by Andy Cox
©
2007
http://www.coxconsultgroup.com
Hiring
the right person in the right job, whether through recruiting from outside, internal
transfer, or internal promotion is, by far, the most difficult and rewarding challenge
facing most organizations. It always will be. It is also the greatest opportunity
to increase the effectiveness of any organization. Here are Ten Steps any organization
should take to improve their batting average in this most critical part of their
enterprise.
Step 1. Start with the end in mind. Start by
answering the question " What would be the perfect match of candidate to
job requirements?" Get specific - talk about the job, not the person. Determine
the best possible skill, experience, industry knowledge, education and accomplishment
combination that would make the best possible candidate. Ask the people with knowledge
of the position - the stakeholders - to provide that information - in a structure
where it can be captured. Don't let the applicant pool create the job requirements.
Step
2. Get to the heart of the matter: since success is most often created by the
right mix of behaviors, attitudes and values, and personal skills, get the stakeholders
to identify what mix of those three elements are needed for success in the job.
This step becomes increasingly important at higher job levels. There may be a
Job Description, but most of those documents simply aren't designed to capture
that kind of information. And few are dynamic enough to reflect changes in content.
This requires a structured approach to identifying those elements. It can be done
- and done well. And if it is done well and becomes a part of the process used
to select, it will increase success - a lot.
Step 3. Expand
the pool of applicants: the Wall Street Journal ran a first page article on symphonies
that had been plagued with a shortage of qualified musician candidates. One symphony
started a " blind audition." The candidates played the audition music
from behind a screen - the interviewers couldn't see them - but they could hear
their music. Funny thing happened - lots more qualified candidates were identified.
No more knockouts on gender, race, brand of instrument, hair style, school ties,
appearance, fat, skinny, et al. Make sure your organization isn't knocking out
people that can "play your music" at the beginning of the selection
process.
Step 4. Train a team of stakeholders so they can
effectively evaluate candidates in the interview phase of selection. Most organizations
do no training in evaluation skills - big mistake. If you have had more than your
share of mistakes in selection, continuing to do the things done in the past and
expecting a different outcome doesn't make much sense. Provide the interviewers
with full information on the position, and assign each interviewer specific areas
of evaluation.
Step 5. In 99% of cases, no applicant will
be a perfect fit. Define the "must haves," "good to haves,"
and "nice to haves" before the interview process. Don't let the interviewers
rationalize those requirements based on the available applicant pool.
Step
6. Supplement interview evaluations, reference checks and other information with
assessments to help define fit. If you currently use assessments, audit their
effectiveness and the degree of trust and application they really have. There
are great assessments and assessment processes available - the status quo is not
a good reason to continue to use what was used in the past.
Step
7. Act quickly, decisively and with purpose in the selection cycle. Nothing impresses
top candidates more than a process that communicates organization, purpose and
decisiveness.
Step 8. Should the hiring manager say the
candidate selected for employment is "the best we could find, " continue
to look. That rationalization has caused more selection failures than any other.
Step
9. Select the person that the organization, based on objective measures and intuitive
feelings, is convinced is the right person. Then help them succeed - but stay
close - no people decision is ever 100% accurate. The best thing to do in a mistake
situation is act on it as soon as it is evident that a mistake has been made.
People in the organization will know within two weeks to three months if a mistake
was made. Unfortunately, in many organizations, it takes a year or more for the
"leadership" to acknowledge the mistake and act.
Step
10. Create a final feedback step in the selection process to evaluate what could
have been done better or differently. Have successful hires participate in that
evaluation.
Ten steps - sounds like a lot - it isn't. The
organizations that use the Ten Steps in this process are much more successful
in their selections than the ones that don't. If you can see ways to improve your
own process by using all or some of these Ten Steps, then get rid of the status
quo and change - today.
