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.
----------------------------------------------------
Andy Cox founded Cox Consulting Group in 1995 after
extensive experience in leadership positions in Fortune 500
corporations. His focus is on helping clients select,
develop, retain and enhance the performance of leaders and
emerging leaders Click on http://www.coxconsultgroup.com
for more information on the selection of the right people
for the right jobs.
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