Hire to get the job done. Don’t hire for the person.
If you are a regular reader of our blog, you have surely read this statement: the purpose of the interview is to eliminate candidates.
After all of the candidates are eliminated that don’t fit the job, the best one left is your best choice.
You have also read that most hiring decisions are made because someone liked the candidate.
The challenge is, we often don’t thoroughly identify the job before we begin the hiring process. Then we are left with making a decision based on experience, education, or intelligence (as much as 80% of the hiring decision is based on these three). While all of these are important, they don’t guarantee that the candidate is the best fit for your particular job. At least, not for the whole job.
In a recent conversation with one of our great clients, I asked three separate leaders about the top five most important functions or traits for a particular job. In a perfect world you would get the same five answers from all three leaders. Realistically, you might get a total of eight or nine. I got a total of twelve top five most important functions or traits.
Effectively, these three leaders were interviewing for three different jobs.
Let me say this loud and clear: always, always, always benchmark your jobs. Until you benchmark your job, you run a risk of, no, you are guaranteed to, hire a candidate that will excel in some areas, and come up short in others. You hired a great candidate. You just didn’t hire someone that was prepared and equipped to do the entire job.
And quite frankly, it’s your fault.
Obviously we would recommend using a professional in the benchmarking process. Transforming Leadership comes to mind. But even if you decide to do it completely in house, do your homework, make certain someone is responsible for the process that has the skills to pull it off, and benchmark every job.
The time and money spent on a professional benchmarking process, coupled with the right assessments, will significantly improve your selection process. Improved selection process means lower turnover. Lower turnover leads to lower operating costs.
Benchmark. Always.
