WHAT IS AN INTERNAL HIRING PROCESS AND HOW DO WE CREATE ONE?
If you hire someone you don’t really know, for a position you have not thoroughly defined, chances are that neither the person nor the position will deliver. Hiring the right people requires implementation of a comprehensive internal hiring process that selects the best and eliminates the rest. And it all starts with benchmarking. Whether you are benchmarking the role, the top performers in that role, or key traits of the best performers in the company as a whole, the first step is creating the model of what right looks like. Companies that take the time to do so fully understand not only who they need, but also why they need them. These are the companies that excel in the employee-selection process and the capacity to build a “dream team.”
WHAT RIGHT LOOKS LIKE
Before
you evaluate your immediate needs, evaluate the company and team. This
is called the Internal Human Capital Inventory and Assessment, and it
involves:
1. Evaluating your core culture:
• Acknowledge and prorate your core values.
• Assess the character quotient of your company.
• Identify the non-negotiable character traits or core values for your company.
2. Evaluating your current team:
• Identify your key players and what innate abilities and traits make them
successful.
• Identify what’s working on the team and what isn’t.
• Identify what elements are missing on the team that would make a positive difference.
3. Implementing a system for evaluating and selecting new hires and internal
promotions:
• Establish and cross-train to hiring protocol.
• Create companywide candidate-screening ground rules.
• Create a Comprehensive Position Requirement (CPR) for every role.
• Validate, select and utilize the right assessment tools.
• Create behavioral-based interview models for each role in the company.
• Establish a decision-making matrix.
SPECIFIC HOLISTIC HIRING TECHNIQUES THAT SAVE MONEY
With a treetop look at your company and a foundation in place to grow
from, it’s time to look at each role on a tree-trunk level. Focus on the needs of
the business and how each role is attached to the key performance
indicators of the company as a whole. When you are clear on the
performance objectives for each role in the company and how those
affect the big picture of service, sales, retention and profitability,
it is much easier to determine who the best person is for each role.
Here are some specific holistic hiring techniques:
1. Hire right the first time:
• Thoroughly define each role in your company.
• Define specific success outcomes that are expected in the role.
• Isolate the CAN DO (Intellectual Quotient).
• Isolate the WILL DO (Emotional Quotient).
• Isolate the FIT IN (Character Quotient).
2. Follow the hiring protocol:
• Train each hiring manager on the CPR for his/her positions.
• Conduct a preplanned behavioral-based telephone screening.
• Employ a cursory pre-interview assessment.
• Formulate a position-specific interviewing guide for managers to follow.
• Make hiring decisions according to the predetermined hiring matrix.
3. Set up an effective ramp-up process that validates your hiring choice out of
the gate:
• Socialization – on-boarding.
• Manager – new employee meeting.
• Game Plan – expectations, communication, work style.
With established hiring procedures adhered to consistently, your company will
jump over and past dangerous hiring traps, turn the tables on the mishaps of
poor hiring, and reap the benefits that come with having the right people in
the right roles.
