How to Make Every Hire Count
The
leader of a large U.S. organization was asked if he planned to fire an
employee who made an expensive mistake. "No," said the CEO, because he
viewed the "mistake" as valuable training. "You can't put a price on
what she learned," he said, "and the lesson should benefit this company,
not our competitors."
The employee not only survived the
mistake, but she also corrected it. Her innovations positioned the
company as an industry leader.
Not all leaders would view the
employee's mistake the same way, but this particular executive was
thinking smart by thinking ahead. He knew the expense of
termination, recruitment, hiring, and training. He was confident in
his hiring decisions because his company uses a best-practices
hiring process. His managers ensure that each new employee is the
best person for the job. Mistake aside, the CEO knew that the
employee who erred was a good fit for her role.
Can we all say the same things about
our hiring methods? Making every hire the best hire possible is a
goal we should strive for all the time, but it is even more
important when the economy is ailing. Leaders cannot afford hiring
mistakes because turnover is too costly. Add up the costs of
recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and training while a job remains
open for weeks, perhaps months. Why spend this money if you can hire
the right person and avoid the turnover?
Below are crucial questions that
result in hiring the best candidates. Leaders can examine their own
practices by asking themselves these questions when thinking about
job candidates, as well as current employees:
-
Do I know how each job supports
our company's key objectives?
Your organization may be behind the
curve if job descriptions have not changed with your revamped plan
of action. If employees are performing their jobs the same old way,
they are holding the company back. Make sure top leaders buy into
the strategy and share it with employees down the line so that every
worker knows how to put the plan into action.
-
Do we have a policy of
considering highly qualified internal candidates first when
organizational opportunities arise?
Internal "hiring" demonstrates that
you believe in the training practices of your company and in your
employees' accomplishments. Such a policy encourages top performers
to take initiative and exercise creative thinking. You don't have to
train them in crucial aspects of the job, such as the job's scope
and how it relates to other employees and departments, because they
already know how the company works.
-
Do managers use objective
evaluation criteria based on known outstanding performers in the
position?
If you want to ensure that each
worker fits her job, measure how top performers in the same position
do their jobs. Then apply the same assessment to candidates for the
position and see how well they match the top performers. This
approach works because it applies objective standards to the
position instead of requiring you to rate a person via subjective
standards or to "hire with your gut."
-
Is our compensation competitive
based on current market rates for the job?
Paying a salary commensurate to what
employees can earn in similar positions is critical to keeping your
workforce motivated and attracting top talent. Organizations can
compete in many areas—work environment, benefits, growth
opportunities—but expecting top performers to stay with you because
you offer these things is not realistic if they can earn
significantly more money doing a similar job elsewhere.
-
Do we apply a consistent
selection process to all candidates?
If the answer is yes, it means that
your selection processes are objective and fair. These are
important, not only because you want to do the right thing, but also
because legal challenges to employee selection standards are
expensive. The best employee selection process ensures that
selection standards are job-related, validated, and standardized.
-
Do we include key stakeholders in
our employee selection process?
Key stakeholders are those affected,
for better or worse, by our operations, those who have an interest
in what we do, and those who influence what we do. That includes
almost everyone, but a big-tent approach is profitable: Inc.
Magazine reports that "organizations with more effective hiring
systems rank higher in financial performance, productivity, quality,
customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and retention."
-
Are we training our interviewers
in our employee selection process?
Once we determine that we want
structured interviews—those in which questions and tasks are chosen
beforehand, and that are designed to ensure consistency—it is
imperative that we coach our interviewers. The process is likely to
go more smoothly if interviewers understand it, buy into the
reasoning behind it, and know what to do. The unstructured interview
is weak for purposes of identifying the best candidates.
-
Are we giving interviewers
guidance to help them probe deeper into a candidate's suitability?
According to Leadership IQ, a firm
that provides research and executive education to top companies, a
study of 20,000 newly hired employees showed that “46 percent of all
new hires fail within 18 months." This happens not because the new
employees lack technical skills, but because they are not coachable,
have the wrong temperament, are not motivated, or demonstrate other
problems "that never get assessed in the interview." To catch these
mismatches, screening interviewers need expert coaching to help them
look beyond technical skills and ask the right follow-up questions.
-
Are we conducting comprehensive
reference and background checks on job candidates?
Leaders might view reference and/or
background checks as a bother when they "know" someone is right for
a position. But employment experts estimate that almost one-third of
all resumes contain false or exaggerated information. According to a
Purdue University newsletter, falsified information consists mostly
of expanded dates to cover employment gaps.
-
Does our orientation process for
newly hired people help them become productive faster?
A Bersin & Associates/Randstad case
study shows that productivity measures increased by 25 percent among
employees who participated in an onboarding training program.
Employee job descriptions can help by communicating the company's
direction and telling the employee where he fits in the big picture.
Is your company set to handle employee
mistakes and economic battering? It will be if you are hiring only the
best.
