As our economy gets back on track, all business owners and leaders know how important it is to hire the right people into their company. A great hire can take your company to new levels of success. A bad hire can drag your business down, demand a great deal of time and attention of you, and have a nasty ripple effect on your other employees and, worst of all, your customers.
Yet much hiring is done in a haphazard way, with a lot of guesswork, bias and “feel “ that is not at all predictive of job performance and success. To hire the best, remember how to SELECT.
• SKILLS matter. Ask questions and talk to references to learn what the candidate has actually done. What has she done well? What has she struggled with? Realize that some skills are highly “transferrable.” Even if the candidate has not performed a job or task that is exactly the same as what you need in the job you are hiring for, she could have that skill in spades in another aspect of her life. For example, if you need someone who will be highly organized and good at time management, ask about and listen for things that demand that skill, such as volunteer activities, juggling life demands, or aspects of a prior job.
• EXPERIENCE can be over-rated. Experience matters, of course, but many hiring managers over-rate this issue. They may believe that if someone has, for example, 10 years experience doing a similar job as the one you are hiring for, then they think they will automatically do the job well. Are those 10 years of experience with seven different companies? Why might that be? Did the person learn the job in the first year and then just do it exactly the same way for the next nine? What does that tell you? Is the person just interested in doing the same kind of work in the same way? Do you want a person to just do the work or continually get better and suggest new ways, improvements that will help the company grow?
• LEARNING is a predictor. A powerful predictor of success in many jobs is how eager a learner someone is inclined to be. More eager learners will likely take direction better, will be more likely to notice ways to improve processes or address customer needs, or be a more willing colleague and collaborator with other employees. Ask the potential hire the most exciting thing he has learned over the past year or two. Assess how relevant that is to the job you are seeking to fill. Ask the candidate what he most wants to learn in the job during his first 3-6 months? Why? There is powerful predictive data in these explorations.
• EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE matters. Almost all jobs involve people interacting with other people — sometimes as part of the job, sometimes as 90 percent of the job. How smart someone may be is important in order to learn things, to master information and to perform key tasks and responsibilities. But once you have two or three candidates who are all about the same in their IQ or intellectual horsepower, the real predictor and separator may well be their EQ, their emotional intelligence. This is an important predictor for how well someone will handle stress, demanding customers, controlling their own habits, coping with the boss and many other aspects of a job.
• CORE MOTIVATIONS are critical. Everybody is motivated. The big question is “To do what?” Even someone you may perceive as quite lazy is motivated — to keep life simple and not have to expend much energy. You want to hire someone who is naturally motivated to want to do the kind of job you are seeking to fill. They will bring more energy to the effort, they will be willing to work through barriers and challenges, tough customers, demanding managers or co-workers, and be much more likely to go the extra mile when it is needed. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can hire somebody who is very smart, or who you have a “good connection or sense of chemistry with,” and believe you can motivate them to enjoy things or do things they are not interested in. People succeed at what they like to do, not what you want them to like to do.
• TRAITS are in the wiring. Smart, motivated people can learn skills, but traits are what make people unique. They are aspects of our overall make-up and really don’t change much over our lives, except, sometimes, as a result of very powerful life events. For example, having a “thin skin vs. a thick skin” when criticized is a trait. A candidate with a thick skin will be able to handle direct, even harsh, interpersonal experiences or feedback and criticism much better than someone with a thin skin. The latter may carry the pain of that experience around with him for weeks, months, and even years. And it will color his expectations and interactions with the person involved for a long time.
Allan Polak is the president of ALP Consulting Resources based in West Hartford. Reach him at www.ALPConsultingResources.com.
