Category Archives: Hiring Talent

Personality Profiling

Question:
What do you think about using personality profiles to base our hiring decisions?

Response:Okay, put me on the spot. Put me in the face of an entire industry that makes their living from a paper and pencil test or an online web based test that tries to predict the future behavior of a new hire in your company.

Here is my bias. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Find out what a person has done in the past, odds are, they will do exactly the same thing when they come to work for you.

If a person has been successful managing projects lasting four weeks, they are likely to be successful for you managing projects that last four weeks. If they managed change-orders well in their previous experience, they will likely handle change-orders well for you. ALL you have to do is find out what they have done in the past. This is best accomplished with a series of behavior-based interviews.

Personality profiles may be helpful, but provide only one data point in the overall criteria in the hiring decision. My adamant advice is, DO NOT BASE your decision solely on the report of a personality profile. They may be helpful, but cannot make the decision for you. -TF

Find Another Eric

The resignation letter stared at Adrian. His best team member, Eric, had just quit. Eric was employee of the year last December and just received a raise two months ago. He was in line to become lead technician in his department. What could be better? What else could Adrian, his manager, have done?

I inquired about the exit interview conducted by the HR coordinator. The form stated that Eric left for better wages.

Adrian was worried. Three years ago, Eric entered the company as an inexperienced recruit among a group of seasoned veterans. Over time, his personal productivity outpaced the entire team. In Eric’s absence, Adrian feared the overall output would falter. Eric often carried the whole group.

I called Eric, already gainfully employed (at a lower wage) in another company. Happy with his decision, Eric shared his story. On a crew of six, Eric had consistently accounted for 50% of the output. The other team members were slackers riding on his coattails. I asked what Adrian could have done differently. The advice was quick and simple. “Cut the dead wood. Release the poorest performers and productivity would have increased, even with a reduced headcount.”

Adrian is left with the remnants of a mediocre team. But before he can heed the advice, he has to find another Eric. -TF

Sense of Urgency

We had been working as a group for forty-five minutes and the words at the top of the list were sense of urgency.

Nanci, the head of the hiring team, was curious, “How can you interview someone for a sense of urgency?”

“You cannot see a value or a trait,” I replied. “You can only observe behavior that may be driven by that value or trait. So when we think about a sense of urgency, what behaviors are we looking for?”

“They don’t procrastinate and they don’t wait until the last minute to get a project started.”

“And what else?”

“They are quick to attack problems that might cause a delay.”

“Good, now we have identified two behaviors, enough to work with for now.”

You see, I don’t know how to interview someone for a sense of urgency. But I can come up with a dozen questions about how the candidate starts projects and prevents delays.

When a role in your organization requires a value or a trait, simply translate it into a behavior that you can interview for. -TF

Gerard’s Lunch

Gerard was puzzled. By chance, the night before, he ran into Nancy, a former employee, at a local restaurant. The conversation was cordial, but surprising to Gerard. Nancy was responsible for a competitive product that was kicking butt in the marketplace. When Gerard had terminated Nancy for not reaching her goals, he felt she was a marginal contributor with a big “L” on her forehead. Now, she was in charge of a development team that was eating Gerard’s lunch.

Gerard explained to me that after Nancy’s termination, he had two more managers fail in the same position. His complaint was that he just couldn’t find good people. Now, he was puzzled.

Success is determined not only by the person in the role, but also by the circumstances and systems that surround that role. Before you terminate someone, be sure to check your system. If your system is broken, the next hire will not fare any better than the person you are currently pushing out the door. -TF

Good Chemistry

Martha was complaining about the performance of a new hire. After four weeks on the job, the budding new supervisor was showing signs of stress.

I asked, at what point in the hiring interview did she feel this person was the right candidate? Martha had been positive from the first few moments. “I felt an immediate chemistry with the candidate, I don’t know how I could have been so wrong.”

The biggest mistake by the hiring manager is making the decision too quickly in the recruiting process. Why is this emotional (chemistry) decision made so quickly? Two reasons.

1. The hiring manager has not created a position profile detailing the knowledge, skills and abilities for a successful hire.

2. The hiring manager has not created a list of 60 questions designed to collect data from the candidate related to the position profile.

In the vacuum created by this lack of preparation, the hiring manager has little on which to base the decision, other than chemistry. Chemistry decisions are made within a couple of minutes without the need for facts and we often make a poor choice in the process. -TF

Employer of Choice

The mission statement was clear, “We are the employer of choice!” But, when Anthony looked around at the company’s talent pool, that statement rang hollow. Turnover was running 68% per year with exit interviews pointing to better wages at another company. Anthony had tried paying more, yet attracted no higher quality worker than he had now. Training times were longer, waste and scrap was higher and throughput was at an all time low.

