How to hire the superstars who grow your business and avoid hiring the others who don’t...
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Wouldn’t it be great if you only ever recruited high quality people for your business?
Even better when these high quality people go on to have a highly profitable impact on your business performance?
It can be demoralising, highly frustrating and potentially lethal if you recruit the wrong people into your business.
Like the saying goes ‘one bad apple can rot the whole barrel!'
Here’s a bitesize business breakthrough to improve your interviewing skills and processes.
You can put this to work immediately (or the next time you want to hire someone) and improve your ability to hire brilliant people.
The calibre of your people matter now more than ever. Here’s why...
The transparency social media and the internet brings to all businesses means you’re exposed.
Start with 4 helping hands here or read on for the full Bitesize Business Breakthrough. Use your device's back arrow to return to this point.
If one of your employees messes up then tens, hundreds maybe even thousands of people will know almost instantly thanks to Twitter or some other instant messaging service.
The reverse is also true.
You will almost certainly have experienced a great employee at some time.
You know, the supermarket assistant who can’t do enough to help you?The hotel concierge who goes out of her way to book you a restaurant?
The ones who tempt you to write a favourable trip advisor report!
The thing is, hiring superstars isn’t what normally happens!
Here's the proven solution for you...
Follow a proven interview process and you can be confident you’ll recruit the best people for your business.
Interview well and you’ll hire well, and reap the rewards of working with great people.
According to a 2012 report (which studied 5,247 hiring managers responsible for more than 20,000 hires) 46% of newly hired employees will fail within 18 months.
More worrying is only 19% will achieve unequivocal success.
Time for a question...
What happens to your business results when your recruiting skills improve, and you double the number of superstars working in your business?
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Clearly, recruiting deserves the best of your attention.
We suggest you start with ...
Preparation & planning:
View recruitment as just another one of your many jobs and you’ll rarely hire the best people.
It requires a committed strategic approach if you’re going to hire the best people more often.
To help here’s a proven 6-step recruitment process you can put to work:
1
Prepare Well:
Be crystal clear on your job description and ideal candidate.
Until and unless you know exactly who you are looking for, and what you want them to do, you will not be able to recruit them.
Use the job description and ideal candidate forms you’ll find in the Business Bitesize support tools (available to download at the bottom of this page) to help you.
2
Be Scientific:
Psychometric profile your ‘possible’ candidates and you bring some scientific objectivity to your recruitment decisions.
In 20 minutes or less you can capture a psychometric job profile by completing a simple questionnaire.
Your job description and ideal candidate description will help you.
You can then ask relevant candidates to also complete a similar questionnaire.
You’re then in a position to compare the two and assess whether they are a good match for the job.
This approach will also flag up relevant questions you can and should ask your job applicants.
Again you’ll find more on psychometric profiling in the online support tools available below.
3
Interview 1:
This is where you sell your company and the job and assess whether you like them and whether you think they can fit in.
High calibre candidates are likely going to several interviews.
To succeed in having them join you, you must share with them good reason to choose your company and choose your job.
Sell the career opportunity you have available.
It pays to ask the same well-thought-out questions of every candidate at interview 1 – this means you can better assess which candidates are the most worthwhile to pursue.
This can be a relatively brief 30-45 minute interview.
It’s also important you share with them your recruitment next steps so they know what to expect.
This shows you have a well-planned recruitment process and should therefore be taken seriously.
You’ll find some sample questions in the online support tools available at the bottom of the page.
4
Telephone Interview:
This is your opportunity to assess the candidate’s telephone manner, voice tone and ability to make a call on time.
If you are recruiting for a customer facing role or team leadership role this is vital.
This also gives you the opportunity to talk to them between interviews and keep them interested in your company.
5
Interview 2:
This is the time to get your team involved and get the candidate to do some work.
You also get a second look at the candidate and conduct a thorough interview using prepared questions (see the online support tools).
Prepare and plan to have your team spend a little time with your candidates.
