Existing employees and hiring new employees is just like a Whitney Houston song.
I know….I get it….you may be rolling your eyes because you have no idea who Whitney Houston is OR you are currently questioning my sanity for drawing a parallel between her and really knowing the people that work for you! LOL!
Working with business owners, I’m struck by just how little many truly know about their existing staff. They assume that their people are the right fit for their job as long as they are moderately productive and have been filling their role for a while. Not much thought is spent on the impact of raising the performance bar because the employee is ‘getting it done’ and it takes effort to determine if they are in the right role in the first place.
But, when something unexpected occurs - an established team member leaves or a massive new sale requires additional staff – chaos ensues. I had a client, let’s call her Sandra for the purpose of this blog, who recently found herself in a hiring pinch.
Sandra owns a $75MM manufacturing company and has had record breaking years for the past 3 years. But when her HR Manager left, she did not know what to do! She came to me because she needed to find a solid replacement quickly as the business grew!
Sandy did not have a solid talent pipeline, so when a new project overwhelmed the current staff, there was a frantic search for a good candidate to fulfil that role. You are under pressure to make the hire and so many of your interviews have ‘gone well.’
But, in the words of Whitney Houston …
“How Will I Know?”
“How will I know (Don't trust your feelings)
How will I know
How will I know (Love can be deceiving)
How will I know …”
But seriously…..how will you know if the person sitting across from you has the energy and stamina to not just survive the job, but to excel at it? How will you know if they honestly achieved that “High Performer” label that they so proudly wore in the interview? How will you know their ability to read their situation effectively and come up with a winning strategy that is mutually beneficial to both the client and your company? How will you know if they are just ‘professional visitors’ or if they are actually ‘sales hunters’ (I call these folks “Unicorns!”).
Most hiring managers want to objectively measure the vital actions a potential hire takes to grow their businesses, but they just don’t have that proven way to achieve that. Most of the time, they needed to fill that position yesterday, so they rely on their gut instinct.
Sandra shared that two previously unsuccessful attempts at filling the HR Manager position cost her over $400k. That had a huge impact on the bottom line! The costs include time, benefits, training, opportunity cost and resources that come from the money pit that is a single bad hire.
Sandra came to me for help in this area every day. Here’s what I told her:
Ask situational phone screening questions.
Make them validate their resume to verify that they actually achieved the things they claim. Be specific in your questioning and have them include all the moving parts including the scenario, the challenges, the solution and the results.
Remain emotionally detached.
Don’t ‘fall in love’ with a candidate because they have a ‘good personality’ and you get along with them. Many of my clients ask me to objectively get involved in their hiring process because I am not emotionally connected to the candidate.
Utilize a scientific Employee Assessment.
This makes it easy to measure a candidate’s actions, attitudes and work-related beliefs.
Determine if they are a Cultural Fit for your organization.
Another good thing to keep in mind is whether your organization is a Cultural Fit for the candidate.
When it comes to hiring Top Performers, it’s a jungle out there! I recommend that you have an iron-clad, objective process to filter quickly through the avalanche of resumes you receive and recognize if you need help! If you’d like to talk more about how I helped Sandra and about building winning organizations, reach out to me so we can have a no-pressure, no obligation conversation.
…now it’s time to listen to Whitney again!