Hiring people is a tricky process

Ingrid Kast, CEO at DAV - February 2010

All the more so if this is not part of your everyday routine and you are aiming to attract A-candidates: those with a 90% chance of achieving outcomes that only the top 10% of possible candidates could achieve.

Many factors can derail the recruitment process: inflated CV’s, candidates who exaggerate and those who omit information. These may result in incorrect hiring decisions, often infecting every aspect of our professional and personal lives. According to an American survey, the average hiring mistake not only ends up costing the company 15 times an employee’s basic salary, but also results in lost productivity and affects the employee’s morale.

The average hiring mistake not only ends up costing the company 15 times an employee’s basic salary, but also results in lost productivity and affects the employee’s morale.

Here are some tips to ensure that new recruits have the required skills and are a match for your corporate culture:

• Start with a crystal-clear summary of the position’s core purpose. This distils the job down to its essence; you’ll know you have it right when members of your team, recruiters and the candidates themselves understand what you are looking for without having to ask clarifying questions.
• Next, define the desired outcomes. The results that must be accomplished. Set the outcomes high enough to ensure that weaker candidates shy away.
• Finally, list the desired competencies for the job. These will define how you expect the new recruit to operate for them to fit both the position and your company’s culture.

Competencies most often requested by clients:

• Honesty / integrity
• Ability to follow through on commitments
• Ability to develop people and work well with them
• Good listening and communication / persuasion skills
• Strategic thinking / visioning
• Creativity / innovation
• Intelligence / analytical skills
• Work ethic / high professional standards
• Efficiency
• Proactivity
• Flexibility / adaptibility
• Calmness under pressure
• Enthusiasm
• Openess to criticism and ideas

Ensuring that a successful candidate is a cultural fit begins with evaluating your company’s culture. Gather your leadership team and ask this simple question: “What adjectives would describe our company culture?” It won’t be long before a picture emerges. This process often yields beneficial insights that go far beyond the hiring process

Gather your leadership team and ask this simple question: “What adjectives would describe our company culture?” It won’t be long before a picture emerges.

Once you have defined the purpose, outcomes, behavioural and cultural competencies for the job, conduct a telephonic screening interview.

Five questions will help you eliminate B and C players from your list:

1. What are your career goals?

You want to hear the candidate speak with passion and energy about their aspirations. Talented people know what they want, have multiple goals and are not afraid to tell you about them. Their goals should ideally dovetail with your company’s needs.

2. Tell me about your professional strengths

Encourage the candidate to give you 8 to 12 positives so you can build a complete picture of their professional aptitude. Ask for examples.

3. What are you less good at or not interested in doing professionally?

This question defines the candidate’s areas of improvement. If you see any deal-killers relative to your defined outcomes, remove the candidate from the list.

4. Who were your last 5 bosses and when asked, how will each of them rate your performance on a scale of 1 to 10?

Notice the use of ‘when.’ Not ‘if we talk to them.’ When. The candidate immediately thinks ”uh-oh, I’d better be honest.”

5. What is your current salary and what salary are you expecting?

Ascertaining how realistic the candidate is about their market value early in the process will avoid unnecessary delays over money issues later.

The screening interview will narrow the list down to 3 candidates, all of whom are invited to the next step:

The key face-to-face interview

A chronological walk through a person’s career, focusing on their outcomes and competencies. Begin by asking about their educational experience to gain insight into their background. Then ask five simple questions for every job they have had in the past years:

• What were you employed to do? You want to discover what their key outcomes and expected results were and which competencies they needed to accomplish them.
• What accomplishments are you most proud of? You want to find out what really mattered to the candidate in their career. If you find the candidate’s answers too vague, use these questions to clarify how valuable an accomplishment was in any context:
  • How did your performance compare to that of the previous year?
  • How did your performance compare to your / the company’s target?
  • How did your performance compare to that of your peers?
• What were some low points during this job? Be persistent. Keep probing or rephrase the question: ”What was your biggest mistake” or “What should you have done differently?” until they share the lows.
• Expand on the question asked in the screening interview: “You said your boss in this position was John Smith. What do you think John Smith will say your biggest strengths and areas for improvement are?
• Why did you leave that job? Determine if the candidate was successful in the job and left voluntarily or whether their performance was inadequate and they were encouraged to leave. Generally people who perform well are pulled to greater opportunities. Be careful not to recruit someone who has been of low value in 20% or more of their previous jobs.

Generally people who perform well are pulled to greater opportunities. Be careful not to recruit someone who has been of low value in 20% or more of their previous jobs.

Whatever the candidate says, you’ll understand it fully when you can literally picture it. To do this, be curious and ask questions, don’t assume you know what is meant. For example, a candidate might say he is an excellent communicator, for clarity ask them to give you an example of when their excellent communication skills worked to their employer’s benefit.

An in-depth interview for a senior position can easily take up to three hours (junior positions will take less time). If a similarly thorough interview is done by a professional recruitment company, they will supply you with a complete picture of the candidate in a much shorter time

We are in the business of helping companies make better recruitment decisions.

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Tags: Talent Attainment, DAV Network
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