We changed the program. I told Anthony if he wanted to be the employer of choice, he had to start by choosing better. Choosing better meant turning away more of the applicant pool. We implemented three different skills tests. Two of the tests involved the operation of some basic equipment and one test was a paper and pencil test on some basic knowledge specific to the company’s manufacturing.

We raised the starting wage by $1 per hour. Any current employee below the new wage who could pass the skills test was also raised.

Of the 23 applicants the following week, Anthony would have made job offers to 18 of them. He had always made more offers than he had openings because he depended on a “no show” factor. In this new program, only nine passed the skills test. Anthony made offers to seven of those. All seven reported to work. This was the beginning.

To become the employer of choice, your company has to become a choosier employer. -TF

Job Description for a Machine

Question:
You talk about creating a system for recruiting that would rival our equipment procurement system. Where do we start?

Response:
Think about that machine your company just purchased. If the price was north of $50,000, a bunch of people spent a lot of time looking at this machine in many different ways. Here is where it all started.

One, two or three people sat down and did a needs assessment. In that needs assessment, they asked some very fundamental questions.

  • What do we need this machine to do for us?
  • Is there another way, or another machine that would do a better job?
  • At the end of the week, how much production do we need from this machine?
  • What are the quality standards that we need from this machine?
  • How will this machine interface with our current work flow?
  • What kind of support will this machine require to sustain the productivity we need from it?
  • What other customers like us are currently using this machine?
  • How is this machine performing for them?
  • If we grow, what capacity will this machine need, in reserve, to accommodate our growth?

Think about these questions. Replace the word “machine” with the word “person.” Think about the job description you are writing. This is where you start. -TF

Round People in Square Roles

“In the area of behavior modification, the most, perhaps only, effective means are psychotropic drugs and frontal lobotomies, which may still be legal in some places in New York,” says Ed Ryan.

There are so many round people in square roles. So get out of the behavior modification business and get into the talent selection business.

The most effective managers are not those who are expert in motivation, or coaching, or process improvement. The most effective managers are those that are expert at defining roles and selecting the right people to fill those roles.

Look at your team. How long have you been trying to modify behavior? Any wonder why this is driving you nuts. Stop it. Get better at selecting talent, then go build your team. -TF

Role of the MOR

Ralph was amazed when he looked at the overtime. Seventy percent of the employees were working 55 hours a week plus. “We gotta find some more people.”

“So, why don’t you find some more people,” I asked.

“We have tried, but all of our supervisors complain that they don’t have time to read resumes much less conduct interviews. And you should see some of the ragtags they did hire last week. We just don’t know what to do.”

Most companies kick the job of selection and recruiting too low in the org chart. Enter the role of the Manager-Once-Removed (MOR). The MOR is the Manager one level above the supervisor, and is the missing link in most selection processes. Ralph’s complaint about the supervisor is actually the truth. Most supervisors ARE too busy and, for the most part, are not trained to conduct effective interviews.

One level up, the Manager Once Removed (MOR) has more perspective, can make better judgments and is more likely to be trained at interviewing. While the supervisor is cracking the whip on the production floor, the MOR should be planning, forecasting and recruiting. Selection is one of the highest and best uses of time for the Manager Once Removed.

Take a look at your hiring process. Do you have the right people reviewing and selecting talent? -TF

Game Breaker Machine

It had taken six months to make the decision to spend $65,000 on a new machine. It was replacing another older machine that was finally being retired. There had been a committee conducting research on the new on-board technology. Access all the excitement effortlessly with www.UFABET.com ลิ้งเข้าระบบ24 เข้าอย่างง่ายๆ. Another team of two had been shopping between leasing arrangements and term equipment loans. The transition team was hard at work to determine how work-in-process would be diverted during the installation and burn-in period. The training department was coordinating a technician training program with the manufacturer. This equipment purchase was going to be a real game breaker.

What I was most interested in was the last Project Manager that had been hired into the company. The salary was about the same, $65,000. Three people had been involved in the interview process, but when I looked at the documentation from those interviews, it was mostly subjective statements:

I think he has a good personality and will fit in well with our culture.
In the next five years, he wants to excel in project management. That’s what we need him for.
Demonstrated a great attitude the during the interview.

The job description was a photocopy of a similar position with some notes scratched on the bottom. The training program consisted of shadowing another project manager for two days. So there is no wonder that the new Project Manager was not going to be a real game breaker.

Perhaps we should create a process that takes recruiting as serious as buying a piece of equipment. We would do well to treat our people as well as we do our machines. -TF