| Hiring Protocol: How to Recruit Standout Employees
By Megan Martin
The necessity of recruiting great talent may seem like common sense, but too many companies are falling short of the mark.
In a confidential survey of HR Heads of Global 100 companies, which appeared in Brad Smart's recruiter.com article "Topgrading," companies admitted to hiring the wrong employees 80 percent of the time and promoting the wrong people 75 percent of the time.
While those statistics are discouraging, there are several ways to ensure your hiring process attracts candidates who will be able to meet your company's needs.
1. Know What You Need
Before you dive into the recruiting process, you should have a clear and detailed understanding of what you're looking for in a candidate. This will include not only the skill set and duties the position requires, but the type of individual who will be a good fit with your company's culture.
What attributes will a candidate need to fill the duties of the position? What does the candidate need to accomplish to meet the goals of the company and the position? What type of personality would mesh well with the company's environment?
Peggy DeMuse, Managing Director of SALO Project, says that while it's necessary to seek a candidate who meets the requirements of the position, it's even more important to ensure a successful fit for both the company and the candidate.
"Too many people focus on what needs to be done, rather than whether a candidate will fit into the day-to-day life at the company. Just because you have the right technical skills, for example, it doesn't mean you'll fit in that environment. It needs to be a good fit both ways," she says.
2. Search From Within
You've established the requirements for the position, created a profile of the star candidate, and have a job description that's ready to post. But before you open the position to the public, make sure you haven't overlooked the obvious: your current staff.
In-house candidates already have a good understanding of the company's culture and day-to-day operations, and you are familiar with their strengths and attributes.
In her article "Top Ten Recruiting Tips,” Susan M. Heathfield says it's a good idea to consider in-house candidates first. "Providing promotional and lateral opportunities for current employees positively boosts morale and makes your current staff members feel their talents, capabilities and accomplishments are appreciated," she says.
Look around: Is there a particular employee who fits the skill set and has shown interest in taking on more responsibility? Could you reassign existing projects to promising current employees?
In addition, ask your current employees if they know of anyone who might be a good fit for the new opportunities being identified within your organization. Current employees can be your best source of referrals as they have a good understanding of the company and culture and can help identify potential candidates that would be a good fit in your environment.
3. Develop a Consistent Screening Process
A good screening process is consistent among candidates and covers the basics of the position while getting a quick sense of which candidates will be a good fit and which to weed out.
It's also a chance to make sure the interviewee has a clear sense of the job requirements. Screening often includes a telephone interview, followed by an assessment tool that analyzes skill sets and personality traits that can't be determined over the phone.
DeMuse says the screening process should help you to "get a sense of what the person's goals are, what drives them, and the basics in terms of availability and skills."
The screening process should be thorough enough for you to confidently assess which candidates should be invited back for an interview.
4. Prepare For a Quality Interview
The most important part of the interview process is ensuring you have a qualified interviewer.
"It might sound basic, but most people who are hiring don't do it every day, so helping them through that is crucial," says DeMuse. "The hiring process typically includes the person to whom the interviewee will report. This person, quite often, is not adept at doing interviews because their day-to-day function within the organization is in a finance or operations role. It's important that somebody takes the time to sit down and train the person on interview techniques--spend a little time teaching them how to drill down deeper into responses received in the interview."
As an interviewer, prepare by taking time to thoughtfully choose questions that will help you determine whether the candidate has the skills and attributes that are necessary for the position. In her article "How to Interview Candidates," Louise Kursmark recommends beginning with questions about skills and experience, then moving into "situational questions" that are key to the position.
Next, get a better idea of the candidate's behaviors by asking for specific examples of how they've handled certain situations in past positions. And don't forget to focus on questions that will help you to determine whether a candidate will be a good match with your company's culture.
DeMuse says: "Make sure you're asking that next level of questions and starting to frame more of a pattern--what works for this person and what doesn't work for this person. Understanding not just today, but longer-term: where do they want to be five or 10 years from now? What motivates them? What drives them?"
Aside from the basics, she also sees body language as an excellent indicator of personality and how seriously the candidate is taking the process. Is the candidate paying attention? Showing interest in what the interviewer is saying? "Make sure you read the body language, read the enthusiasm level," she says. "It can tell you a lot about a candidate's interest in the position and fit within the organization."
5. Considering New Methodologies: Topgrading
Over the past eight to 10 years, a new trend that has emerged in the recruiting world is Topgrading--a highly structured and methodical hiring, development and retention plan created by Geoff and Brad Smart to help companies find and keep star employees.
The system, which is now being implemented by many Fortune 1000 companies, makes it possible to hire up to 95 percent A-players, as opposed to the 25 percent that are hired using traditional methods.
Randall H. Street, Head of GH Smart's Executive Education Practice, attributes the success of the system to its highly structured nature. "We've done a lot of research into interview methodologies and find that those who use a structured process consistently have a higher hiring success rate," he says.
The first step in the Topgrading hiring process involves building a "scorecard" that details exactly what you want and need from the position.
The second and most involved step in the hiring process is the interview round. The initial screening portion asks a series of structured questions that are the same for each candidate, focusing on career goals, the candidate's beliefs about their strengths and weaknesses, and what their past employers would say about them.
"If you hear things that match up with the scorecard and there's chemistry, you ask the candidate back. If there's misalignment with the scorecard, with what you need to accomplish, you don't," says Street.
The final interview--which can last from 90 minutes to four hours--follows a pattern in which the interviewer focuses on the entire career history of the candidate, going back to their earliest full-time position.
How does Street know when he's found an A-player? Common A-player traits include resourcefulness, initiative, drive, intelligence, the ability to get things done, a strong work ethic and integrity. "They have targets and they achieve their targets. And A-players take ownership of their mistakes, whereas C-players place blame outside the self," he says.
By establishing a consistent, structured, and thorough recruiting process, you can beat the odds and ensure that you find the best fit for both your company and the candidate.
Megan Martin is a freelance writer based in Chicago. She can be reached at Megan.M@BeTuitive.com.
|
