Smart Hiring

Smart Hiring – Selecting
High Performance
Employees for the New
Economy
The Smart Guide to Human Resource and
Management Seminars

Presented by
Warren J. Rutherford
The Executive Suite

Program
 Smart Hiring Survey
 Our new economy – knowledge based
 Company future strategies - planning
 Person – future fit - asking
 Alignment
 Company needs
 Applications & Interviews
 Job Descriptions
 Assessing Person – Position Alignment
 Decision attributes – thinking our talents
 Assessment process
 Selection

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Smart Hiring Survey
S ta t e m e n t S c o re
1 . E m p lo y e e s a r e t r a i n e d a n d q u a li f i e d f o r t h e
f u n c t io n s t h e y p e r f o r m a n d t o m e e t t h e f u t u r e n e e d s
of the c om pa n y.
2 . W e h a v e d e v e l o p e d a r e c r u it i n g s t r a t e g y t o g e t
th e w o rk e r s t h a t t h e c o m p a n y n e e d s f o r it s fu tu re .

3 .       W e h a v e d e v e lo p e d a j o b a p p li c a ti o n fo r m t h a t
w ill g iv e u s t h e in f o rm a t io n w e n e e d a b o u t a
c a n d id a t e ’s fit t o o u r fu tu re n e e d s .

4 .       W e h a v e d e v e lo p e d in te rv ie w in g q u e s t io n s t h a t
w ill g iv e u s t h e in f o rm a t io n w e n e e d a b o u t a
c a n d id a t e ’s fit t o o u r fu tu re n e e d s .

5 .       W e u s e a ss e ss m e n ts t o p u t p e o p le in p o s i ti o n s
t h a t b e s t s u i t t h e i r s k i ll s , b e h a v i o r s , a n d v a l u e s .

A ve ra g e = T o t a l/ 5

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Smart Hiring Survey
 Results -
 If your average score is 4 to 5,
you are hiring smart.
 If your average score is 3 to
3.8, you are in the caution
zone & need improvements to
your hiring program. You can
benefit from better alignment,
making you much more
productive & profitable.
 If your average score is < 3,
you are in the danger zone &
are probably out of alignment,
and much less productive &
profitable than you could be.


The Economy We Knew
 1978 NYU Stern
School of Business
Study (5,000
companies) Balance Sheet

Intangible
 95% correlation
between balance
sheet and business
value


The New Economy We Need to
Know & Understand
 2005 NYU Stern School of
Business Study
 28% correlation between
balance sheet and business
value Balance Sheet

 Intangibles – the 72% Intangible
 Intellectual Property
 Strategy
 Brand
 Systems
 Processes
 Access to Capital
 Off balance sheet items
 Customer reputation
 Executive Team


Why it is Important!
 Only 5% of a workforce understands their
company’s strategy.
 Only 15% of senior management spends more
than 1 hour a month defining strategy and aligning
operations to it.
 Only 25% have their operations aligned to the
strategy.
 Only 40% align company from budget to strategy.
David Norton, Balanced Scorecard Report, Vol. 3, No. 5 (Sep/Oct 2001)

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Strategies to Succeed
 How do people contribute to the success of our
business?
 Cornell Study –
 Workforce alignment requires -
 The right types of people,
 In the right places at the right times,
 Doing the right things right.
 A company with the right types of people has
employees with the knowledge and skills necessary to
help that company achieve its goals.


Person – Future Fit
 3 different strategies companies use to select employees –
 Person job fit - match job applicant’s knowledge and skills to the
requirements of specific job openings and focus on an applicant’s ability
to perform well right away without extensive training.
 Person organization fit - focus on how well the individual fits with the
culture or values of the company and hire people with the capacity to
work well with other company employees
 Person future fit - focus on the potential long-term contribution of
applicants, often to the extent that they are willing to leave positions
open until the find the best and brightest new employees.
 Creating and maintaining that person-future fit that the Cornell
research identified as creating the best, long-term workforce
alignment.
 Better to define where we are going and who we need to get us
there to create a more aligned and focused workforce.


Alignment Enhances Productivity
and Profit
 Doesn’t it make sense that -
 An aligned workforce increases productivity and
profit,
 We need to better understand our employees to
further drive the success, growth, and performance of
our business.
 A study of large publicly traded firms, found that
companies using “high performance” human
performance
resource practices have market values that
range from between $16,000 and $40,000 per
employee higher than firms that do not use such
practices.

Aligning Your Hiring Practices to Hire
the Right Types of People Requires -
 Better understanding the company’s needs by defining
and communicating our long-term company strategy and
plan;
 Communicating that strategy and plan as a recruitment
strategy – attracting who we want and need for our
future success;
 Refining the application and interviewing process to
solicit information about current talents as well as future
potential and interests;


Aligning Our Hiring Practices to Hire
the Right Types of People Requires -
 Identifying an applicant’s current potential to perform the
functions of a job by understanding what is important in
the job and matching that to what is present in the
applicant;
 Assessing and understanding how an applicant’s long-
term potential can match with the company’s long-term
strategy; and
 Enabling job role changes to better fit a person’s natural
talents – by understanding a person’s natural strengths
and adapting the job role(s) as needed.


Company Needs
 What is your company’s long-term company strategy and
plan? Mission, vision, values, purpose.
 Have you involved your employees in its development?
What are some of the steps you used – retreat,
questionnaire?
 Are you communicating that strategy and plan to your
existing employees, (in person, email, postings,
meetings, interactive discussions) and
 Are you communicating that strategy and plan to job
applicants so that you can -
 attract who you want and need for your future success?


