As this New Year gets underway, hopefully you and your company are planning to hire people to help you grow. To those who don’t spend the majority of their time interviewing and selecting employees, the prospect of hiring people can be challenging.
If you are in the position of having to interview candidates and are not looking forward to the experience, relax – I’m here to help!
Whether you are in a growth industry or not, there will be times in the coming year when you will have to fill an open position in your organization, either to replace someone who has left or to add to your team. In either case, hiring is a great opportunity to ensure you select a top performer — someone who will be instrumental in delivering the results you and your clients expect.
I have good news for you – there is a tried and true method to do this and it consists of the following steps:
- Create an accurate job description that identifies responsibilities, levels of authority, expected results, and competencies necessary for success. This step essentially identifies the character, culture, and competency requirements of this position. Competencies are simply the specific talents, skills, and behaviors that must be utilized to ensure successful performance. (More to come later.)
- Identify your selection team – who will help you interview and assess prospective candidates? Best practice is to have three to five people on this team. Equip them with the information from step one and ensure they all agree on the characteristics you are looking for. If this selection team isn’t aligned, you can’t possibly expect to hire a top performer.
- Conduct thorough interviews using behaviorally-based interview questions connected to the competencies you have identified. (More on identifying the interview questions later.)
- Assemble the interview team within 24 hours of the interview to share, compare, and contrast what they learned in the interview. Narrow the candidate pool down to fewer than four people.
- Consider administering a validated assessment tool to provide insight into the capability of the smaller candidate pool. I prefer the Caliper Profile because it identifies over 20 traits. In the 15+ years I have been using it, the vast percentage of people surveyed agreed it was a “dead-on” representation of who they were.
- Consider conducting in-depth reference calls with the top candidate’s former bosses, peers, team members and/or customers. Check out their social media presence to help ensure a fit with your culture and character expectations.
- Develop a detailed on-boarding or integration plan for their first 90 days at a minimum. Provide feedback along the way.
This tried and true methodology has worked quite effectively thousands of times for me and clients we have served over the years. The rare times I have failed to hire a top performer can be traced back to not following one or more of the above steps.
Here is more good news! To help you with step 3 above, we have assembled 100 competencies and over 1300 behaviorally-based interview questions for all 100 competencies in one source which you can acquire. For a sample, click here and for the full product, click here. I promise that you will not be disappointed.
Our company has trained hundreds of leaders and staff on this approach with exceptional results. If you are interested in learning how we can come and train your colleagues or others in your organization, contact me today.
Best regards!
Bill
PS. Don’t miss out on the availability of this tool to help you. Click here for your copy.