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Q. |
If you had to choose one important
area for a company to strengthen, what would it be? |
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A. |
Recruiting. In order
to make a company thrive you need impact players who align with your
vision and values. The success of any championship team can be
directly attributed to having the right person in the right job. |
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Q. |
What is the single most important tip
you can give about starting a search? |
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A. |
Never
start a search for any position
until you have a powerfully written recruitment description that
properly positions your firm, defines the position you are
recruiting for and describes the ideal hiring profile in 3 key
areas. |
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Q. |
What mistakes do most people make in recruiting? |
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A. |
They have not identified and clarified what the ideal candidate
looks like. They don’t know where to locate the candidate. They
don’t know how to attract the candidate if they find him. They don’t
allocate time to do the search properly. This is equivalent to
deciding to go to an unknown destination and arguing over how you
are going to get there |
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Q. |
So what should they do? |
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A. |
There are 3 keys
to doing any recruitment search right.
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Writing a powerful recruitment
description. This is the single most important step. It
positions your company right.
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Creating a written recruitment
strategy that will find Mr./Ms. Right.
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Having a recruiter or team that
will follow through on all leads in a timely manner
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Q. |
What is a recruitment description? |
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A. |
This is a document that describes ideal candidates and speaks
powerfully to them about why they want to become part of your
organization. It should also list the requirements you need in 3
areas. We call them the A, B, C requirements. This is different
than the job descriptions companies may use internally. |
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Q. |
What are the A, B, C requirements? |
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A. |
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Vision and
value alignment
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Skills, experience, education
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Desired traits
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Q. |
What makes for proper positioning of the job and company? |
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A. |
Positioning is putting the uniqueness of your job and company
upfront so it attracts the best candidates, and those people align
with your vision, goals and values. |
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Q. |
What about recruiting key 2, planning a strategy?
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A. |
Once you know what the ideal candidates look like you have to figure
out where they are and how you can reach them. This may mean
networking, posting on-line or sourcing people from your
competitors. It may mean a newspaper ad (although I rarely recommend
this. I think most classified ads look like obituaries). Or it may
take more intense searching like going to schools, finding
appropriate associations or posting in specialty chat rooms or
message boards. The key is to write this out before you
start the search. |
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Q. |
And key 3? |
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A. |
Taking the first 2 steps do you no good if you don’t have someone
who will follow through on every detail. The perfect candidate may
have been the one who you “just didn’t have time” to reach. You need
to have a person dedicated to the search who will reach all the
candidates and screen them using the ABC qualifications we discussed
before. This is very time consuming but must be done right. |
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Q. |
What
qualities do you look for to ensure someone is a good hire? Where
should I be rigid and where should I be flexible? |
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A. |
Be rigid on A - Vision and value alignment because if people don’t
align with you on these, it won’t work. And be rigid on C – Desired
traits. If you need a payroll specialist with impeccable detail
aptitude there is no sense hiring someone who isn’t a detail person.
If they don’t have values and traits you need there’s little you can
do to change them. You can be flexible on B (education, experience,
skills) to a certain extent because you can always give the person
more training, experience and education. |
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Q. |
How do you tell if
a candidate has these qualities? |
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A. |
There are no sure fire answers, but the best ways are by doing
structured interviews and solid reference checking |
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Q. |
What kind of
reference checks do you prefer and why? |
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A. |
My choice is behavioral work references. Although some people eschew
them because they expect these references to just say nice things
about the candidates, when properly done, they can tell you much.
There should be a pattern as to the strengths and weaknesses
described. This pattern will tell you a lot about the person’s
traits and values |
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Q. |
What about testing? |
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A. |
Testing is a tricky question in that you cannot do it on an
arbitrary basis (you must test everybody) and tests must be
validated to avoid discrimination lawsuits. That being said, there
are numerous tools to use. However, your best indication for future
success is in a candidate’s past history. Thus a behavioral
reference and thorough interviewing is the best way of making sure
their vision, values and traits align with yours. |
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Q. |
Does the system guarantee success? |
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A. |
There is no system
that will guarantee success but following these steps and being
totally honest with the candidate (in regards to exactly what they
will and will not be getting in this position) increases your
percentage of success. |
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Q. |
John, you talked about interviewing. What is the
proper technique? |
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A. |
Scott, I use the triangle interviewing technique combined with the 5
phase interviewing model. But that is a subject for another
article. |
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Q. |
And if people need more information about recruiting or
interviewing? |
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A. |
Call
us for additional information at 708-645-2530 |
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