Posts Tagged ‘job interview’

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The 2 Reasons Why It Is So Hard To Hire The Right Person

Sunday, October 17th, 2010

And What To Do About It

Though our workplace has changed, most companies still hold onto an outdated approach to hiring employees, resulting in performance and retention problems.

We are in a service workplace; much of manufacturing has moved offshore. Instead of performing repetitive tasks, employees now creatively invent service responses on the spot; each response must be “customerized” – appropriate for each customer. The better the service event, the more committed and loyal the customer. The more committed the customer, the more significant the bottom-line results. And at the center of this process is the employee – the right one can win customers for life. The wrong one can send them away forever.

Hiring the right employee is now more critical than ever. Though this is critical, most organizations do not have great success hiring the right employees for these two reasons:

1. Organizations continue to use outdated job descriptions that do not define the key performance attributes needed to be successful in the job. The do not assess, define and articulate the talents, strengths, passions and critical skills (performance attributes) needed to be successful in each role. Without a proper way to assess and define the performance attributes of a job, the organization is unable to share these requirements with potential job candidates – and the wrong candidates apply.

2. Job candidates are not very self-aware. They do not know their talents, strengths, passions and critical skills, so even if a company can define what the required performance attributes, most people don’t know whether they are a good fit for the job. This complicates the hiring process and increases the probability of hiring the wrong employee.

Both sides are at fault. Both sides need to change and to meet someplace in the middle.

Organizations must now clearly define the talents, passions, strengths and performance skills need to be successful in each role. This allows the organization to share these success attributes so that job seekers can assess their fit for the role. For the organizations I consult with, I use a Talent Matrix – a one-page summary of the performance talents, team talents, and skills and experience needed to be successful in each role in the organization. From this information, organizations can more successfully source candidates who have the required hard-wired attributes.

Job candidates must become more self-aware; they must make the effort know their talents, passions and strengths to be able to assess whether these attributes match the attributes required in the job. I coach organizations to require job candidates to apply using a talent-based resume; skill and experience resumes are rejected. A talent-based resume summarizes the job candidate’s primary talents, key work experience (that showcases the talents) and other valuable performance information that helps the hiring manager assess whether the job candidate would be a fit in the current employment opportunity. And to be able to complete a talent-based resume, a job seeker must be well aware of his/her strongest performance attributes. This encourages job candidates to only apply for jobs that seem a good fit and results in fewer, but better, candidates for hiring managers to review.

Your bottom-line success is based on your ability to have highly engaged and passionate employees doing great things for customers. The primary component of employee engagement is employee fit. Employees who are good at what the job requires and passionate about doing it, do the work in an epic way. This requires hiring the right employees.

So to get it right, both sides need to improve the hiring process. When both improve, it will be an easier and more effective process to align the right employee to the right roles – employee performance, satisfaction and loyalty improves; the organization’s bottom line improves. With such critical things at stake this is a change that cannot wait.

Contact me to learn about the Talent Matrix, my work on talent-based interviewing and the talent-based resume. The way to fire up your employees is to first get them in the right jobs.

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How to “Test Drive” Your Job Candidate

Saturday, September 18th, 2010

You would never think of buying a car without a test drive. Could you imagine spending the money and not knowing how the car handles, what it feels like and if you even like it?

So many organizations do the same with their new employees. They ask a few predictable questions then put this new employee in front of their customers. This is a dangerous strategy.

Your employees build or destroy your brand with your customers, so hiring the right employee is both critical and requires great preparation. This includes clearly defining the critical talents (thinking), strengths and passions the employee will need to be successful in the job.

In our service workplace, employees rarely do the same thing over and over. Instead, they must be constantly thinking and assessing to provide the most effective, efficient and profitable response in each situation they encounter. This means they must think through their day – and since we all don’t think the same way, not everyone will be a good fit for every job.

Skill and experience don’t always show aptitude or fit – they show endurance. Remember, just because a candidate has experience doesn’t mean he was good at the job or liked doing it – the two criteria for successful performance. When you know the critical thinking (talents) needed to be successful in the role, you can better source candidates who exhibit these talents. This is where the “test drive” comes in.

