Five Big Mistakes Hiring Managers Make
There is no more important position or role within organizations than the hiring manager role. By hiring manager, I mean a manager with the responsibility of seeking and hiring employees. The quality of the employee within an organization rests entirely on the back of the Hiring Manager. Yet when I talk to these managers about their work, right at the top of their MOST DISLIKED TASKS are the ones that are most critical to the organization, hiring and selection responsibilities.
I have often considered why this might be the case and can only conclude that managers do not like the responsibility of hiring because it is high risk work. If they do it right and hire great people, the boss gets the credit. If they do it wrong and they make a bad hire, they get blamed. We have identified 5 mistakes common to most hiring processes that are responsible for most hiring mistakes. They are:
- Faulty job descriptions
- Lack of understanding of the competencies that drive desired performance
- Lack of communication of expectations
- Lack of evaluation of the candidate for the necessary skills
- Faulty interview procedures
Faulty job descriptions: Most job descriptions I see are loaded with prerequisites like “3-5 years of experience” or “good work ethic”. They are long and rarely read. I find hiring managers posting job descriptions on electronic job boards that need to be cut because they exceed the word limit imposed by the job board (usually around 1000 words). Many hiring managers actually believe that applicants read their ads, when all the applicant really does is search for potential matches to their wants and needs and ignore the rest.
The best job descriptions are the ones that get read. If they are not read, nothing else counts. We believe that job descriptions should rarely exceed 250 words. Two hundred and fifty words make a one page document. There is something magical about a one page document. Advertisers will tell you that a one-page letter of application is more likely to be read than one with multiple pages. The same goes for job descriptions. Keep it short!
The most effective job descriptions are ones that focus on outcomes and outcomes. Many of the job descriptions I see are vague and far-reaching, such as “operations manager will have excellent management skills.” A performance and outcome focused job description would say “Operations Manager will achieve 40 percent gross profit per year.” A description focused on results and results will always be specific and will always be measurable. The benefit is double; the person at work knows what the expectations are and the manager’s supervisor has an accountability tool and a coaching tool to help measure performance. I call this type of job description a performance-based job description. It is a powerful tool in selection and productivity.
Lack of understanding of the competencies that drive performance: Job Fit is about clearly defining the job and then understanding what attributes should be present for a person to perform superiorly in a job. The latter cannot be done without first clearly defining the job. Once you have defined the work and the expected results, you can begin to consider the attributes necessary to achieve the desired results of the work.
A formal candidate profile definition process is called the Ideal Candidate Profile. It is a document that clearly describes what a candidate must have and how he must be in order to have a superior performance at work.
I have found that the most effective means of communicating the image is to provide a grouping of Desired and Essential competencies. Competencies can be divided into having type, that is, education, experience, and special skills, and being type, that is, emotional intelligence, values/motivators, and behavior.
Now the Ideal Candidate image becomes someone who fits between the Desired and Essential attributes of Education, Experience, Special Abilities, Emotional Intelligence, Values/Drivers, and Behavior. With the clarity provided by the Performance-Based Job Description and Ideal Candidate Profile, you have the foundation for a better hire. No job should be covered without the creation of these two powerful selection tools.
Lack of communication of expectations: I find that most hiring managers don’t worry about expectations until after they’ve filled the position. It’s almost like they’re saying “fill the position and worry about performance later” as if they can inject talent into the new hire after they’re given the job. How can you hire someone to do a job and expect them to do it unless the expectations of the job are clear? The answer is that you can’t. The old adage that “if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re not likely to get there” is painfully true when it comes to hiring.
If you coordinate the job description with the job ad and reinforce expectations at the beginning of the opening interview, you will have done everyone, the candidate and the organization a huge favor. I recommend that the expected performance be communicated and communicated and communicated. I recommend that hiring managers ask for acknowledgment from a potential employee early on in the opening interview. Here is how.
You just put the candidate up for interview for the job you posted on Monster. The candidate has been vetted through a resume screen, assessment and phone interview and will meet the organization for the first time in an opening interview. This is how you open the interview:
“Hi Mary, my name is Steve and I’m your contact today. Before we go into some question and answer time, I want to refresh your memory on job expectations. This is the job description we sent you earlier. Could you take a moment to read it? (she reads it) You say, “Tell me, did you see anything in there that you don’t think you could do if you had the right tools?” She says “no, I didn’t.” Great,” you say, “it That’s what I thought.” “Would you initial and date it? It will become part of your permanent interview file.” Then she continues with the planned interview.
What just happened? You have done several powerful things; He sent the message that his organization knows what it expects and respects the applicant to share that up front; She told the applicant how his performance will be judged and what is acceptable performance and superior performance, and finally provided him with an empowerment and accountability tool that he can use to help the person be the best he or she can be at the future.
Lack of evaluation of the candidate for the necessary skills: How do you see what you cannot see? With an assessment that measures soft skills essential for superior performance but not readily apparent through observation in an interview.
Understanding what I call the “Three Great Rivers of Performance” and identifying their presence or absence in a candidate is a powerful selection tool. Those rivers that feed the lake of performance are what a person values, how a person behaves, and what talents they naturally have.
There are only two ways that we can determine the level of proficiency one has on all three rivers; one is by observing performance and the other is by discovery through an accurate psychometric assessment. Most of the time we don’t get a chance to see a candidate’s actual performance until after they’re hired, and then it’s too late if there are serious deficiencies.
There are many effective tools that are sometimes better than observation, so choose one and become an expert in its use. A psychometric assessment system can account for up to a third of the hiring process.
Faulty interview procedures: For some strange reason, most hiring managers, if asked what part of their job they dislike most, would say interview. That seems strange since people are the most important assets of an organization and the interview is an important part of the selection process. Still, there is an immense aversion to the interview from hiring managers. I think I understand the reason and it is this: I am not qualified or well prepared to do this job (interview). It is very important for me to make the right selection. It’s part of my job, but if I make the wrong decision, I get all the blame and I may lose my job. All of that creates a stressful image. If you do a good job at interviews it’s just your job and if you do a bad job it can cost you your job.
The biggest mistake hiring managers make in the interview process is tending to hire people like themselves and the biggest challenge hiring managers face is staying objective throughout the interview process. Performance-based job description and candidate profile can help, but more is needed.
Most importantly, interview training for middle managers is a must. The hiring manager needs to know that he knows more about the interview process than the candidate.
Interview preparation requires the interviewer to know what questions they are going to ask, ask them, and most importantly, listen to the answer and score the answers so that in the end each candidate gets a score on their answers to the questions. An interview structure, such as having an introductory script, predetermined questions that require more than a yes or no, are a powerful piece that allows the interviewer to focus on the candidate’s answer.
Behavioral style interview questions are all about asking questions that require answers of more than one word. An example might be: “Tell me about a time when you had to admit you made a mistake. What did you do? What was the result? What did you learn?” Being skilled at using what I call a hiring manager’s best friends; That? When? Where? Because? WHO? And how? It is a measure of a manager’s competence. Each of these demons helps achieve the goal of listening eighty percent of the time and speaking only twenty of the time in an interview.
These behavioral style questions are not chosen at random, but are drawn from the job description. In general, the interview is just another test in which the candidate is scored on their answers to job-specific questions.
Avoiding these five mistakes won’t make your organization perfect, but it will go a long way toward hiring better people, performing at a higher level, and staying longer. Most of us would be happy with that.