Knowing What You Want. How To Hire The Right People.

The first step in hiring the right person is to define what you are looking for and what responsibilities and tasks will be handled by the person in this position. This means, to begin, you will need to compile a list of the job’s responsibilities, tasks, and communication needs.

This definition might include:

Desired business experience

Education requirements

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Tasks, Duties, and Responsibilities

Objectives and Accountabilities

Competencies

Work Schedule

Compensation and Benefits.

Each of these aspects involves some layers of definition and decision and I’d like to break them down individually and discuss each beginning with Business Experience.

Business Experience

Business experience is defined by experience in the work force and also experience in a particular industry and potentially in a similar position. You must consider all facets. Does your company want 15 years in the work force and 15 years of relevant industry experience and responsibility or is 10 years of relevant industry experience a must? Keep in mind that none of them are default requirements.

Your position may require absolutely no industry experience but several years at an executive level. Your position may also require 15 years of industry experience but no time at an executive level or if you’re filling an entry level position, maybe it doesn’t require any experience at all.

To determine the desired level of work experience for any position there are several questions you might consider:

1.Are the desired experience requirements consistent with the job’s responsibilities?

2.Can an employee perform the job with less experience? Why or why not?

3.Is the background of the incumbent employee influencing your experience requirements?

4.Are you being objective or subjective when determining experience requirements? Meaning, are you comparing it to your own experience or what is actually necessary for a person to competently perform the job?

5.Are you compromising on experience requirements to fill the job quickly?

6.Are your requirements realistic?

7.Are your requirements in accordance with all employment laws and regulations?

By narrowing down exactly what you are looking for in an employee’s experience and understand exactly why you are establishing those parameters, you will be better able to focus your candidate search and better able to make a smart hiring decision.

Education Requirements

Your education requirements follow a similar pattern of questioning as your experience requirements. Ask the following questions:

1.What education is necessary to successfully perform this job?

2.Why is this education necessary?

3.Can this position be performed by someone with less education?

4.Are the education requirements consistent with other positions inside the company and the industry?

5.Is the educational background of the incumbent employee influencing the decision?

6.Are you being objective or subjective with these requirements?

7.Are you compromising due to a need to quickly fill the opening?

8.Are your requirements realistic?

9.Are your requirements in accordance with employment laws and regulations?

These questions serve to clarify the position and the requirements. It is easy to set too low or too high of standards and therefore possibly miss the perfect candidate. Additionally, by being as specific as you can be, you’ll be that much faster at eliminating candidates that do not fit your profile and finding those candidates that do.

Objectives and Accountabilities.

What do you want your new employee to do for your company? What are your goals for this position? I don’t mean what are their responsibilities and duties. This is where you’re setting the bar for your new employee. Establish goals that you want to see them achieve and then set about to find an employee that can achieve them.

Along with a position’s desired objectives comes accountabilities. How will the employee be held accountable for failures and rewarded for successes. Who will determine failures and successes? What is their reporting procedure and relationship with supervisors? This structure is important because you need to look at a potential employee’s previous accountability structures and also discuss with them how they have been held accountable and how they prefer to be held accountable.

Make sure that their experience and successes match or mesh with the way that your company handles accountability. For example, some companies prefer to offer financial rewards based on successes. If that is your candidate’s experience and it is not how you plan on rewarding success then that needs to be addressed. Additionally it is important to speak with references to find out if accountability measures were successful with that candidate and if not, why.

Answer the following questions to determine reporting relationships and accountability measures:

1.What position or positions does this job report to?

2.Where does this position appear on the department’s organization chart?

3.What employees or positions report directly to this job?

4.What is the relationship between this position and other positions within the company and within the department?

5.Will position and/or department be rewarded for accomplishing objectives?

6.If yes, then how will they be rewarded?

7.If no, then how will successes be acknowledged?

8.How will position be held accountable for not meeting set objectives?

By answering these questions and laying down a firm list of expectations, procedures, and policies, you’re eliminating doubt and indecision from the mix. You’re optimizing your time spent searching for the right hire, and you’re potentially saving your company money.

Competencies

Competencies encompass many desired attributes that you want in an employee. They can include:

Knowledge,

Skills,

Attitudes,

Actions.

For any position you would want to determine the candidate’s effectiveness on the job by evaluating their ability to:

Achieve Results

Communicate Effectively

Demonstrate dependability

Sustain a level of Organizational Knowledge

Make Effective Decisions

Plan and organize

Problem Solve and show good Judgment and decision making skills

Be Productive

Take Responsibility

Decide ahead of time how you want the position to accomplish and perform these behaviors, keeping in mind that this is not a comprehensive list of behaviors. You may want to add, subtract or modify your behaviors to fit the specific position that you will be searching for.

For example, you want your employee to make effective decisions. How will you go about determining if they are capable of making effective decisions? First you need to determine how you will evaluate the effectiveness of a decision. Next you will need to outline a few interview questions, and potential reference questions, that will address this specifically. Continue this process for each of the required behaviors.

Next, you may want to determine what personal behaviors are desired, why they are necessary for the position and how you are going to evaluate a candidate’s competency in the following areas:

Ability to build trust

Honest

Excellent Interpersonal Skills

Positive Attitude

Able to recognize the achievements and contributions of others

Able to constructive resolve conflicts

Shows respect for others

Supports Diversity and Understands Related Issues

Understands Alternative Perspectives

You’ll also want to look at behaviors that center around the success of the organization including:

Commitment to Continuous Quality and Improvement

Continuous Learning and Development

Creativity and Innovation

Customer Orientation

Vision

Flexibility and Adaptability

Leadership and Initiative

Teamwork and Cooperation

When you’re hiring at the executive level there are additional behavior considerations including:

Evaluating Employees

Enable and Empower Employees

Encourage Teamwork and Group Achievement

Identifies and Supports opportunities for Employee Development

Leads Change / Achieves Support of Objectives

Embraces diversity

That’s a long list of behaviors to consider when you’re searching for the right employee but it’s not as difficult as it may seem. Many of the behaviors are already defined in the basic job description that you have developed without even thinking about it in specifics. Once you list the behaviors that are desired, why they’re desired, and how you plan on evaluating if a candidate possesses those behaviors then the last thing that you need to do is ask the questions at the interview.

Work Schedule

This is an easier one to determine because policies are presumably already established. If it is a new position then decide the work schedule, including the times of day that you want the employees to start, end, and how many hours a week you expect them to be there. Also determine in advance which days, if any, are paid holidays, vacation days, personal days etc. If alternative work schedules are available, like telecommuting or working four 10 hour days, then determine that as well.

Compensation and Benefits

You may not have any decisions to make here. There may be a company wide benefits package and policy and your work here is done. However if there is any leeway or decisions to be made here, like is there room to negotiate salary requirements with extra vacation, then those decisions need to be made in the beginning. Before you start looking for your next star employee! Know that benefits can be a prime negotiating tool and possible selling point for the right employee.

Once you know what you want in an employee and are committed to taking the necessary steps to find that person, you’ll need to know where to look. The best people aren’t usually answering want ads placed in the local newspaper (though there are occasionally diamonds out there to be found).