Today’s interviews must assess how candidates think and how they would handle true workplace situations. To assess their thinking and responses, host a talent-based interview, and use talent-based interview questions. Here are some important things to remember:

1. Do not ask predictable questions. The goal is to see how candidates really think so you must ask questions that force their top-of-mind reactions, not a rehearsed response.
2. The best talent-based questions look to see how the candidate will handle real job events, challenges and requirements. My favorite question is an easy one to remember, and can be used in any job situation. You say, “Here’s a situation you’ll find in this job (then give details). How would you handle this?” It may be dealing with a difficult customer, driving effectively, teaching employees, developing products, etc. It is customized to the actual job and workplace.
3. You are looking for the candidate’s first and most immediate reaction. This is the reaction he would have had in the workplace in this same situation; you need to see this response – to assess its effectiveness. Does the candidate seem capable and competent? Did he assess and handle the event you asked about in a productive way? Is he interested in being successful?

What is critical in talent-based interviewing is that you get the candidate to think on the spot – this is where you get a test drive to see how the potential employee would handle real job events. You are spending a lot of money – be sure you get what you pay for.

Contact me to learn about my Fire Up Process – a step-by-step process to attract, hire and retain today’s A-level employees. This includes talent-based interviewing and the talent-based resume. More information at www.LiveFiredUp.com.

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How To Get Your New Hires To Stay

Saturday, August 21st, 2010

So, you want your new hires to stay. Most don’t last very long. And the greatest reason cited is that how the job is explained to the candidate is not what they find when they start working.

Before we can discuss this, I need to ask, why do you pay your employees?

Most say, “to do the job,” “to make a difference,” some even say “because the law says I have to.” These all do not reflect the true nature of the employer-employee relationship. Instead, think “return.”

For your investment in your employee, you expect a return. You pay your employees to create that return, and that is not by only doing the listed components of a job description – the world changes to quickly to live to rigid steps. The real reason why you pay your employees is to create the most efficient, effective and profitable response in each situation they encounter in their jobs. Employees have to think; they have to be emotionally connected to what they do – this is how they add value. And if they see that the job is not as you described it, they disconnect. They feel betrayed. They stop performing.

In your interview process, get good at sharing an honest representation of what a day in the life of the employee in the job is like. Consider the following:

1. Create “A day in the life of” videos for each job in the organization, and host the video on the employment section of your website.
2. Have others who will work with the employee spend time with the serious interview candidates to share their comments about the company and the job.
3. Include a walk-through of where the employee will be working to familiarize the employee with the environment, the people, the attitude, the energy and the personality of the workplace.

What is missing in most employer-employee relationships is trust and honesty. Organizations represent the jobs, potential and workplaces as something different than they are. Candidates represent themselves as being more capable than they are. Then both sides are disappointed in the new arrangement.

Remember that each side must wisely invest in the other. Companies invest in their people. Employees invest in the visions, purpose, opportunities and products of their companies. Knowing the facts about the workplace prepares the job candidate to be well informed in the decision-making process. How can you expect an employee to commit to exceptional performance and loyalty if you are not honest with what the candidate will encounter in your workplace? And when they leave, in a connected world, they tell their friends.

Start a high trust relationship with your employees right from the interview process. This leads to better hiring, more significant performance and more loyal employees.

Please pass this one to someone who can benefit from it and contact me to help you learn how to use talent-based interviewing to hire the right person.

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Get More Done With Less

Monday, May 17th, 2010

Many organizations have been carrying extra employees for years – employees who continued to show up each day without adding a level of value commensurate with their pay and benefits.

The recession forced virtually all organizations to reduce their spending. And in today’s intellectual and service workplace, most of these expense reductions related to manpower. Thanks to the recession, most organizations have now seen they can get more done with fewer of the right employees, than more of the wrong employees. Great lesson.

Getting more done with less is not about overwhelming employees by adding the responsibilities of laid off employees to surviving employees. Rather, it is about understanding employees talents, strengths and passions and realigning employees to roles that use these to make a more significant difference. Studies continue to support that employees who are engaged (intrinsically and emotionally connected – they are good at what the job requires and like doing it), out perform all others. They are more creative, more focused and more interested in their work. The result is greater performance. This requires a greater attention to “fit.” Fit determines the “right employee.” Right employees get more done.

So to get more done with less:
1. Define the talents, strengths, skills and experience needed in each role.
2. Realign existing talent to roles that match and need their attributes.
3. Hire those positions for which you do not currently have the right people.
4. When interviewing, use talent-based questions (workplace situational questioning) to assess candidates’ talents and assess their responses and fit.
5. Clearly define performance expectations and allow employees greater freedom in achieving expectations.
6. Provide recurring feedback to encourage employees to perform.

We are in the new “normal.” The recession showed us we can get the work done with fewer of the right people, keep costs down and improve profitability. Did the recession change how you hire and who is on your team?

Please forward this to someone who can benefit from it, and contact me to show you how to get the right people in the right roles to build your A-Team.

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