Have you ever hired someone who you felt a great connection with, and you were confident they would be successful only to see things not go as planned? It’s especially disappointing to have to terminate an employment relationship with someone under these circumstances. After more than 20 years of recruiting and building teams, it’s become clear to us that the lack of a systematic hiring process is usually a recipe for failure. Humans have blind spots, and we need tools to help us shine light where we otherwise do not see clearly.
The first step in any task is getting clear about what goals you are aiming for. What challenges are you facing, what outcomes are you seeking, what problems are you looking to solve for the company and for yourself? What outcomes will constitute success and what would constitute failure These are some of the questions to ask yourself in order to begin to determine your ideal candidate blueprint.
Next, it’s time to identify the hard skills, soft skills, knowledge, and tangible items required by the candidate. Tangible items might be a book of business or tools to perform their job. Equally important as identifying attributes that are desirable, is identifying attributes that will not be a good fit for the role. For example, if you are hiring to fill a sales position, you probably don’t want to hire someone who is overly analytical.
Now it’s time to put it all together. When we work with our clients, we go through a standard process of uncovering all of the necessary skills, attributes, and tangibles. The magic starts to happen when we begin weighing each item by the level of importance and frequency of use. This allows us to create a template that ranks all of the requirements so candidates can be matched and scored accordingly through interviews, assessments, and references. This process ensures a 360-degree view of how well each candidate fits the job and culture of your business so they, and you, are set up for the best success. It’s always exciting to see the reaction of hiring managers after they go through this for the first time. The sense of clarity and confidence it lends to you, as the person responsible for a critical decision, is valuable by itself. If you would like a free copy of our Hiring Assessment Templates, please email Melissa Glenny at mglenny@franklinprofessionals.com.
