations for learning. 
5. Allow them input into… Opportunities to win and/or to be first – top performers are drawn towards opportunities where they can be winners, or where they can be first at something in their field. So make them aware of opportunities to collaborate with your teams that are likely to win or be the first at something important.
6. Allow them input into… Their freedom to make choices – especially in technology areas, exceptional candidates expect a lot of freedom. Common dream job factors in this area of freedom often include input into when and where they work. This includes giving them input into setting their goals, dropping failed projects, how often they travel, and control over how they spend their budget. Also, providing them with the freedom to publish their work may be a major motivator.
7. Allow them input into… Increasing their opportunities to implement their ideas – most top performers are continually coming up with new ideas, but they get frustrated when they don’t get the opportunity to implement them. So, give exceptional employees the benefit of the doubt when it comes to implementing their new ideas. Even when their ideas are rejected, they expect a quick decision and a full explanation of why it was rejected. 
8. Allow them input into…Their access to sufficient resources and tools – dream job factors in this area include receiving an adequate budget and their desired level of security and information access. They also expect the freedom to purchase hardware/software and an opportunity to redesign their own workspace. And for those exceptional employees who prefer additional internal and external visibility, they expect their manager to support their efforts to meet executives and to write and speak externally.
9. Allow input into… How they receive feedback and what they are measured on – many new hires expect to be given input into how their manager communicates with them, how their performance will be measured, and how they prefer to receive their feedback. And because many exceptional new hires consider meeting attendance a waste of time, you can also provide them with input into which meetings they must attend and how often they will have to meet with their manager.
10. Allow them input into… How they will be compensated – although money is seldom their top motivator, many exceptional new hires desire input into what they will be rewarded for, how much of their pay will be at risk, and what factors will be used to determine their next pay increase or promotion. 

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Another example of a successful dream job offer – this exceptional young programming genius was proving to be difficult to recruit. He had previously wanted to continuously work in an area that offered either world-class skiing or surfing, and that roadblock was broken when this technology company offered him “their dream job.” This included renting him a condo in Colorado during the ski season. They also rented him a different condo in Hawaii during the surfing season. The company decided it would be happy with the work he produced after his day of skiing or surfing ended.

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