Hire for Success (and Less Stress)

Hiring great candidates contributes to the long-term success of your team and organization. When hiring goes awry, however, it has far-reaching consequences. Have you ever thought to yourself, “I can’t believe I ever hired this person?”  Surprisingly, these thoughts often surface within the first few days or weeks of hiring an employee, yet some managers allow poor performance to continue until it negatively affects everyone around them. No one likes to face the fact that they made a bad decision. To decrease your odds of having to admit you made a mistake that negatively affected not only you, but the employee as well, follow these eight tips to ensure you hire for success.

Write a specific, comprehensive job description, prior to advertising or interviewing anyone
Gain agreement from several people on your team and other departments on what characteristics and job competencies are needed for someone to be successful in the position. Be sure to include technical skills as well as behavioral competencies in the description to ensure you select a candidate that has the ability, desire, and demeanor to do the job.

Hire for cultural fit
A great employee will have both the technical expertise to do the job and an approach to work that aligns with the culture of your organization. What is the leadership philosophy of your organization – command and control or laissez-faire? Is your organization highly structured, or do employees need to have the ability to set their own goals and schedules?  Are you looking for an employee that works well on their own or do they need a high degree of collaboration and consensus-building skills?  Addressing these competencies in your interviewing process will increase the likelihood that both you and the new employee experience success.

Have multiple people on the team interview the candidate one-on-one
We have practiced this in our own firm for several years and experienced several benefits. First, different people see different strengths and different areas of concern in a candidate. Second, multiple interviews usually require the candidate to come back on multiple visits. Poor candidates usually get filtered out during the multiple-interview process for many reasons. Last, when multiple people have interviewed the candidate and are in agreement about hiring the individual, more than one person feels responsibility for the individual’s success. (Note: It is a good idea to inform the candidates prior to the interviews that there will be more than one interviewer.)

Ask behavior-based interview questions
Behavior-based questions require interviewees to look back at their past experiences and tell you how they actually handled specific situations. This prevents text book answers and candidates telling you what they think you want to hear. Behavior-based questions tell you more about the candidate’s actual ability. Examples of behavior-based questions include:

• “Tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult situation or employee. What was the situation and how did you handle it?”
• “Think about a time when you had to lead a newly created team. What actions did you take and what was the outcome?”

Asking questions that prompt candidates to speculate what they would do in a given situation won’t provide you with proof of their true abilities.  Avoid questions like, “What do you think is the best way to…?” or “What would you do if you had to settle a conflict between two employees?”

Have candidates demonstrate their knowledge and skills
Ask candidates to perform some of the tasks required for the job.  Have the interviewee write a letter, proof a spreadsheet, run a mock report, solve a problem, or design a new graphic. Some organizations we work with ask candidates to come in and work alongside a seasoned employee for a few hours, giving the candidate an opportunity to demonstrate their skills.  This approach helps both the interviewer and the interviewee determine if the job is a good fit.

Invite the candidate to interview you
Most interviewees are eager to get a job offer, but getting an offer shouldn’t be their only goal. Getting the right job offer should be their quest, and you can help them determine if the job you have is a good match. Encourage them to ask you questions about the company vision, technical aspects of the job, organizational culture, leadership philosophy, and growth opportunities. If the candidate isn’t prepared with these kinds of questions, you can prompt them by asking, “What would you like to know about our culture that would help you determine if our organization is a place where you will thrive?” or “What type of growth opportunities are you looking for?” Follow these questions with a description of the job expectations and the organizational culture.  Then ask, “In what ways do you feel this job is the right job for you?”

Check references
This simple but important step is often skipped. By checking references, you can gain insight into the candidate’s prior performance and work-related attitude. Due to legal implications and restrictions, we know that checking references is more difficult today. We also know that when checking references for potential candidates, previous employers are more apt to work around legalities for great candidates than they are for marginal candidates. Sometimes you can learn a lot by what is not said about a candidate.

If you mis-hired, cut your losses early
In our experience working with hundreds of leaders, we’ve found there are more bad hires than terminations. If you start wondering why you hired an employee, your immediate reaction should be to coach, counsel, or train the new employee. If that doesn’t work, do yourself (and the employee) a favor and terminate the relationship. Doing so will allow you to find a better fit for the job, and will give the employee the opportunity to find a job that is more rewarding and suited to their talents. The majority of managers and supervisors we work with agree that when they mis-hire, the termination should take place within the first 90 days.

Hiring great candidates is as much an art as it is a science. By following the eight steps listed above, you increase your chances of hiring for success and decreasing everyone’s stress.