Importance of Hiring
- Hiring is Critical: Hiring is the most critical activity for a growing company. A rigorous process executed swiftly is essential because the best candidates have multiple options.
Common Pitfalls in Hiring
- Voodoo Methods: Hiring decisions often rely on intuition or superficial impressions, which can be misleading.
- Quality of Candidates: The majority of job seekers are not top-tier candidates. Exceptional hiring is necessary to attract the best.
- Specialists Over Generalists: Focus on candidates who excel in the specific role needed, not just those who are generally competent.
- Authenticity in Interviews: Candidates often present themselves favorably in interviews. It’s crucial to find those whose personalities and skills truly match the job requirements.
Steps for a Rigorous Hiring Process
- Define the Job Role Clearly: Create detailed scorecards for each role, including the mission of the role and specific Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). List the required competencies for the role and company culture.
- Types of Candidates: Barrels vs. Ammunition:
- Barrels: Individuals who can manage projects independently, leading teams and driving initiatives.
- Ammunition: Individuals who need more direction and support to execute tasks.
Ensure a balanced number of “barrels” to manage and grow the company’s projects effectively.
- Identify ‘Animals’: Hire people with a high level of dedication and drive. Seek candidates passionate about the company’s vision, not just those looking for a 9-5 job.
Effective Interview Techniques
- Phone Screening: Use a set of five questions to quickly gauge candidates’ fit and go through their work history.
- Multiple Interviews: Conduct in-depth interviews to explore each job in the candidate’s history, focusing on:
- What they were hired to do.
- Their proudest accomplishments.
- Low points and challenges.
- Relationships with colleagues and supervisors.
- Reasons for leaving previous jobs.
Interview Focus Areas
- Work Experience Interviews: Walk through each job and ask about:
- Roles and responsibilities.
- Achievements and challenges.
- Relationships with supervisors and colleagues.
- Reasons for leaving.
- Focused Interviews: Match interview questions to the scorecard’s outcomes and competencies. Avoid hypothetical questions; focus on past behaviors and achievements.
Additional Tips
- Interrupting Candidates: It’s necessary to keep interviews focused and on track. Interrupt politely and empathetically to steer the conversation back to relevant topics.
- Behavioral Questions: Ask about specific situations, tasks, objectives, results, and choices to understand candidates’ decision-making processes.
- TORC Framework: Use the Task, Objective, Result, Choices framework to evaluate candidates’ past performance.
- Three P’s: Clarify how valuable their accomplishments were by asking:
- How was their performance compared to last year? In numbers.
- How did it compare to the plan? E.g., 2 million and the plan was 1.2 million.
- How did it compare to your peers?
- Push vs. Pull: Look for candidates who were pulled towards new opportunities rather than pushed away from past jobs.
- Painting a Picture: Understand candidates’ decision-making and experiences in detail.
- Stopping at Stop Signs: Address any inconsistencies in candidates’ stories.
Implementing these structured and thorough hiring practices can significantly improve the quality of new hires, leading to better overall company performance and growth.
