Creating a Superstar Hiring and Training System
As small and medium sized business CEO’S and owners quickly learn, there's a world of difference between a worker who's correctly matched to their job and their organization, and one who is not. Every business owner wants to hire the perfect qualified person for the job.
However, how do we define “qualified”? Do you define “qualified” as someone with “experience”? Maybe you define it by using your gut instinct because you have confidence in your instincts? You may have realized that a gut instinct or hiring mistake costs you and your company time, money as well as lost opportunities. So, how do you find and match the right people to the right jobs? We will go through the basics below to help challenge your current methodology. For more detailed specifics please sign up for our no cost webinar. We start by creating or modifying your recruiting strategy. Your focus will be to create a well-structured recruiting and selection program. The key to successfully developing such a program is to follow a proven recruiting process for the positions you need to fill.
Develop accurate job descriptions. Your first step is to make sure you have an effective job description for each position. Your job descriptions should reflect careful thought as to the roles the individual will fill, the skill sets they'll need, the personality attributes that are important to completing their tasks, and any relevant experience that would differentiate one applicant from another. This may sound fairly basic, but you'd be surprised at how many small companies fail to develop or maintain updated job descriptions. Compile a "success profile." In addition to creating job descriptions, it's important to develop a "success profile" of the ideal employee for key positions in your company that are critical to the execution of your business plan. These might include such positions as team leaders, district managers and salespeople. As an example, your sales team has probably not gone through real change over the past few years outside of plugging in or replacing sales people. Consider a new, more appropriate sales structure built on supporting the way your clients prefer to purchase. Identify the key sales tasks and personnel attributes that lead to success. Ensure there is alignment with HR and sales to target the right skill sets and applicants. Draft the advertisement, describing the position and the key qualifications required. How attractive is the position? Ensure you truly understand the position requirements. Post the advertisement. In addition to the traditional posting sources, ensure you look into non-traditional mediums as well. Of course, the Internet has become the leading venue for posting job openings, but don't overlook targeted industry publications and local newspapers. Over the years we have learned there are countless locations to find the applicants with the specific skill sets you seek. So keep an open mind in this regard. Applicant Screening. Remember there’s an old saying “every employee looks like a movie star on paper”. Many potential employees are better at interviewing than they are at performing the job. As far as I can tell, the ability to puff up a resume or talk well during an interview has little to do with future job performance.
Review the resumes you receive and identify your best candidates. Once you post your ad, you'll start receiving resumes...sometimes many more than you anticipated. Knowing what you're looking for in terms of aptitude, education and skills will help you weed through these resumes quickly and identify potential candidates.
Screen candidates by phone. Compile a list of suitable questions you can ask over the phone to help you quickly identify qualified candidates and eliminate everyone else.
Once you've narrowed your stack of resumes to a handful of potential applicants, call the candidates and use your phone-screening questions to further narrow the field. Using a consistent set of questions in both this step and your face-to-face interviews will help ensure you're evaluating candidates equally.
Select candidates for assessment. Based on the responses to your phone interviews, select the candidates you feel are best qualified for the next step in the process.
Assess your potential candidates for their skills and attributes using a proven assessment tool. A resume and phone interview can only tell you so much about a job applicant, so you'll need a dependable assessment tool to help you analyze the core behavioral traits and cognitive reasoning speed of your applicants. For example, a good test will provide insights as to whether the individual is conscientious or lackadaisical, introverted or extroverted, agreeable or uncompromising, open to new ideas or close-minded, and emotionally stable or anxious and insecure.
The success profile you created for each position will help you determine which behavioral traits are important for that position. For example, you would expect a successful salesperson to be extroverted. On the other hand, someone filling a clerical position might be more introverted.
These assessment tests can be administered in person or online. Online testing and submission of results can help you determine whether the applicant should be invited for a personal interview.
Schedule and conduct candidate interviews. Once you've selected candidates based on the previous steps, schedule and conduct the interviews. Use a consistent set of 10 or 12 questions to maintain a structured interview and offer a sound basis for comparing applicants. Select the candidate. Make your selection by matching the best applicant to the profiled job description. Run a background check. Check references and conduct a background check on the individual to uncover any potential problems not revealed by previous testing and interviews. Make your offer to the candidate. The information you collected during the interview process will provide you with important insights as to starting compensation levels and training needs. Training. Ensure your on-boarding and continuing education is in alignment with the overall position and business strategy. We recommend the use of 98/2 Offloading and Operations Planning modules.
