Tag Archives: candidates

Hiring Criteria

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“Tell me, Julian.  Why did you pick this person out of the candidate pool?  Is he really the best candidate for the open position on your team?” I asked.

“I don’t think you understand,” Julian replied. “I don’t only have to think about the best person for the job. I also have a budget to think about. I get a little spiff on gross margin, but my net to the bottom in my department makes up the biggest part of my bonus.”

“I am looking at the salary requirements of the three final candidates. They are all within the salary range for the position. Why did you pick this one? I know his salary requirement is $20,000 less than the other two candidates, but is that really why you picked him?”

“Well, the best candidate is the one from Missouri,” Julian explained. “Best experience, interviewed the best. He has already relocated here. But his salary requirements, that’s almost as much as I am making. I just don’t think we need that much horsepower in this role.”

“And, the candidate you picked?”

“You’re right, not as much experience, especially on the equipment system we use. He will require a little training, maybe some hand holding until he gets the hang of things.”

“And, this new candidate, if something happens to you, would he be able to take over your position in time?”

“Of course not,” Julian pushed back. “If something happened to me, it would be tough. The company would have to recruit someone from the outside. I have a big job. I wouldn’t be easy to replace me.”

Find the Needle in the Haystack

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“What went wrong?” I asked.

Tyler recounted the steps they used to qualify candidates. First, they killed a couple of trees printing resumes. Because there were so many, the stack was moved to the reception area. The large stack was divided in two, those from out of town were discarded, those in town were delivered to an area supervisor. The area supervisor was familiar with the job tasks, so that’s where the first real cuts were made.

The final forty resumes were delivered to the hiring manager. The hiring manager was very busy and a little put off by having to deal with forty resumes. He made quick work of the process, however, quickly finding some defect in thirty-five candidates. In the final five, two wanted too much money, two were working somewhere else, so that left one candidate who could easily start within 48 hours. Too good to be true.

“So, where do you think you went wrong?” I repeated.

Who Gets on the Team?

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“You will never be able to work on larger problems until your team becomes competent at the smaller problems,” I repeated. “You can never be promoted to a higher level role until you find someone to take responsibilities in your current role.”

“Yes, but who?” Drew replied.

“That’s for you to decide. In addition to making sure that production gets done, as a manager, one of your primary roles is to build the team.”

“You mean like team building?”

“More like a talent scout, except you get to observe all the time. Here are your levers.

  • Selection
  • Task assignment (what, by when, resources)
  • Assessment
  • Coaching
  • De-selection (if you made a mistake in the first step)

“Okay,” Drew hesitated.

“Start with selection. You can pick your friends. You can pick your nose. You can’t pick your friend’s nose, but you can pick who is on your team. That’s where it starts. If you do this job well, the rest is easy. You do this job poorly, the rest is miserable.”

“But, sometimes, I feel like I don’t get to pick who is on my team. They just sort of show up from HR,” Drew protested.

“Candidates may come in sideways. I know your hiring protocol. HR does a great job at trying to source candidates for your production team. I know your manager screens those candidates and several other people conduct interviews and give you their feedback. But, at the end of the day, you pick. As the hiring manager, you have, at a minimum, veto authority as to who is on the team.”

Unqualified Candidates on the Short List

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Orientation for our next Hiring Talent online program starts next Monday. For more information or pre-registration, follow this link Hiring Talent – 2013.
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“I guess I have my receptionist and a lower level supervisor sorting the resumes up front,” Byron replied. “They do the initial screening to toss out the candidates who aren’t qualified or who are overqualified. Look, I don’t want to waste the time of my hiring manager.”

“Let me get this straight. The open position is for a high level supervisor with a level of work around nine months time-span? You are right, I don’t want to waste the time of your hiring manager. Your hiring manager will have difficulty making this decision anyway.”

“What do you mean? Ron is the hiring manager,” Byron replied, backpedaling. “This hire will be on his team.”

“Yes, but Ron gave you these three resumes, right?” I looked at Byron sideways. “How would you rate capability for these three candidates?”

“Well, they are clearly not qualified for the position. They are barely supervisor material, the level of work in their prior experience is nowhere near the level of work for the role we have.”

“So, why did Ron pick these people over other candidates?”

“Well, he said these candidates were the only ones in our budget.” Byron’s face betrayed puzzlement. He suddenly no longer believed Ron’s reason. “But, the pay bands for this position are clearly above the salary requirements of these three candidates.”

“Byron, you are the manager-once-removed in this hire. You clearly see the situation. You are in the best position to see the sweet spot in the candidate pool, yet your screening process depends on the judgment of others that puts unqualified candidates on your short list. In what way could you contribute, as the manager-once-removed, to make this process more effective?”
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Hiring Talent

Who Makes the Screening Decision?

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“So, Byron, tell me again. Irene, your receptionist prints out all the resumes from the job posting. She puts them in two stacks, one out-of-town, one local, checks for two years experience and then delivers them to one of your supervisors.” I was looking at the way Byron was handling resumes for an open position. He was bit dismayed at the lack of quality candidates.

“Yes, the supervisor has been with us for almost two years, so he knows the job and can cull out the unqualified resumes. Then he takes the good ones to the hiring manager. It works pretty well. That way the hiring manager doesn’t have to waste his time,” added Byron.

“You said it works pretty well at saving time for the hiring manager, but it culls out all the quality candidates.” I was baiting Byron.

Byron’s face suddenly flushed. “That’s not what I said. I said there weren’t any quality candidates out there.”

“But you said you culled out the under qualified candidates and the overqualified candidates. Who do you have making those initial decisions?”

Byron could see that I was troubled by the way resumes were initially reviewed. He wanted to respond more positively, but the reality was setting in. “I guess I have my receptionist and a lower level supervisor making those decisions,” he finally replied.

“Should we look at a different approach?”
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Just released on Kindle. The only book on hiring that blends the research on levels of work with the discipline of behavioral interviewing. The research on levels of work, pioneered by the late Elliott Jaques, is powerful science. The discipline of behavioral interviewing is the most effective method for its application. This is the only book that puts these two ideas together in a practical framework for managers faced with the hiring decision.
Hiring Talent