Finding good people is one of the toughest challenges for business owners and managers. Turnover has an immediate and often devastating impact on the bottom line. For example, if you have a sales force of five people, each represents 20 percent of your potential annual revenue. If one or two leave, there”™s a good chance you won”™t make your yearly goal. Every employee”™s contribution counts.
A growth-oriented company requires a very special staff. To succeed, the business must be incredibly adaptable. The kind of employee who thrives in this environment is not easy to find.
Yet, we tend to make hiring decisions too easily.
Do you do a thorough search to find the best person for the job or are you too often settling for the first person who comes in the door who meets minimum criteria?
Do you understand what your “must-have” qualifications are for the job (if not, check out westfaironline.com/2011/14338-in-the-market-for-a-new-hire/) so you have a logical barometer to measure candidates rather than merely making a gut decision?
Companies need to look at the true cost of a bad hire in order to determine how to budget for the recruiting process. Don”™t cheat yourself here ”“ for your company, there is no more important decision than making the right hire and no more important process than the search process.
Why does the typical process fail so often?
1. We make decisions in 90 seconds. Research indicates most of us make up our minds during a first impression and then use the rest of the interview to back up our initial judgment.
First impressions are important and you do need to trust your gut, but trusting it and relying solely on it are two different things. Don”™t rush to judgment and make sure you create a logical case for saying “yes” and making that hire.
2. We fall in love with the resume. Experience is not expertise and it sure isn”™t attitude.
You are hiring a human being who is going to be successful in only a certain kind of environment ”“ regardless of his or her contact base and experience. Make sure you understand what it will take for the candidate to succeed ”“ and how to manage the candidate so he will.
3. We don”™t interview for behaviors. We lack the questions needed to create an open discussion where we really get to understand how the candidate thinks, reacts and behaves.
4. We comfort ourselves with a group decision. We do not create a structured interview process and so rather than getting three or four different perspectives, we get one perspective three or four times because we all ask the same questions.
5. We leave the candidate in his comfort zone. By asking the standard questions, the candidate has a distinct advantage. He is comfortable and in control, while we, the interviewers, are not. Interviews require questions that enable us to dig deeper and force candidates out of their comfort zones so we can see if they think on their feet and respond to questions in a favorable light.
Prepare a few questions that are outside of the box. For example:
- Don”™t ask: Tell me about your strengths?
- Ask: What makes your strengths different than someone who has a similar background to yours?
6. We don”™t take the time to figure out what we really need. The position description is not the same as the ideal candidate profile. Take the time to understand the ideal candidate profile and how much room around that ideal you have before you get yourself in trouble. The rule is simple:
- Skills matching can be approximate ”“ people can learn.
- Behavioral matching must be dead on ”“ people don”™t often change.
If you see anything in the above six comments that reminds you of your interview or hiring process, it”™s time for some changes.
Donald J. Zinn is co-founder and managing partner of Exigent Search Partners, a search firm in Tarrytown. Reach him at dzinn@exigentsearch.com or visit his website at www.exigentsearch.com.
