5 Steps to Hiring Only Top Performers

If you truly want to hire only the best and get them up to speed quickly, follow these 5 steps developed by interviewing skills professionals:

1. Compile a list of both high and low performing current employees in the target job. To be fair and accurate, avoid relying upon the subjective reporting of managers. Instead use performance data (i.e., sales results, engagement scores or customer satisfaction ratings) to distinguish poor vs. great employees.
   

2. Invite employees to participate in your efforts to hire better. Then interview both high and low performers for their view of the competencies needed to succeed at the job and for their observations on the behaviors that demonstrate skill competency.
   

3. Develop a list of behavioral indicators (both high and low) for each competency and check it out with managers for their comments and buy-in.
   

4. Create a scoring model…perhaps a “5” for those candidates who display only top performer indicators through to a “1” for those who respond with only low performer indicators.
   

5. Train your interviewers to manage the process accurately and consistently.
   

Implement the process, test the results and adjust as needed. Identifying top performers could be your most outstanding contribution to company success.

Learn more at: http://www.lsaglobal.com/behavior-based-interviewing-training/

7 Key Management Competencies to Look for When You Hire

If you are tasked with interviewing for an open management position, there are 7 key competencies you should ensure that you do not miss.

These 7 competencies were voted the most critical for management success in a study published in the Harvard Business Review that surveyed over 300,000 bosses, peers and subordinates. With these competencies your new manager is likely to succeed; without them, your new manager is likely to be ineffective.

Draw upon your interviewing skills training so that you and your team of interviewers probe for evidence that the job candidates have demonstrated competence in these key areas that fit most with your corporate culture:

1. Ability to motivate and inspire
   
2. Integrity and honesty
   
3. Ability to analyze and solve problems
   
4. Orientation toward results
   
5. Superior communication skills
   
6. Recognition and support for the value of teamwork
   
7. Ability to build strong relationships
   

The order of importance varied slightly with the level of management represented by the study subject. But it was clear that the above skills were deemed fundamental to good management at any level. An additional competency that becomes more significant as a manager reaches the top is the ability to develop a strategic perspective.

Learn more at: http://www.lsaglobal.com/behavior-based-interviewing-training/

Divvy Up Interviewing Into 2 Jobs to Get the Best Results

Essentially, interviewers have two jobs: one is to determine the skills and fit of each candidate and the other is to sell candidates on joining the company.

Most often one interviewer is in charge of both assessing and selling. But recent research suggests that mixing the two lessens the accuracy of choosing the best recruits.

Dan Cable of the London School of Economics along with Jennifer Carson Marr of the Georgia Institute of Technology conducted experiments in the lab and then followed up with field studies to determine if selling at the same time as evaluating affected interviewers’ judgments. They found that “when selling orientation was high, interviewers' judgments no longer predicted applicant outcomes.” They suggest that the focus on making the job and company appealing to candidates interferes with reliable evaluation of the candidates’ fitness for the job.

When you set up your interviewing skills training, follow their advice. Divvy up the responsibilities so that one interviewer is in charge of evaluation and another then takes the top candidates with the goal of persuading them to come aboard.

Learn more at: http://www.lsaglobal.com/behavior-based-interviewing-training/

Important Interview Coming Up? What You Really Need In a New Hire

If your candidate already has the skills you need for the job, so much the better. What you really need in a candidate, however, is the motivation to learn, the flexibility to try something new and a strong cultural fit.

In other words, you should be looking for attitude, fit and potential rather than just skills…skills can be taught.

To probe for attitude and potential, you need to draw from your behavioral interviewing skills training. You will want to learn if the candidate:

• Enjoys learning.
  
• Is open to new ideas and new experiences.
  
• Invites feedback from colleagues in order to improve performance.
  
• Overcomes challenges in order to achieve a goal.
  
• Can admit mistakes and learn from them.
  
• Communicates well with others.
  

Ask the candidate to describe situations where they exhibited the above behaviors. Listen carefully and probe for evidence that the behavior is a genuine indicator of potential and a real predictor of on-your-job performance.

Learn more at: http://www.lsaglobal.com/behavior-based-interviewing-training/

Something Surprising May be Keeping You from Getting Hired

This is the third time it has happened. You were progressing smoothly through the first and second round of job interviews and then the callbacks stopped. One possibility is that someone from a previous job is not giving you as good of a reference as you thought. It is often after the second interview that references are checked so the recruiter can winnow down the list of possible hires.

Here, according to the interview skills training experts we asked is what you can do:

1. Take Charge. The best strategy is to be proactive. Ask potential references what they would say about you and coach them about the best way to speak about you to your potential new company. If there are any unresolved issues or questions, it is better to deal with them on the spot than have them hinder your opportunities in the future.

2. Double Check. If you are not sure where the problem lies, hire a firm to check your references from previous employers to identify the source of the problem.

3. Improve and Learn. Assuming the reference (albeit bad) is legal, contact the source and ask why they are giving you a negative (or not so wonderful) report. It is possible you can negotiate more neutral language or ask that they give only start and end dates of your employment without any further comment.

Learn more at: http://www.lsaglobal.com/behavior-based-interviewing-training/

4 Early Warning Signs that the Candidate Is Not for You

Interview skills training can teach you how to identify the best talent for your particular job opening. You can also learn the warning signs that a job candidate is bad news and definitely not one you want to bring aboard.

Here are four of them:

1.     Typos on the resume show a lack of attention to detail.

2.      Poor preparation can indicate a lack of true interest in the job or be a sign of disorganization.

3.      Excessive talking could simply show nervousness. But it could also reveal that the candidate is not a good listener (and thus a poor team player) or is trying to hide something.

4.      Beware of the candidate who asks the “wrong” questions. Certainly you want someone who shows interest in what the job entails and how the company operates. But if you are asked too many questions about salary and vacations, you should be concerned about the candidate’s work ethic and motivation. 

Super Talent Alone Will Not Win the Game

Of course, everyone wants to get the best talent in order to succeed. This is why so many football teams go after big name and high-priced free agents. They were the super stars last season. They cost a lot. They should be the key to taking the team to the next level right?

Unfortunately buying top talent does not always work. In football, top free agents may fill on- and off-the-field needs but they do not always build Super Bowl teams. In 2010 for instance which was an uncapped year, 51 free agents signed, 14 of which signed for 4 years or more. But within a few years, only 3 remained under contract. Even with years of data and videos that proved their ability, players still failed at an alarming rate on their new teams.

Why?

The problem is that talent does not necessarily transfer from one team to another. Cultural fit matters and is the missing and unpredictable ingredient. When you hire, take a tip from the football record of free agents. To hire talent that will succeed in your organization, you must take into account a fit with your strategy as well as with your culture.