HIRING AN ‘A’ TEAM MEMBER

Before interviewing a candidate for any role in your company, it is vital that you follow a sound, world-class recruiting process. That’s where an approach like the ‘Topgrading’ methodology has made a huge difference.

Studies have shown that the way most people conduct their recruiting, the hiring manager will only successfully hire an ‘A’ Player 25% of the time. Not good enough! Please note that if you follow a documented and disciplined hiring methodology, you can increase your hiring success rate to 90%. So, if you want less stress, more sleep, and better company performance, those latter odds make a lot of sense.

It starts with filling out a Role Scorecard for the position, working backwards from the ultimate KPI’s and results that are expected from this position.  Use the Role Scorecard as the basis for the job advertisement.

Then you asked each candidate to fill out a Career History Form rather than looking at resumes- remember that most resumes have been sanitized of those items the applicants don’t want you to see. Furthermore, this step filters out the “tire kickers,” and gets the candidate to provide exactly what information is needed.

Interviews

1.  Initial Phone Screening Interview (1 hour) using a number of pre-selected questions.

2.  Face-to-Face Tandem Interview (at least one highly structured, three-hour interview)

3.  Reference Check Interviews (with the people you specify)

We don’t have the space to go into the full details of each interviewing step – but here are the key principles:

• We dig for the truth
• We want the real truth, and we let the candidates know that we will seek verification for all claims they make.
• We ask for tangible evidence of their individual performance.
• We ask for their permission and assistance to contact previous bosses, colleagues, and employees.
• We specify the people we want to speak with (hint – they’re not the “friends” listed on their resumes).

If there were any previous issues with past jobs, we want these to come out as soon as possible, and to be discussed openly and honestly.

Past performance is the best predictor of future performance

Ask for precise examples of where they exhibited the desired behavioral competencies (as listed on the Role Scorecard) in their past jobs. For instance: 

• Describe a time in your previous role when you . . . (e.g., dealt with a dis-satisfied customer).
• What was the situation?
• Who was involved?
• What exactly did they do? What did they say?
• What exactly did YOU do? (Not what “we” or “the team” did.)
• What was the outcome?
• What lessons did you learn from this?

We are most interested in:

• What actions candidates (as individuals) took in past situations
• What tangible (and verifiable) results they achieved
• What mistakes they made and what they learned from them
• What their bosses, colleagues, and employees would say about them

We are NOT interested in:

• What “we” or “the team” did
• What they might do in some hypothetical situation
• The true ‘A’ Player candidates will not be put off by any of this. They will have verifiable stories where they demonstrated the behavioral competencies you seek. They provide tangible evidence of results. They willingly furnish you with the names of bosses, colleagues, and employees (that you specify) for you to speak to. They have nothing to hide and can back up everything they say.

Are you worthy?

Now you need to take a look in the mirror. Are you worthy of them? Ask yourself: Can you honestly provide the tools, training, systems, mentoring, and support they will need to perform to an ‘A’ Player level in this role?

Do you provide a fun and challenging environment that allows them to thrive and grow?

Are you an ‘A’ Player manager yourself? Can you prove it?

Conclusion:

Keep this in mind . . .  You ultimately hire the employees You Deserve!!!