Aug 11

How much is One-Size-Fits-All Hiring Costing You?

So, you have a position you need filled ASAP, you post it online and find your inbox filled with resumes.  Although initially excited by the pile of potential prospects, your hopes dwindle as you weed through candidates, check references, and hold interviews; your head is spinning with all the extra work.  Finally you offer the position to someone who seems to have the skills; you’re not sure it’s the right fit but you need someone (yesterday)…three months later, without notice, they quit!

Sound familiar?  According to Gallup, turnover costs US companies a trillion dollars a year and research shows 28% of new hires are quitting within the first 3 months.  A conservative cost estimate for replacing departing employees is one-half to two times their annual salary.  One-size-fits-all hiring methods are like putting $50k+ in cash on the table and setting it on fire.  

The hiring process is broken but no one seems to be changing it.  Hiring managers and candidates are overly optimistic during the interview process and both sides are so busy trying to sell themselves to the other neither is going deep enough into the process to know if it’s the right fit.

Here are three simple ways to improve your hiring process TODAY:

Behavior – consider a behavioral assessment to help you understand your potential hire at a deeper level.  As a coach I use the DISC and Motivators assessment to better understand how an individual’s behavior will be perceived by others and what motivates them to do what they do.  The results also give me insight to their preferred communication style, how they adapt when they’re uncomfortable and how they show up under pressure, tension, stress, and fatigue.  It’s important to take the time to review the results with the candidate and ask questions to pull out how behaviors present themselves for that particular individual.

Look for ways the hire won’t work – since we tend to be overly optimistic when hiring it’s helpful to review an assessment looking for all the ways the hire won’t work.*  My goal is to come up with scenarios that give me an opportunity to ask questions about potential problem situations and offer the candidate the chance to show me how they will respond.  Looking for ways the hire won’t work gives me a place for curiosity NOT judgement.

*IMPORTANT: Since there are no good or bad behaviors, a candidate should never be hired or taken out of consideration based on assessment results.  Until you interview the candidate or review their results with them you’re guessing how particular behaviors will show up, and statistically speaking you’re likely to be wrong.  
Questions – the key to any good interview is the depth of the questions you ask. It’s surprising to me how many of my clients say they had an hour interview and were asked only a few questions or weren’t given time to ask their own questions. As a hiring manager you should have a list of at least 20 questions prepared for each candidate – 10 can be generic from candidate to candidate and 10 specifically geared to the potential hire’s behavior and motivators.  An example of generic questions could include:

• What are the characteristics of your ideal company?
• What are the characteristics of your ideal boss?
• If you could change one thing about your current company what would it be?
• 3 examples of when you felt most successful?
  • what do they have in common?

Behavior specific questions vary depending on the candidate’s assessment results. Keep in mind the more specific the question you ask, the more detailed answer you are likely to get.  Finally, give the candidate time to ask questions because it will give you insight to what’s important to them and how they see the world.  When a candidate asks a question my first response is typically, “Great question, what’s important about that to you?”  I want to understand what they are thinking and where the question is coming from.  You are likely to get as much information from the types of questions they ask as you are from the answers they give to your questions.

The cost of one-size-fits-all hiring is too high; spend the time before the hire and you will spend less time rehiring for the same position later.  Preparing hiring managers and candidates for interviews is one of the highlights of my work.  If you or someone you know is looking to fill a position or is searching for a new career, please contact me Laura@LMTWorthTalkingAbout.com to schedule time to talk.  The initial call will cost you nothing and I guarantee you will leave with practical tools you can implement immediately regardless of whether we work together.

Laura Treonze, serves as Chief Life Strategist with LMT Consulting, which helps executives and teams create massive success through self-awareness. Her life-changing approach has transformed individuals and families and has redefined the way non-profits and corporations “do” business.