Mar 25

Top 3 Habits To Hire Smarter

I have to be honest: When I’m talking with clients about hiring, an instant look of fear and pain comes across their face.  Typically, managers don’t want to lose staff because the idea of replacing them is painful.  Often it’s not because their current employees are all-stars, it’s because going through the hiring process feels like another full-time job added onto an already overbooked schedule.

Can you relate?  I know I can.

So what happens?  Because hiring feels time-consuming, mangers tend to rush the process by hiring the best of the worst OR they drag it out so long they lose the best candidates; either way, they end up on the short end of the hiring stick.

It’s time to change the way you look at the process so you get a better result.

Hiring success habit #1: Hire based on what you want instead of what you have.  Most hiring managers base what they are looking for in a new hire on who currently holds the role.  After all, it’s natural for our brains to consider what we have, then go and look for that.  Does that get you the ideal person for the role? What changes when you look at every open position as if it were new? As if no one has held the role before?  Or look at it another way, what if the job could speak for itself, what would it say?  Below are some questions to help you hire for what you want:

• First, what are the reasons the job exists?  Sometimes managers discover the role as it was originally defined isn’t a priority or doesn’t offer exactly what’s needed for the role today.  The opening gives you the opportunity to reshape the position.
• What are the hard skills needed for this position? This tends to be easy and is what ends up on most job descriptions. 
• Go deeper and ask what are the key soft skills needed for this position?  This is often overlooked despite statistics that indicate 93% of employers consider soft skills essential or very important.
• What are 3-5 BIG results this role is responsible for achieving?  This is where you get to create expectations and craft awesome questions to ask your candidate during the interview process.  This also gives you the base to monitor and measure your new hire’s success, and it reduces the discomfort of a fast fire because expectations were clearly spelled out from the start.  

Hiring Success Habit #2:  Be pessimistic when hiring. As a total optimist, this one always sounds wrong when I say it, so let me rephrase it. Look for all the reasons the individual won’t do well in the position so you can get really curious with questions.  What typically happens is once you’ve weeded through the mass of resumes, narrowed the field down to your top 3-5 candidates, you bring them in for interviews, and the likability factor kicks in.  We want to work with people we know, like, and trust, so much of the hiring decision comes down to who do you like and that’s not always who is the best person for this role.  It’s also very common for hiring managers who are eager to fill a role to be willing to overlook “small” things during an interview and they don’t consider the compounding effect of that behavior long-term. When I help a client hire, I see it as my job to explore ALL the ways the relationship is NOT going to work so they can ask questions that get to the core of how someone is going to show up after the interview.  Some key questions include:

• If you could change one thing about where you currently work what would it be?  How would you change it?
  • This question gives you insight to how they think about their current work environment and what’s important to them.

• If money was no object what would you do?  What would it take for you to do that today?  
  • This gives you insight to what drives them…and how far the position may or may not be from their ideal.

• When I am frustrated my colleagues/boss would describe me as…
  • Then ask for a specific example of a time that frustration showed up.  This will give you insight to how they see themselves when they are frustrated, and how they could potentially show up at work when under pressure, tension, stress, or fatigue.
• How do you like to be appreciated?
  • Often we assume people like to be appreciated in the same we do and that’s not always the case.  Ask instead of guessing.

Success Habit #3: Hire based on attitude. My favorite quote is we hire based on skill and fire based on attitude.  Most skills can be taught, attitude is forever.  We can interview all day long but if you aren’t assessing your new hires you’re guessing how they will show up.  Personally, I use the DISC assessment but there are lots of high quality assessments available.  People unintentionally (or sometimes intentionally) show up different during interviews – they could be nervous or they could be adapting to what they think you want because they need the job.  An assessment allows you to get past that.  Remember regardless of the assessment you use the report doesn’t give you the answer to whether or not someone is the right fit, it gives you more places to explore and ask questions.   When you hire based on these success habits – hire based on what you want, you’re pessimistic during the hiring process and you hire based on attitude – you will create a healthier culture and find you have long-lasting engaged employees.  Hire to your success!

To hear more on the topic of hiring listen to Own Your Truth with Laura T – Top 3 Ways To Hire Smarter (February 24th broadcast)

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.