The most effective action you can take to improve success
in hiring the right people for the right jobs, particularly
for leaders and emerging leaders, is to evaluate your own
selection process. Find out how your organization appears
from the viewpoint of candidates - you'll be amazed at
what you find.
Hiring the right people for the right jobs takes a lot of
work. It costs a lot of money - for everything from
recruiting actions, to employment fees, to travel, to
interview time, and all the administrative efforts
associated with attracting top talent. And after all that,
to have the right person opt out because of some flaw in
your process is costly, frustrating, and very expensive.
Nowhere is the opportunity to identify issues leading to
poor performance and then fixing them, more available than
in the selection process.
And yet, knowing that, only a small percentage of
organizations take the time to audit what they do.
In my experience, more top candidates are lost early in the
process by some issue in the selection cycle that didn't
have to be an issue. And what's worse - in most cases - the
organization doesn't have a clue - it goes without saying
you can't fix what you don't know about.
When you audit your own process, three things will happen;
you will be amazed at the opportunities to improve - at no
or low cost; you will see an improvement in the
performance of your hiring managers and others accountable
for selection when they know they are being evaluated; and,
most importantly, you will see increased success in
attracting and keeping the interest of top candidates.
How to perform this audit? Here are the Twelve Keys in the
selection process that can make or break your ability to
attract top candidates:
Preparation: Have the steps to define the job been done -
or is the applicant pool going to set the qualifications?
Speed : How quick are your people to follow up after
interviews, to issue expense checks, to thank a candidate
for their interest, to provide follow up information, to
confirm the next step, or indicate that another person is
better suited?
Skill : How prepared are your interviewers to effectively
evaluate candidates? What skill building other than
repeating the same interview style for the last 10 years do
they bring to the table?
Organization: When the candidate shows up, are interviews
scheduled with people who can properly evaluate? Has every
one reviewed the applicants resume? Are all interviewers
assigned goals for their interview? Is paperwork organized ?
Surroundings : Does the workplace say success? Is it clean
and business like? Is privacy for interviews assured? Are
the rest rooms well kept and clean? Does the workplace
project an image of high pace, purpose and accomplishment?
Attitude : Do the people the candidate comes in contact
with provide a positive image of the company? Do they
project an attitude that says they are glad the person is
there? Today's candidate may be tomorrow's customer!
Context: Who is assigned to brief the candidate on the
company, history, position, performance of the
organization, where the position fits in? Who provides the
tour of the organization?
Peers: Which peers are most appropriate to meet as part of
the selection process? Who is best suited to have a peer to
peer conversation? Are they prepared for the ambiguity of
that event?
Paperwork: Who assures the necessary documents are given to
the candidate at the right time? Who follows up to see that
documents are completed and sent and/or received?
Coordination: Who makes sure the interview schedule is
filled and communicated, along with interviewer roles? Who
ensures a review of candidates happens on a timely basis?
Who makes sure the candidate is contacted within two
working days of their interview to thank them for their
interest, and to set up follow up commitments - if that is
appropriate? Who makes sure all interviewed candidates are
contacted - even if there is no further interest?
Sales: Every person in the evaluation cycle should be a
salesperson for their firm - are yours? Or do they exude
that attitude of "you should feel privileged that we have
taken the time to talk to you?" Hiring the right person in
the right job takes a lot of selling - from both sides.
Legal: Check to ensure the right questions get asked the
right way, and the wrong questions don't get asked. At the
same time, ensure what you do isn't strangled by the
overzealous insistence of bureaucrats. In my experience,
more legal issues are caused after selection, as opposed to
mistakes made in the selection cycle - and most of those
issues go back to how mistakes in selection are handled
So how to get the real answers to these questions? Here are
the six resources you have available to answer these
questions:
Talk to the people that are hired - how do they view your
process.
Talk to the people that stepped aside from consideration -
what went wrong?
Talk to the professionals that recruit for you - the
contingency and retained search people that you use. Many
see issues they are reluctant to discuss - but that lead
to their efforts being frustrated.
Use a mystery candidate - someone from outside the
organization who can represent themselves as a worthy
candidate - and see what they have to say. A trusted
selection resource can provide the person. See how you
really do things through the eyes of someone unfamiliar
with your organization.
Talk to your hiring managers - where do they see process
steps that can be improved.
Talk to the staff people who do the administration and
sourcing - ask the same questions.
That's feedback from six different resources who can help
improve your selection process, reduce costs, add top
talent and reduce selection cycle time.
And.
Create a results oriented measure of selection
effectiveness - things do not improve unless they can be
measured. Don't let measures of effort be the measure - how
much money spent or candidates interviewed can have very
little correlation to results. Measures of time to complete
the selection process, success of people selected -
retention and performance, measures of the "fit" of
selections, are the kinds of criteria to use.
Even in the best organizations - measured by selection
success - it is well worth the effort to conduct this kind
of regular audit - annually, or if significant problems
exist, quarterly, until behavior and results suggest a
lesser frequency.
The very act of doing this review has a powerful effect on
performance. When the belief that every hire is an
opportunity to improve the organization is followed up with
this kind of attention, improved performance happens.
Take a look at how this can best be done in your own
organization. It looks complicated - it isn't - and the
payback can be huge.
----------------------------------------------------
Andy Cox is President of Cox Consulting Group LLC. He
founded his firm 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. He can be
reached at http://www.coxconsultgroup.com . Visit his blog
at http://multiplysuccess.blogspot.com
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