by Rick Baker
On Mar 21, 2013
Some time ago, I wrote,
"When it comes to filling roles at your company, rather than dwelling on who is right and who is wrong, business leaders should dwell on 2 things:
- Character Differences…particularly, the interplay between individual’s egos
- Individual’s Talents…particularly, the extent individual’s talents deliver value to the business" [for more thoughts in that area, see Getting The Right People on Your Bus]
A little later, I wrote,
"In a 2011 Canadian Corporate Culture study, 85% of respondents indicated that cultural fit is more important than necessary skills when hiring.
When you are hiring a person to join your business you must work to understand whether or not they will 'fit in' your business Culture.
That means at least 3 things:
- You must understand your business Culture and the details of its embedded Values and your rules [our Master Rules],
- You must understand the employee-candidate's personal Values, and
- You must determine whether or not the employee-candidate is compatible with our business Culture." [for more thoughts in that area, see Having Values, Delivering Value, & Recruiting Great People]
Why did I write those points?
I wrote them because I have witnessed many people recruiting at the 50% level. I mean, when they are recruiting they do half the work they need to do:
- they cover the tangible-technical aspects of the role, making sure credentials are in place, spending time figuring out the candidate's ability to perform the key of the role, etc. and Tasks
- they fail to cover the intangible aspects of the role such as culture fit, values fit, etc.
A month ago, I was involved in a very-interesting discussion about how to make sure leaders know how to apply the right people-talents to the right-work tasks. To sum up my view, we should not attempt to force round talents into square tasks or square talents into round tasks. Rather, we should spend more time than we now spend making sure we 'customize' roles and tasks to ensure people-talents mesh with the work we are asking them to do. It became clear to me, I was not communicating my thoughts clearly enough. People were interpreting my comments to mean leaders need to go the extra mile then another mile then another...meanwhile followers/workers/staff bore none of the burden.
I did not want people interpreting my views as leaders must fully bend over backwards while everyone else could relax and have it their way.
Now -
There is no Magic Formula For Hiring.
When I say that, I mean:
- We cannot hire with perfection....no matter how thorough we prepare and perform, there is no way to guarantee hiring process perfection
- No candidate will be perfect for the role...i.e., no candidate will be able to perform all aspects of the role perfectly. That applies whether we are referring to the hard-tangible-technical tasks of the role or the soft-intangible-interpersonal tasks of the role.
- We must be diligent - we won't be perfect.
So, we should set simple rules for hiring process. Some of the rules should cover off the people side. Some of the rules should cover off the job-technical side. The rules should include flexibility so we can maximize the meshing of people-talents and role-tasks.
Here are some hiring realities:
- Uncertainty is always the scenario: none of us can foresee the future. The best we can do is make predictions and make adjustments as less-desirable-than-forecast situations arise.
- Waiting for perfection is a luxury few can afford. Working for perfection is a strategy for disappointment.
- Have a thorough hiring process…but do not aim for perfection. Communicate openly…about tangible/technical facts and the intangible aspects of your business culture/environment. Involve many people…so your company and the candidate have the ability to observe one another…over a period of time. Be thorough. And take action.
The bottom line...
We must keep working at improving our hiring.