公司老大要亲自抓招聘

    NetSuite的首席执行官扎克•尼尔森有一项任何管理者都会乐意遭遇的麻烦：这家公司通过互联网销售的企业软件销售火爆异常，尼尔森相信几年内NetSuite的年销售额就将达到或超过10亿美元。而去年，该公司的销售额仅为2.36亿美元。但他现在需要更多的人手来联系潜在客户，推销产品。

    尼尔森早就习惯了应对旺盛的客户需求。NetSuite于2007年上市，如今年销售额已较上市之年的1.08亿美元增长了一倍以上，很大程度上要归功于现有销售团队的努力工作，销售更多的软件（没错，谁都想要这样的烦恼)。为了实现六年内NetSuite的销售额增长三倍的目标，尼尔森正在和他的首席人力资源官紧密合作，希望能快速有效地招到大批新员工。

    对于像NetSuite这样高速增长的年轻公司而言，招聘和管理员工是巨大的挑战。员工队伍的快速扩充会伤害到一家公司的创业文化。招到资历很好、但脾性不对的员工也可能会造成这种后果。但如果一家公司为招到理想的员工而长时间地等待下去，就可能错失业务发展的良机。

    招聘已经成为成长型公司一项重要的战略性事务。许多CEO都直接参与其中，而不是将所有职责都交由人力资源部门。作为关于管理合作的高管梦之队系列文章中的一篇，《财富》杂志（Fortune ）曾经详细探讨过，尼尔森如何与他的首席人力资源官马迪•雷奥米共同改革公司招聘和培训新员工的方式。

    几年之前，两人就开始更紧密地合作。到2012年底，他们将招聘660人，主要是销售人员，但也有营销和产品开发的人员。届时，公司1,600名员工当中将有超过1/3是新人。

    雷奥米于2005年加入NetSuite，是公司招聘架构的主设计者。最初她的团队有6、7个招聘人员，那时，他们还得想潜在应聘者解释，NetSuite到底是做什么的。【该公司专营客户管理和物流软件，竞争对手包括Salesforce.com和甲骨文（Oracle）等。】

    问题是NetSuite新招的人当中有太多人都不成功。2008年，公司新招的450个人里有100人到公司未满一年就离职了。另外，管理层搞不懂的是，为什么总是固定的那10个人拿到最高的销售业绩。

    拥有组织心理学硕士学位的雷奥米设计出了一项评估工具TriMetrix，目的是建立成功销售人员的特质和行为档案。结果，公司明星员工总是有类似的得分；那些不成功的销售人员也是相似的。后来，NetSuite开始在招聘销售、管理人员以及面试时使用这项测试。结果？去年，只有5个销售不到一年就离职。

    同时，尼尔森也开始复核公司的每项录用意向。“我在甲骨文时，拉里•埃里森会审批每项录用决定，我想他怎么能批得过来？”尼尔森说。然后，他开始看到这样做的价值。随着公司规模扩张，他再也不能和每个人亲自见面，但如果在投进来的简历上签字，他至少能知道NetSuite吸引来的是什么样的人才。而且尼尔森相信，如果招聘人员知道首席执行官会过目，他们对招聘就会更加用心。偶尔尼尔森也会否决什么人，但已经有一年没这么干了。

    NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson has a problem that any executive would love to have: The company's business software, which is delivered via the Internet, is so hot that Nelson thinks NetSuite (N) could, in several years, book $1 billion a year or more in revenue, up from $236 million last year. But he needs more people knocking on doors and pitching potential customers.

    Nelson is used to dealing with fervid demand. NetSuite has already more than doubled in size -- from annual revenue of $108 million in 2007, the year it went public -- largely because the existing team of sales reps worked harder, selling even more software (again, a good problem to have). To achieve his goal of quadrupling NetSuite's top line within six years, Nelson is working closely with his chief human resources executive to quickly and effectively recruit an army of new employees.

    For fast-growing young companies such as NetSuite, hiring and managing workers are huge challenges. Rapidly expanding the workforce can strain a company's entrepreneurial culture. So can hiring people who have great credentials and the wrong temperament. But if a company waits too long to find the right people, it risks missing business opportunities.

    Hiring has become such an important strategic issue for growth companies that many CEOs are getting directly involved instead of ceding all responsibility to human resources. As part of the ongoing Executive Dream Team series on management collaboration, Fortune took a close look at how Nelson is teaming up with his chief people officer, Marty Réaume, to revamp the way the company hires and trains newcomers.

    The pair started working more closely together several years ago. By the end of 2012 they will have hired 660 people, mainly in sales but also in marketing and product development. More than a third of the company's 1,600 employees will be newcomers.

    Réaume joined NetSuite in 2005 and was the main architect of its recruiting structure. Her initial team of six or seven recruiters had to teach prospective job candidates what NetSuite did. (It specializes in customer-management and logistics software and competes with companies like Salesforce.com (CRM) and Oracle (ORCL).)

    Problem was, too many of NetSuite's new hires weren't working out. In 2008, 100 of the 450 new hires left before they had been at the company a full year. At the same time, executives couldn't understand why it was always the same 10 guys pulling in the highest sales.

    Réaume, who has a master's degree in organizational psychology, began to roll out an assessment tool called TriMetrix that is used to create a profile of the traits and behaviors of successful salespeople. Company stars consistently scored the same way; those who didn't make it also held a common profile. NetSuite started using the test in its recruitment of sales executives, along with in-person interviews. The result? Last year just five salespeople left within a year of their start date.

    Nelson also began to review every job offer the company made. "When I was at Oracle, Larry Ellison used to approve every offer, and I thought, How could he approve all these people?" Nelson says. Then he began to see value in the practice. As the company grew, he could no longer meet everyone in person, but by signing off on the incoming résumés he was at least able to get a glimpse at the type of talent NetSuite was attracting, and it also motivated the recruiters, who, Nelson believes, put extra effort into the hire when they know the CEO will look at it. Nelson occasionally even turns someone down, though he hasn't done so in a year.