Application and Interviewing
Process
 Remember – we are seeking Alignment to your
company’s future strategy and plans, so –
 Do you ask an applicant to describe their future
position responsibilities,
 What talents they believe that they have that will
enable them to achieve their future vision,
 What talents do they believe they are strong in, and
 Why?


Process
 For each of the common interviewing questions,
ensure there are questions on the application
which solicit this information.
 For certain positions you may want the applicant
to write out the response so that you can go over
it in the interview.
 These questions and this process will help to
identify their behavioral tendencies, their values,
and their decision-making patterns.

Process
 Get specific with them on their future interests –
 What type of position do they want to have,
 Why,
 With what level of responsibilities,
 Who do they want to interact with,
 What type of guidance or direction will they want or need,
 What kind of company environment will they be most
comfortable in.
 Let them describe these responses in their own words –
in writing.
 Do these answers ALIGN with your future vision?


Interview Questions
 Six common question types –
1. Credential verification – ask and expect accuracy. Example
– “How long were you at…?”
2. Experience verification – verifies experiential features of his
background. Example – “What were your responsibilities in
that position?” Look for an answer that shows how such
experience made use of one of their strengths.
3. Opinion – an opportunity to subjectively analyze how an
applicant would respond to a scenario, and gauge their level of
self-awareness. Look here for their confidence level in their
self-awareness. Examples – “What would you do in this
situation?” “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”


Interview Questions
4. Dumb Questions – yup, gets past the pre-programmed
answers to find out capability of original thought. Example –
“What kind of animal would you like to be?” Tests ability to
think on their feet. Look for an answer that goes with their gut,
is light, not too serious.
5. Behavioral – anticipates predictable future behaviors based
on past responses. Example – “Can you give me a specific
example of how you did that”? or “What were the steps you
followed to accomplish that task?” Look for a reply that
demonstrates how they used a skill strength to accomplish the
task.


Interview Questions
6. Competency – identifies alignment of past
behaviors with specific competencies required for
the position (problem solving, leading, initiative,
etc.). Example – “Can you give me a specific
example of your leadership skills?” “Explain a
way in which you sought a creative solution to a
problem.” Look for a reply that identifies HOW
their strengths (understanding others, concrete
organization, leading others) are used to answer
the question. These questions are usually key to
the interview process.


Interview Questions
 Competency Question Examples –
 “Give me an example of a project that you were
responsible for organizing from beginning to end. How did
you go about it?”
 “Give me an example of a lesson you have learned from
making a mistake. What did you do differently going
forward?”
 “What is the one thing in your life that you have not been
able to accomplish or complete that gives you the most
frustration? Why didn’t you complete it?” (Note – this helps
to identify what they perceive as their weakness and how
they have adapted (or not) to not rely on that weakness for
their success.)


How to Gauge a Quality Question
Response
 Shake ‘em and make ‘em remember
 Did he take time to think through what he was
going to say?
say
 Remember the proverb – “It is better to remain
silent and be thought a fool, then to speak and
prove them right.”
 Did he give a specific example of a personal
strength or weakness to support his answer?
 Did he qualify the question – did he ask you to
qualify what you were asking or looking for?


Interview Essentials
 Some basic standards –
 Brief answers – applicant ~ 1/3rd of the time,
interviewer rest of time to ask questions and answer
questions.
 Appropriate dress – Did you tell them “casual” was
OK?
 Did he identify his goals up front and ask you what
you were looking for?
 Did he ask you what you want, what you think, how
want
you know when you will have found it and your
opinions?
 Did he explain why he left his last position? Honestly?
position
 Did he make a personal connection on a personal
level with you, are there shared values, behaviors, or
strengths you have in common?

Interview Essentials
 Some basic standards –
 Did he ask what you are looking for in a solution and did
he ask you what you think of his ability to be that solution?
 How does he handle rejection – if you indicated that he
has not shown how his experience and future vision fits
your position – how does he respectfully respond to your
concern?
 How does he show you he is interested in your company –
research, questions?
 Did he bring up his weakness before you asked about it?
 Did he follow up after the interview – handwritten, at least
an email? Thank you, and reiterate his interest?


Job Descriptions
 Do they effectively summarize the type of
knowledge, skills, & abilities necessary to ensure
that the essential functions are fulfilled.
 Do they effectively identify functions that can
describe the major categories of the position –
management, sales, finance, marketing,
process?
 Do they identify how the position contributes to
the accomplishment of company objectives?
 Do job descriptions exist?


Functional Assessment of Each
Position
 We know that there are 3 ways we can think about anything –
 Our head – systems & structure
 Our hands – practical, let’s get it done
 Our heart – empathy, the impact on others
 Each of us has a different balance of these 3 styles & explains why
our decisions and actions are different.
 The way we make decisions & how we use them are at the core of
who we are. They are key to our preferences, our strengths, and our
weaknesses.
 What are the dominant thinking patterns required for people in
each position?
 How does knowing that help to ensure that the person filling
the position will be more successful in achieving position
objectives and be more able to accomplish the desired person-
future fit?
 Think Position-Person Alignment & Workforce Alignment.

Assessment Process
 Identify position tasks
 Aggregate tasks up to categories
 Identify decision attributes for each
category
 Develop a position-specific profile to
measure applicant match to profile as part
of selection process.


Selection
 Seek alignment to
 Company needs
 Application and Interview
 Applicant needs
 Job Description
 Assessment match
 Remember –
 A company with the right types of people has
employees with the knowledge and skills necessary to
help that company achieve its goals.


Thank you!
For more information -

Warren J. Rutherford
Owner
The Executive Suite
129 Airport Road
Hyannis, MA 02601
wjr@theexecutivesuite.com
www.theexecutivesuite.com
508-778-7700


Smart Hiring

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