HIRING THE RIGHT PEOPLE
There are hundreds of books and videos on this topic and they all say the same or similar things. Surround yourself with people that are smarter than you are and spend more time hiring the right people. It is critical that you take special care in hiring the right candidate for your company. You can have the best product or service, the best systems and technology, but without the right people to perform in this environment, you will ultimately fail or, at best, under perform.
There are some fundamental ways to help you find the right person for the job. Have a clear understanding of the job itself. It is not necessary to have a 10-year PhD to rewrite a small Java application. Develop a job description, and set specific experience requirements. You might start by interviewing employees who have held similar positions in the past. Be sure to separate out the essential job functions from the non-essential job functions. The essential job functions are critical and repetitive. Non-essential functions might be nice to haves or could be developed while on the job for the right person.
It is also helpful to have a set agenda and list of specific interview questions for each particular job. The interview process itself can take on a life of its own if you do not have an agenda. Things can get off track very easily and a specific agenda and list of questions can get you back on track very quickly. We are not in the business of suggesting what questions are appropriate and legal, so it may behoove you to run this list past an attorney or HR professional. Having said this, a very effective question, particularly for a position that involves high level challenges and an ability to persevere might be something like: “Tell me about your biggest failure and how you overcame it to eventually succeed”. There are many sources of additional routine questions available to you with a little research. The point is, have a plan.
The next step involves the search itself. Probably the most effective tool for hiring critically skilled, degreed professionals is the employee referral program. Good people work with good people! Put one in place if you don’t have one and sell it like a hot product inside your company. Putting the words in the employee handbook and never mentioning it again is a complete waste of time. Other effective tools include job fairs, Internet postings and open houses.
Hiring a professional recruiter with industry/technical expertise is also a great tool if used properly. Often times companies rely on historic “vendor lists” and ask the HR department to send out the requirements to everyone on the list and then in 2 weeks send them out to the tier 2 vendors if no candidates have been identified. This is a commodities approach to a personal/personnel market. You may get lucky, but an awful lot of time will be spent looking at resumes and speaking to unqualified candidates. Speak to your peers at other companies and get introduced to a high caliber specialist in your field and then hold that person accountable with performance metrics. These recruiters are paid contingently so you don’t owe them money until you secure the right resource. In this model, to have 15 recruiters compete for your business does not incent the quality contingent recruiter, nor does it attract the best recruiters, it attracts the poor to moderately skilled recruiter and requires hours and hours of your time and the time of your other decision makers. You may as well review resumes off the job boards. Find a great recruiter, pay him well and expect a lot. For more information contact us at Management@lucidsolutionsllc.com
Contact Us