Jim Sirbasku, CEO
Profiles International
Pop Quiz
The ProfileXT™, which is designed to achieve the best possible job
fit for any position in the working world, utilizes specific terminology
that we often use in Profiles Advantage. Test your knowledge of
these terms here.
1. What is a Benchmark?
a. A standard by which we measure something.
b. A financial goal to reach in the first quarter.
c. The label we apply to the candidate we want for a certain
position.
2. What is a Job Pattern?
a. The way in which employees do their jobs each day.
b. A scale to help determine employee-job compatibility.
c. Another new name for "job description."
3. What are Top and Bottom
performers?
a. The highest- and lowest-performing employees in a certain
position.
b. Those who work the first and second shifts.
c. Employees who are paid at the highest and lowest rates.
4. What three measures are important for accurately
matching people to the work they do?
a. Energy, intelligence and affability.
b. Educational level, technical skill and pay requirements.
c. Behavioural traits, occupational interests and thinking style.
5. How is a Candidate Matching Report helpful to
employers?
a. It narrows the search for a manager seeking to fill a position.
b. It tells you whether a job seeker's style of dress meshes with
the position.
c. It places a candidate for a job with those most like him in the
company.
Answers: 1. a; 2. b; 3. a; 4. c; 5. a.
PXT™ Tells Managers What They Need to Know
Managers who rely on
their instincts when hiring should pay more attention to that inner
voice when it warns them not to hire someone. Studies show
that leaders often know in advance when a candidate is not going to
work out—and yet they hire the person anyway because he meets the
technical requirements for the job.
Some time later, the manager discovers problems: the
candidate does not respond well to feedback, cannot get along with
co-workers, or is not motivated to do much more than go through the
motions to keep his job. Then the manager remembers…he had doubts
about the employee before he was even hired. But he believed
that there was not enough time to conduct a more thorough search for
candidates, and he wasn't certain that any of the other candidates
would have been better.
All it takes is one bad hire to prove that hiring in
haste is more time-consuming than hiring deliberately. If you are
ready to fix your failed interview process, consider ProfileXT™. It
shows a candidate's behavioural traits, occupational interests and
thinking style as part of an overall process to evaluate how the
person would fit into a specific job.
ProfileXT™ uses several scales to determine job
fit. Job fit is directly correlated to how well someone will perform
and how long he will stay on the job. The assessment uses a Job
Match Pattern, which is developed by examining workers who are most
and least successful in a specific position. Their scores on the
ProfileXT™ provide benchmarks for new job candidates in the same
position.
In addition to scoring top and bottom performers and
providing benchmarks, PXT's Job Match Pattern does the following:
- Allows you to match
the test-taker's score on each scale item to a Job Match Pattern of
scores for a specific position. The further the score falls outside
of the pattern (high or low), the greater the negative impact on the
Job Match Percent.
- Lets you find more
top-performing candidates for a job.
- Helps you find more
appropriate positions for those who are a poor fit for the job.
People who use the ProfileXT™ as directed report less
turnover and more productivity. And there are many ways to use it.
For example, those who rely on PXT companywide have found they can
determine the best internal candidates for promotion to new jobs.
If you are paying close attention when your inner
voice says that you need more information, consider PXT. It’s a
proven time-saver in the long run. Call Marcourt Communications Inc.
at (519) 893-1933.
STRATEGIES FOR WINNING: 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 your peers are
enjoying. If you're experiencing excessive staff
turnover, or finding that your new hires simply
don't fit in, use the following six steps to
ensure that you get more of the people you need.
This is The New Art of Hiring Smart.
1. Determine the Cost of Turnover
Take the annual salary of any job for which you
have excessive turnover, add the 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? Then add other costs (agency fees,
advertising, travel, etc.), training costs, lost
production/opportunity costs 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 are people
quitting? Why are they being fired? Why have
they become problematic?
-
Conducting exit interviews. Ask each person
who leaves what you could have done to help
them succeed and to prevent their departure.
Don't be fooled by the answer "pay me more
money."
-
Asking your top people what they like about
their jobs and how you can make their jobs
better. Try replicating whatever they like
throughout the organization.
-
Evaluating those responsible for hiring and
asking them (or yourself) the following: 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 on the
basis of technical, educational, experiential,
and industrial know-how—otherwise, how can you
know what you're looking for?
Harvard Business Review conducted a huge
study—360,000 people in 14 industries over a
20-year period—in an attempt to identify what
made for job success. The study discovered that
people are successful only when they are matched
well to their jobs. They must have the right
level of learning ability and they must be
motivated to do the work, and their behavioural
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.marcourt.com
4. Prospect Innovatively for Candidates
Consider additional sources you may not be
using, such as:
-
Employee Bonus for Referrals of
Candidates You Hire
-
Physically or Mentally
Disadvantaged Candidates
-
Senior Citizens
Retirees often make up a large pool of motivated
candidates for many empty positions.
