Interviewing and recruiting notes
From PLN
Interviewing and recruiting notes
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by Leslie Dillon, Leader's Digest
The ultimate hiring blunder
The costliest hiring blunder is "temporary amnesia" during interviews, when the manager is "so busy making sure each applicant has the right technical qualifications" they forget "to see if any of the applicants also have the kind of personality or value system that will strengthen the organization's culture."
What's the antidote for this amnesia? Ask a few key questions:
- What do you do for enjoyment outside of work? Best answer: "I love [insert a list here]." "The greater the enthusiasm in the response, the better."
- What's your most satisfying job experience? Best answer: "One time I got this amazing feedback from a client I helped." This reveals a powerful customer focus.
- What qualities does the ideal boss have? Best answer: "I like a boss who inspires me to accomplish more than I thought I could." This is an applicant eager to achieve outstanding results.
"Remember: Hire for both a 'skills fit' and a 'cultural fit,' and watch your cultural alignment get stronger right before your eyes."
(Paul Levesque, "Culture shift: the ultimate hiring blunder," Sales & Marketing Management's managesmarter, May 12, 2008.)
Mistakes new leaders make
The two biggest mistakes “executives make when hired in from the outside are (1) trying to recreate the organizations they left behind and (2) overestimating their change mandates.”
They’ve had success in their previous jobs; that’s probably why they’ve been recruited for this job. Their mistake is that they assume they can replicate their previous success. When the effort misfires, “the new leader loses credibility.”
New leaders “who overestimate their change mandates suffer similar fates.” They think they have a mandate to bring about significant change, but the support isn’t there. They don’t check with key stakeholders, “not realizing that understandings that are reached during the hiring process are unlikely to be the full story, and may in fact reflect some wishful thinking on both sides.” These key stakeholders then complain about, organize in opposition to, and even plot the downfall of the new manager.
The new leader has failed “to recognize an eternal truth: recruiting is like romance and employment is like marriage.”
(Michael Watkins, “Onboarding without going overboard: Traps to avoid when joining a new company,” Harvard Business Online, July 30, 2007.)
Interview intelligence
You may want to consider training human resources staff and line managers in the art of interviewing, according to Development Dimensions International (DDI), a global human resource consultancy. DDI “found that two-thirds of job seekers say the interviewer influences their decision to accept a position.” How should interviewers behave? Here are a couple of tips:
- Be respectful and efficient, but not unfriendly: 70% of job candidates found “acting like [he/she] has no time to talk to me” as common and annoying. Additional irritating interviewer behaviors “include withholding information about the position, turning the interview into a cross-examination, showing up late, appearing unprepared, and asking questions unrelated to job skills.”
- Know what’s important to candidates: 67% of them believe a “compatible work group/team” is a significant factor in choosing a job, but only 37% of staffing directors rate this as highly. Moreover, employers underrate 2 additional critical factors for job seekers: the need for “a good boss/manager” and “an organization you can be proud to work for.”
(Inside Training Newsletter, Aug. 15, 2007.)
"What it means to work here"
You can dramatically improve your employees' engagement and performance by communicating explicitly how your organization is unique. What's needed is a “signature experience”--something that "tells the right story" about your organization. The signature experience empowers "the people who share your values and enthusiasm for work." It's a "visible, distinctive element of an organization’s overall employee experience." This signature experience not only creates value for an organization, but also "serves as a powerful and constant symbol of the organization’s culture and values."
(It seems to me that this is particularly important now for libraries as we try to recruit technical and other staff from outside librarianship.)
Tamara J. Erickson and Lynda Gratton, "What it means to work here", Harvard Business Review, March 2007.
