Hi, I'm Campbell Such.
This is Mind Bite Thursday.
Your weekly dose of The Human Edge in Technology.
This week, “Hiring” and what are you making sure
as a manager, if you're a manager or a leader
or someone that's involved in the hiring process
to make sure that the people
that you're taking on,
are capable of doing the job,
they can do the job
and just as importantly
that they are a good fit in your organization,
they have really good attitudes.
So, what are you doing to make sure that happens?
Most of us have a structured interview process
or maybe it's not quite so structured
with a bunch of questions.
But what I'm going to talk about to today
is three key things.
The first one is,
What are the questions that you have in your mind?
High in your mind?
Secondly,
What are the questions that the candidate
has high on their mind?
And thirdly,
How can you shortcut the interview process
to make sure that you're only dealing with
people that are that are highly likely
to be able to do that.
So let's talk about the questions
that are high in your mind.
If you're anything like me
the key questions that I have are:
“Can they do the job?”
“Are they capable of doing the job?”
“Do they have the right attitude?”
And then just as importantly,
“Are they a good fit for the company?”
“Are they a good fit for the team
and the culture of the team and the company?”
And. “Are they a good fit for me as a manager?”
“Can I work with the person?”
One of the best predictors of
whether or not they can do the job is experience.
The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.
So looking for someone
who's got experience in the area
that you're looking to hire into
is always good thing to consider.
It doesn't have to be a lot of experience
and it doesn't even have to be in that role.
It just has to give you an indication of
whether they're capable.
So it might be…
especially if you're someone who's
not an experienced person
looking at this, watching this
then experiences in an internship
or in Not-for-profit
doing some voluntary work
can be just as powerful
and just as good a predictor of
how you're going to behave
and as a hiring manager
you can talk to people that were involved
in those processes and get a feel for it.
One of the big challenges
that many of us feel with hiring is
we feel we need to have a tick in the box
for the Tertiary qualification
to help us mostly cover our…
because if something goes wrong
we can at least say
“Well, they had a University education.”
What is the University Education
really tell you about the person
to talk about their creativity,
their ability to…,
their decision-making ability,
their ability to work in a team,
to deliver results, to add value…
Not much!
Fundamentally, education systems
is all about following stuff
that's been done before,
working out how to pass an exam
and being really good at passing exams.
Does that tell you any of those things
that you really need to know
as an organization and as a manager?
Maybe not.
I do seriously consider whether
or not that’s important as a major criteria
and certainly is a criteria
for eliminating someone from your list.
Then the second thing to think about is,
“What are they thinking about?”
“What are the questions high in their mind?”
Well, the questions in their mind is
“Do I want the job?”
“What's this person like as a manager?”
“What's the culture like in the organization?”
“Would I be a good fit in a team?”
“What will my team mates be?”
So, one of the key things that I always say,
I always stress at the start of an interview
is that it is an interview
which means it's a two-way thing.
That means it's just about…
it’s just as much about them finding out
about what the role is
what it entails, what the expectations are,
what I am as a manager and a leader,
what will their…
if they're not reporting to me
who they'll be reporting to,
what they're like is a manager and a leader
what their teammates will be like
what the culture is like in the organization
all of those other things.
It's just as much about that
as it is about me finding out
whether they're capable of doing the job,
what they're like as a person
Can they do the job?
Will they be a good fit for the team,
for the organization?
And, can I work with them as a manager?
So put that on the table?
I'd highly recommend
you put that on the table right at the start.
One of the guys that worked for me years ago
came back many years later
and said to me
one of the most memorable things
that the interview I had with you
was that question
was that statement you made
around the interview
being a two-way thing
and it made a huge difference
to his interest in the role
in his willingness to take on the role.
And that time was a very competitive situation
for candidates coming into a business
and we did hire him.
And then the third thing is,
How can we shortcut the process?
So one of the things that I've found
hugely valuable is
instead of having an initial one hour meeting
that can then go on longer
is to have a pre-interview
and I make it 15 minutes
and the key thing in that interview is to
and I'm very clear about it at the start
is to say to the person
“This is a pre-interview interview”
this is about you getting a feel for us
us getting a feel for you
and seeing whether we want to take this further.
They get a chance to make a decision
with only 15 minutes. In 15 minutes
and we get a chance
to make a decision in 15 minutes
at the end of the interview.
I say thanks very much and then
we'll get back to you very shortly.
We discuss if it's me and others
that have done the interviewing
or we're doing multiple interviews
we’ll have a quick discussion
and make a call then whether
or not to get that person back in
so really short cuts the process
and you can theoretically
you get through four people
in an hour instead of one.
So it's a big multiplier of time
So hopefully three things
to consider in your hiring process
One is: what are the questions in their mind
Two is: what are the questions in your mind
and the best way to get around that is
to put on the table at it's an interview.
It's a two-way thing and that we're trying
to find out about each other
and whether or not it's a good fit
and then the third thing is to short cut
or cut down the time that you need
to make a decision early on in the process
whether or not this person is a good fit
for you and give them a chance
to see whether it's a good fit for them
is to have a pre-interview interview.
View, which is only 15 minutes
and you get a really good get a chance
to get a really good feel for each other.
It also gives you a chance to have
multiple people on the short space of time
and to step out and make a call about
wether you want to bring that person back.
So that's Mind Bite Thursday for this week.
That's Campbell Such over and out
See you next week. Bye…