The New Art of Hiring Smart *
Good People Grow Business
It's the best of times and the worst of times too – if people
problems are coming between you and the commercial success that you
see your peers enjoying. If you're either experiencing excessive
staff turnover or finding that the people you're hiring simply don't
fit in, use the following six steps, The New Art of Hiring Smart, to
ensure that you get more of the people you need.
1. Determine the Cost of
Turnover
Take the annual salary for any job where you
have excessive turnover, add a typical 30 percent for benefits, and
calculate 25 percent of the total. That's the absolute minimum it
costs you every time that position turns over. If you provide any
other benefits or incur any other costs, it's actually much more.
Multiply this figure by the number of times the position turns over.
Do this for every job where you have turnover.
Scary, huh? Add other costs (agency fees, advertising, travel,
etc.), training costs, lost production/opportunity cost while the
position is empty, and morale costs. Now that we have your
attention, let's do something about the problem.
2. Identify Hiring Problems and
Mistakes
Identify any part of your organization that's having people problems
and find out what's causing them by:
Asking your department and human resources managers why, in their
opinion, these departments have turnover, why people quit, get
fired, or become problematic.
- Conducting exit interviews. Ask each person who leaves what
you could have done to help them succeed and to prevent them from
leaving. Don't be fooled by "pay more money."
- Asking your top people what they like about their jobs and how
you can make their jobs better – try to replicate whatever they
like throughout the organization.
Looking at the people doing the hiring, and asking them (or
asking yourself): Do they need training? Do they have a system that
works? Do they take hiring new people seriously?
3. Recruit People Who Fit Your
Jobs
- First, You Must Understand the Job and Develop a
Competency-Based Job Description.
It is critical that you document the competencies required by all
of your jobs from a technical, educational, experience, and
industrial know-how basis – otherwise, how can you know what you're
looking for?
Harvard Business Review conducted a huge study – 360,000
people in 14 industries during a 20-year period – in an attempt to
identify what made for job success. The study discovered the people
are successful only when they are matched to their jobs. They must
have the right level of learning abilities, have a motivational
interest in the work, and their behavioral makeup or personality
must equip them to do the job well.
You cannot get the information necessary to match people to jobs
from candidates' resumes or from conventional interviews. The only
way you can uncover this information is by formal assessment of
candidates using assessments designed specifically for this task –
you can find more information about this at:
www.hrihoustin.com or call us at
713-840-6350.
4. Prospect Innovatively for
Candidates
Consider additional sources you may not be using, such as:
Employee Bonus for Referrals of Candidates you Employ
- Physically or Mentally Disadvantaged
- Senior Citizens
The retired community is a rich source of motivated candidates
for many empty positions.
- Companies that Have Announced Cutbacks
Contact the personnel and department managers in organizations
announcing cutbacks and describe the candidate you are seeking.
- Set Up Educational Relationships
Find the universities, colleges or schools that support your
industry through their curricula, and develop relationships with
them.
5. Prepare for and Conduct a
Winning Interview
Preparing for an interview is just as important
as the interview itself.
- Review the Job Description
In advance of the interview, clarify in your mind the job
requirements, and the kind of competencies you expect to find in the
person who will fill the job.
Lead questions are based on the job description – designed to
bring out answers that will lead to follow-up questions
The interview itself has three parts:
No candidate likes doing interviews – they are viewed simply as a
necessary evil. The Open has two objectives: first, to put the
applicant at ease and build rapport. The better the rapport you
create, the better the information you receive. Second, you want to
set the agenda and timetable. Explain the sequence for the interview
and approximately how long you will be together.
Your overall objectives for the Open are to create excitement
about the job and put your candidate at ease.
Ask your lead questions here. When doing so, think:
Can this person do the job?
Has he or she the necessary qualifications, experience, and
competencies that you know are necessary for success in the
position? Do his learning abilities match those the job requires?
Will this person do the job?
If you are satisfied that the candidate has the qualities to do the
job successfully, your next task is to ensure that he or she is
motivated to be successful in the position. Is the nature of the
work sufficiently motivating for him/her to ensure success? This can
usually be determined only through assessment of the candidate's
motivational interests, using assessments like The Profile
(mentioned above). The purpose of the interview in this regard is
then to probe any areas of concern uncovered by the assessment
process.
Will this person fit our corporate culture?
Being capable and motivated to do the job well is sufficient only if
you are confident that the candidate will also be a good fit to your
company. Again, the extent of this match is best determined using a
pre-interview assessment, with the interview providing an
opportunity to probe any areas where the candidate seems to be a
poor match to the position. Listen carefully and take notes. Later,
review your notes and form your opinions.
The Close is no less important than the two previous stages of
the interview, allowing for both sides to summarize and agree on
next steps.
In a book we highly recommend – Hire with Your Head by
Lou Adler – there's a suggested closing statement that can be used
with all candidates, especially those who will make the next cut:
"Although we're seeing other fine candidates, I personally think
that you have a very fine background. We'll get back to you in a few
days, but what are your thoughts about this new position?"
This close creates a sense of competition and job attractiveness,
expresses sincere interest in the candidate, and allows the
interviewer to gauge how much interest the candidate has in the
position.
6. Continually Refine Your
Practices
Books like Lou Adler's Hire with Your Head, and
seminars and workshops on best-practice hiring, run by organizations
like Human Resource Innovations, will help you continually refine
your skills in this area. Our office can let you know what events
are scheduled in your area by contacting us at haljay@hrihouston.com or
calling us at 713-840-6350
People are your most important asset. Shouldn't you invest at
least as much effort in attracting, recruiting and retaining them as
you invest in winning and retaining customers?
* From the book 40 STRATEGIES FOR WINNING IN BUSINESS by
Bud Haney and Jim Sirbasku. © S&H Publishing Co., 5205 Lake Shore
Drive, Waco, Texas 76710-1732. All rights reserved. Contact S&H
Publishing Co., (254) 751-1644, for reprint permission.
Always recognize that
human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your
end.
-- Immanuel Kant, philosopher