The people aspect is one of the three key pillars of the growth of a business. The other two pillars are product and process development and management. Every business should be attracting and hiring the best talent as employees contribute to the success of the business as they are the ones that implement the strategy and represent the brand of the organization in the marketplace. An organization should purpose to fill all the roles with A players as it’s these personnel that will eventually attract and maintain customers by their excellent service.
To scale a business requires the active participation of both the human resource function and the hiring department through the use of a Topgrading methodology in the interviewing and selection process. It is best for your organization to attract a huge pool of applicants who are aligned and are a great fit for your business strategy and culture. Attracting and hiring the best talent is important because getting a bad hire will cost the organization about 15 times his or her annual salary; that is why it is critical to get the recruitment and selection process right the first time.
How to Get the Best Talent
- Creating a job scorecard as opposed to a job description is the first step in starting the search to fill a key position in the organization. A job scorecard is succinct as it details the purpose, desired outcomes, and competencies required to execute the work.
- The job scorecard will enable you to select the best pool of candidates excited about the job and willing to accept your remuneration package. Your aim should be to attract a big pool of applicants that will make your selection process easier.
- A job scorecard outlines smart outcomes that a potential candidate needs to achieve over a given period e.g. two to four years. While a job description lists the activities that the person will be doing which tend not to be specific and measurable and will not allow you to gauge each candidate’s capacity to deliver intended results.
- The attitude of the candidate is more important than specific skills as long as a person has the capacity to learn and grow. You need to develop candidate competencies that align with your culture and strategy.
- To be ahead of your competition you need to come up with a differentiated industry-dominating strategy that will inform your human resource systems during recruitment so that you can differentiate your firm in the marketplace.
Insights
- Research has shown that in order to increase your chances of hiring the best talent you need to attract a minimum of 20 applicants per position (for all levels in the organization).
- You should give priority to the people you have already worked with as they are the best people to consider first
- You need to stand out by using an approach that is original and fits your organization’s culture.
The Topgrading Interview
- You should aim to attract a large pool of qualified applicants so that you can increase your chances of finding the A players. Thereafter, you need to have a strong screening process that will bring down the numbers to 20 to 10, then to three and eventually to the top candidate who will achieve more than 100% of your job scorecard.
- The Topgrading interview methodology enables you to bring down the list of candidates from 10 to the top three candidates using a set of five powerful screening interview questions. The questions work for any position that you are recruiting for and do not take a lot of time when conducting the interview; 30 to 45 minutes over interview session is adequate.
- Once you narrow down to the top three candidates it is time to dive deeper to understand the behavior and decision-making patterns by conducting a Chronological In-Depth Structured (CIDS) interview. This interview involves having a thorough understanding of a candidate’s behavior and performance using past career history as an indicator of how he or she will make behave and make decisions in the workplace.
Great interviews make for great hires
Attracting and selecting great talent is one of the cornerstones of your success as a business. Hiring the right people for the right roles at the right time is an art and a science, and being an interviewer is an important responsibility.
Why?
- You are the brand.
Like it or not, the candidate will be assessing the company based on the first impressions they get of you. How you present yourself and conduct the interview all tells a story to the candidate and sends a strong message. Avoid sending the wrong message by demonstrating the type of presence and attributes you would like to see emulated by candidates.
- You may be interviewing the leaders of the future and the owners of the culture.
Regardless of level, we want candidates to think long-term about their careers at your organization. Can you see potential in the candidate to do job two or three levels above the job their being recruited for?
- Making the wrong hiring decision is a costly mistake.
Hiring people is an investment: it takes time and effort and can be expensive. It is commonly assumed that it takes an average of 3-6 months for a new hire to reach full productivity. Approach hiring with the long term in mind and give the right amount of attention to the process and people you’re interviewing to increase the likelihood of making good hiring decisions.
Summary
Attracting and hiring the best talent involves first identifying clear outcomes that you would want the candidate being hired to accomplish over a given period of time. It is important to not only look at specific skills but also at the attitude of the candidate and how well they can fit in the company culture and strategy. Make sure as the interviewer to represent the organisations brand by demonstrating the type of presence and attributes you would like to see emulated by candidates.
