One of the most important decisions that a manager will make is selecting people to fill open positions. As the economy recovers and companies begin hiring, managers will have the opportunity to make this key decision.
Although there are an abundance of good, highly qualified people available right now, it still will be a challenge to find the person that is the right fit for the job. This requires a disciplined process that considers all aspects of job fit and objectively evaluates candidates against them.
This also applies to internal transfers as well. In my corporate career, I was told on several occasions that I needed to consider a move or transfer into a job for experience and exposure purposes. I consciously chose not to take positions that I really did not want to do. My reasoning is that I would be much better off in the long run working in jobs that best suited my talents and interested me. I didn’t see the point of having a job where my primary objective was to move out of that job.
Likewise, I was extremely careful in accepting someone as an internal transfer. In a few cases, this took a lot of courage and resolve to challenge the system, but it was best for the organization in the long run to have people in jobs where there was a good fit. This works in both directions. I’ve seen situations where a person was struggling in one part of the organization, and the flourished in other part when they were better matched for the job. I’ve also seen “superstars” in one area become mediocre in another area.
In my work, I have found that job fit comes down to four key components : knowledge (the “what to do” aspect of the job), skills (the “how to do” aspect of the job), attitudes (the “why I do” aspect of the job), and habits (the “what I do” aspect of the job). All of these are important to any job, but the relative importance may shift. For example, if I am seeking a person for a highly specialized technical position, such as a neurosurgeon, knowledge and skills would be very important compared to attitudes and habits. Conversely, if the position were one where knowledge and skills could be easily learned, such as in a management, sales, or customer service position, attitudes and habits would much more important.
Making a good selection decision comes down to having good information. If you had perfect information, you would make perfect decisions all the time. Since you cannot have perfect information, you need to get all of the best, most accurate information that you can. Research shows that the best candidate decisions are made when the evaluation process consists of these elements:
1)Reference and background checks. Background checks (both criminal and financial) will uncover potential serious issues with job candidates. References provided by the candidate generally do not provide much useful information since most candidates are not going to use a reference who will give anything other than a glowing recommendation. Informal networking can provide much more useful information.
2)Interviews. Interviews are an essential element of the selection process, even for internal candidates. However, many people who interview candidates do not have good interviewing skills. It is particularly important for interviewers to be skilled at behavioral based interviewing because this technique helps to evaluate the attitudes and habits aspects of the candidate. The best interviews are conversations and not interrogations. One on one interviews are the preferred method to accomplish this. Panel interviews are intimidating and make the candidate reluctant to open up, which is the goal of the interview.
3)Aptitude tests. Aptitude tests are designed to assess a person’s skills as they relate to the job. For example, having a candidate for an administrative job taking a typing test would be an example of an aptitude test. Any type of assessment that has a person demonstrate a skill required for the job is an aptitude test.
4)Personal profiles. Most companies use profiles to gain insight into a person’s attitudes and habits. Well designed profiles are highly accurate, have been validated as measuring factors related to job performance, and meet all EEOC guidelines. Profiles which meet these criteria have never been successfully challenged in court, and the courts accept these as more objective than interviews in defending hiring decisions. The use of profiles is very dependent on having a good job analysis, which determines which factors measured by the profile are most important for the job being filled.
As an example of the value of profiles in even an internal candidate selection situation, one of my clients had two candidates that appeared to be equally qualified for an key position that needed to be filled. It literally was a toss up and about a 50/50 split of key managers as to which candidate was best. We did a job analysis and defined objectively what they key behavioral and personal talents were required for this particular job at this particular time. We then evaluated the two candidates using several profiles. The results showed one candidate to be a much better match and that person was selected and has been an outstanding performer.
Look at every selection situation you face as an opportunity to upgrade your area of responsibility. In some cases, you may only have one chance to get it right, Have a process and stick to it. Make sure you use all of the elements available to you.
Author Resource:
Ryan Scholz works with leaders whose success is dependent on getting commitment and high performance from others. He is author of Turning Potential into Action: Eight Principles for Creating a Highly Engaged Work Place. For more information, visit his web site at http://www.lead-strat-assoc.com .
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