I’ve been hiring people in business and education for 30 years, and in that time I’ve learned two things. The first is that Jim Collins is right on target in his “Good to Great” when he says that the way to create a great organization is get the right people on the bus. In other words, hire well. The second is that most people who hire are as clueless about the process as I was when I started, when I seriously underestimated the time and focus that need to be devoted to hiring if one wants to get the right people on the bus.
The key to hiring is to make it a process, one that is as diversified as possible both in terms of situations the candidate is in and people who interact with him: a candidate should go through multiple interviews, some more formal, some less, with multiple people over several days. I considered it a compliment years ago when a candidate said to me, “That’s the most extensive and intensive interview process I’ve ever been through.”
The interviewers should include some who have great experience and success in the candidate’s field and some who have great intuitive “people” skills, but not necessarily experience in the candidate’s field. All interviewers should know what they’re looking to evaluate, which include the candidate’s competence in the job area, character, fit with the culture, and strengths. And the process should include the candidate’s having to do something that shows his or her skills, not just talk about them.
The diversification of both situations and interviewers increases the likelihood that that you will get a “true read” on a candidate rather than a “false positive” or an equally possible “false negative.” A woman whom we hired as a receptionist in my client’s marketing research company made a poor impression in the initial interviews because she was nervous, but by the middle of the second day she was wowing everyone. She later became a partner in the company.
It takes more wisdom than I have to correctly assess a candidate after I talk to her for an hour. But after she has spent two days with eight different people who have experience working as a hiring team and we pool our notes, thoughts, and impressions, a more complete picture of the candidate’s reality emerges.
How to Hire Good People
by Joe Puggelli