You and your team might even have a bite to eat with them.
Time with your team is made easier by preparing some example jobs for the candidate to do and allocating time for team interaction.
The work they do gives you a realistic assessment of their abilities.
And when your possible new recruits have left you, ask your team to give their independent assessment of each candidate.
You’ll find a suggested form for this in the online support tools available at the bottom of the page.
6
Finish Well:
Meet your chosen candidate face-to-face to present a formal offer – ideally close to their home in a Starbucks or similar.
A neutral, relaxed location helps and is seen as a caring approach to a sensitive situation.
You can also better assess their reaction, handle any last minute concerns and ask for a verbal commitment to take the job too.
It’s important you are aware of the regulations and laws when recruiting.
In the support tools available at the bottom of the page you’ll find links to all current legislation and guidance from the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development).
TIME TO DISAGREE
“We are a small team and don’t recruit very often.”
Recruiting is even more important in small teams. The impact of a bad hire can be critical. And the impact of a great hire massively positive.
Simply save this Bitesize Business Breakthrough report until you need it next time you recruit.
“Business is too hectic to be this scientific and well-planned when recruiting.”
It pays to consider the time, money and lost performance associated with recruiting and training new people.
More importantly, hire badly and you can expect:
Hire great people and you improve all these things and improve the results of your business.
A scientific and well-planned approach can help.
(NB if you are interested in having a closer look at the impact of these things on your profits please get in touch)
“Psychometric profiling is too ‘extreme’ for us plus it takes time and costs money.”
The Harvard Business Review suggests that as much as 80% of people leaving jobs are due to bad hiring decisions.
Having a candidate complete a 15-30 minute profiling questionnaire, you doing the same for the job role just once, and comparing the results is a small time investment.
It can even reduce the number of interviews you hold.
The cost of a hiring mistake and the benefits of hiring well will always far outweigh the price of a few profiling reports.
Gut-feel alone is subjective and subject to error; why not add in a little science too?
“When we recruit we have to recruit fast, this process is too long-winded.”
We appreciate that sometimes speed is of the essence. And it’s possible to take the 6-step process recommended here and compress it into fewer steps.
For example – Interview 1 in the morning with a psychometric profile; and if they pass, conduct interview 2 in the afternoon.
“Legislation makes it hard to ask the questions we really want to ask.”
We have little choice but to work within our legal framework.
This makes it even more important to use good structure and good process to assess attitude as well as skill when interviewing.
You’ll find quick access to all things regulatory at the CIPD website – you’ll find the link in the online support tools below or Google will take you there.
ULTIMATE ARGUMENT: “How do I know this will work for me and my business?”
Until you test it, and modify it to suit your business you won’t know.
Next time you are recruiting why not invest a little more time using profiling or attitude-focused questions and see how it improves the interviews and the recruits you hire?
4 helping hands for you…
Gut-feel, ill-prepared interviews and skills-only focused interviews will not get you the best recruits.
If you’re convinced about the value of hiring well, put these 4 to work for you:
1
Prepare well – use
a systematic hiring
process every time
2
Start your interviews
doing what you can to
relax your interviewee
3
Ask well-thought-out
questions to assess
attitude as well as skill
4
If in doubt leave them
out – don’t hire people
you have doubts about
before they start
Click here to read this whole Bitesize Business Breakthrough
STOP
Treating interviewing as just another one of your jobs or you’ll never surround yourself with superstar employees.
START
Hiring using a well-structured process like the one outlined above. Then fine tune the process to best suit your business and the superstars you’d love to work with.
Want to know more?
Hiring For Attitude
Mark Murphy
If you want to look deeper into the research mentioned in this report and also how to hire
recruits with the best attitude you’ll find Mark Murphy’s well-researched book – Hiring For Attitude –particularly helpful.
YOUR SUPPORT TOOLS ARE HERE:
Click the button below and you'll find a selection of practical support tools to help you get a deeper understanding and develop greater skills so that next time you're recruiting you hire a superstar.
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