The hiring process is fraught with potential disaster since a bad hire can set you back months or, at a minimum, cost you tens of thousands is wages and lost opportunity, so do not enter this process without some thought and planning. If hiring is only one of your many urgent priorities, execute these top 3 must do’s and you will significantly increase your probability of a successful hire.
DEFINE ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Get clear on what you need this person to accomplish (write it out and gain consensus with stakeholders). Consider what the timeline is and the resources they will need. Most important, what amount of training and direction can you or someone on the team provide? Defining these items will help you identify the key skills, the degree of experience, and the attributes this person will need to be successful.
Also, be realistic about the capacity that you or the team have to work with a new person. The more capacity you have to train and manage, the more opportunity you have to grow talent which, of course, costs less in wages but more in time. The less capacity you have the more you need to hire experience and pay more. Don’t fool yourself – get clear on your capacity and what will work best to meet your goals.
CREATE the VALUE PROPOSITION
Talented people with good resumes have choices. Make sure you can articulate and sell the vision and purpose of your organization. Paint a picture of the culture, outline the company and team values, and share about your leadership style.
Most important, ask questions to better understand a candidates’ motivations and needs. Armed with this information, you can better articulate the value proposition for your potential candidate.
Plan ahead to Avoid the INFATUATION Phenomena
Your eagerness, or possible desperation, to find a good person, combined with the phenomena of first impression bias, are a likely recipe for a bad hire. Dating before marriage is highly recommended, same goes for hiring.
Your brain wants to simplify the world and this can work against you unless you plan ahead. Don’t jump into hiring commitments until you have thoroughly evaluated a person’s fit to your needs and theirs. This does not mean draw out the process, as you may lose a candidate with delays, but take extra steps to ensure that fit and expectations are lined up. Plan your interview questions (to receive our quick planning guide send me an email leanne@premierehire.com) to ensure you dig deep into key areas of importance to a person’s success in this role. At least for higher levels, have two interviews (change the setting such as adding a lunch), have another team member interview, and do some indirect and direct reference checks.
I recommend that both parties go in with their eyes wide open (not just hope it will work out). Get to know what this person’s strengths and challenges are, how your leadership styles are different or similar, how do they manage stress and tight timelines, and how can you best support and motivate them. Our Premierehire SmartStart Program helps our clients be successful in this area.
Planning and preparing for the hiring process may seem of obvious importance but, with so many priorities on your plate, it is easy to run out of time and rush to a solution. Put priority on these top 3 activities and you will significantly improve your hiring success.
Premierehire is here to help you hire the right people. You can hire us to fully execute the search form beginning to end or to just help with leadership assessments, comparative analysis and onboarding coaching. Engaging our search strategy ensures that you only interview top talent, a good process is followed, and that you have our expertise and support at every step along the way to ensure the best person is hired. The Premierehire team are executive search and leadership strategy experts that help our clients identify, attract, recruit and retain top talent in a variety of disciplines including engineering, IT, sales, marketing, finance, accounting, analytics, and operations. Please call us for a free consultation on how we can help you recruit and engage top talent (Call 1-855-579-0248 or email leanne@premierehire.com).