-
Companies that Have Announced
Cutbacks
Contact 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
and are designed to bring out answers that will
lead to follow-up questions
The interview itself has three parts:
No candidate likes being interviewed. In fact,
most candidates see interviews as a necessary
evil. The Open has two objectives: The first is
to put the applicant at ease and build rapport.
The better the rapport, the better the
information you receive. The second objective is
to set the agenda and timetable. Explain the
order of the interview and approximately how
long you will be together.
Your overall objectives for the Open are to
create excitement about the job and to put your
candidate at ease.
Ask your lead questions here. When doing so,
think:
Can this person do the job?
Does he or she have the necessary
qualifications, experience, and competencies
that you know are necessary for success in the
position? Do his learning abilities match those
required by the job?
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 is then to probe any areas of
concern uncovered by the assessment process.
Will this person fit our corporate culture?
A candidate’s capability and motivation are
sufficient only if you are confident that the
candidate will also be a good fit for 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 for 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
helps you create a sense of competition and job
attractiveness, express sincere interest in the
candidate, and gauge the candidate’s interest in
the position.
6. Continually Refine Your Practices
Books like Lou Adler's Hire with Your
Head, as well as seminars and workshops on
best-practice hiring run by organizations like
Marcourt, will help you continually refine your
skills in the art of hiring. Your local Profiles
office can let you know what events are
scheduled in your area (find your local
representative by sending an email to
info@marcourt.com).
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.
CASE STUDY
PXT™ Helps Find Top Fire/Rescue Performers
A fire and
rescue department in a large city made an important and
potentially life-changing discovery when it determined that
using ProfileXT™ in its initial selection of employees would
have helped it identify more potential top performers.
The story
began when the department examined its own processes for
selecting and placing firefighters. A sophisticated and
effective model was already in place prior to PXT. This
model consisted of a written exam, a physical abilities test
and a psychological test conducted by an industrial
psychologist. The department selected about 10 percent of
overall applicants using this process.
But
managers wanted to explore using PXT's Job Match system to
further refine the department’s hiring processes, and to
identify candidates and employees with the potential to
become top performers.
The
department chose 24 firefighters to participate in the
study. Using its previously established performance
evaluation process, managers identified 14 of the 24 as top
performers. They considered the remaining ten good
employees, but did not place them in the top-performing
group.
The Job
Match Pattern was developed using the Concurrent Study
method. The study determined the assessment results for the
top group of 14, and then matched the entire group of 24 to
the resulting pattern. From this, managers determined an
overall percent match of 80 percent for each firefighter.
This meant that a score of 80 percent or higher would
identify a top performer.
Eleven of
the original 14 top performers, or 79 percent, matched the
80 percent or higher job match rate.
Two of
the ten not identified as top performers scored 80 percent
or higher. Thus eight of ten, or 80 percent, of the lower
performers were NOT selected by the Job Match Pattern
process as top performers.
If the fire and rescue department had used the ProfileXT™ in
its initial selection of these employees, managers would
have selected 79 percent of the original top performers and
20 percent of those not deemed top performers. This means
the department would not have overlooked as many potential
top performers if it had properly used the PXT matching
process in a balanced selection method.
SUCCESS STORY
ProfileXT™ Helps Idaho
Agency Replace Boomers
Idaho
Fish and Game is responsible for the year-round protection and
management of the state's wildlife. The retirement of Baby Boomers
prompted the commission to seek help. Here, Jon Heggen, chief of the
Enforcement Bureau, discusses the commission’s results after using
ProfileXT™.
Q. Why did
Idaho Fish and Game turn to ProfileXT™?
A. Baby Boomers
within our conservation officer ranks are rapidly retiring. We have had
to step up our recruitment efforts to fill our increased vacancies.
Q. How did
the ProfileXT™ Job Match Pattern help you?
A. Recently, we began
to notice a pattern of behaviours and skills among successful
conservation officers, and we wanted to identify those behaviours in job
candidates as well. We found what we were looking for when we were
introduced to ProfileXT™. It helped us build our Idaho Fish and Game
Officer Analysis and create a benchmark so that we could meet our needs
by identifying the traits we wanted in our conservation officers.
Q. How did
you quantify the results?
A. Two years ago, we
hired seven officers who have become known as the "Magnificent
Seven." Each officer
brings a unique personality that adds to our diverse culture, and each
one of them exhibits the behavioural traits we identified in our Idaho
Fish and Game Officer Analysis.
Q. Did the
successful results prove to be lasting?
A. After two years,
all seven officers continue to excel in their work and have set the bar
higher for future recruits.
Q. What do
you tell others about ProfileXT™?
We are pleased to add
ProfilesXT™ to our assessment tools. It helps us meet our
needs as we hire
Idaho's future conservation officers.
Tough economic conditions can influence employees to relate
differently to their Boss and their
job in the short term. But both employees and employers should take this
opportunity to maximize their relationship. It can pay big dividends in
the long run. – Eric Bunton, Randstad
USA,
recruitment agency
Put your
personnel work first because it is the most important. – Gen. Robert E.
Wood, former president of Sears, Roebuck and Co.
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