Part 1 of 4 in the Hiring Right series
Hiring is one of the most important and difficult tasks for any manager. When you’re hiring your team you need to find someone with the right knowledge, skills, abilities, behaviors, and fit for your organization.
While many hiring managers primarily focus on competencies or experiences, we shouldn’t overlook the other dimensions that may not be easily assessed in an interview. For this reason, assessments that can look at all dimensions are of value. Different types of assessments work best for different types of needs. For instance, the KFLAP works great in leadership roles or roles of a very critical nature. But for more entry-level roles, a skills assessment could be appropriate. Where you place an assessment is also important. If you’re looking at a hard skill, such as typing speed, you can place the assessment before an initial interview. If you’re looking for a competency or behavior, you should place the assessment before the interview so you can develop probing questions to get a deeper look during an interview.
But what if you’re short on computer-based assessments? Let’s explore a few tools you can put in place today to help make sure your next hire is the right one.
Defining Success: A prerequisite
Before embarking on the hiring journey, clarity on success criteria is essential. Begin with the end in mind. What does success in this role truly look like? Do you have a job description? If not, pause and build it, thinking about it carefully because it is the basis of the contract you will have with your future employee. Do you have clear expectations for the role? Expectations and goals are different but very closely related. Expectations represent an expanded job description. If your employee does everything on the expectation list, they will be doing the job well, not just getting by. In fact, this would be a person you would want on your team so long as the role is needed. Goals, on the other hand, elevate that person to their next level. If they are not meeting expectations, perhaps leveling up to meeting expectations is the goal. But if they are already meeting expectations, then what can they do to raise the bar? It is important to understand your own expectations of the role before embarking on the hiring journey.
If you already have employees in the role, think about what they are doing well and what you tend to coach them on. Consider elevating the job description based on your learnings of the role. Expectations for the role can and should change over time because the role should evolve over time.
When you are ready to go public with your job description, don’t just rely on the traditional posting venues. Lean into your network. Everyone knows someone, and the highest source for hires is traditionally referrals. Who do you know who might know someone good for this role? Where are you already networked where you can get the word out? Do you have a LinkedIn account where you can advertise your role in your network? Even though referrals are a great source, if you get a referral, do your due diligence. Vet the referral. Ask the referrer how they know the candidate and what they know about the candidate’s work output and work ethic. Seek a deeper understanding of potential skills and behaviors that would make this candidate a good fit for the role. Make sure the referral meets all your qualifications before progressing them through the process. If they don’t meet the qualifications and you still want to progress them, then you need to pause. Were all those qualifications really necessary? If you’re willing to budge on a requirement for one person, you need to budge on that same requirement for everyone. Not doing so can be the limiter to allowing your RIGHT hire in the door.
Also, don’t forget your internal network. Sometimes internals with less experience are still better candidates because they bring the company knowledge to the table. Company knowledge should be treated like a skill that can only be trained on the inside. It’s up to you and your specific situation to determine how much you prioritize previous company knowledge. Sometimes having an existing network can leverage a person into productivity faster. Sometimes, if you’re trying to change the culture, for instance, it can be best to go externally.
Now that you have a good idea of what the desired skills & competencies are for this role and a good idea of where to look for talent, let’s move on to Hiring Right: Crafting Effective Interview Questions.
Or if you already have great interview questions, you can skip straight to
Hiring Right: Don’t be a Victim to Your Blind Spots
Hiring Right: Interview Tips & Tricks for Managers
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