I know with all my recent posts about the difficulty of the economy and companies downsizing, you might ask yourself, ‘why is Scott writing about hiring?’
Because even in this environment, there are hiring needs – whether it’s because you figure out how to deal with the challenges better, you lose someone you didn’t think you would (people are antsy and will leave for many reasons), or you are ready to pick up that good talent that is out there right now.
Do you realize:
- Minorities make up about 30 percent of the U.S. population, according to the 2000 census.
- Between 2002 and 2012, the labor force growth rate for Asians is projected to be 51 percent, compared with about 3 percent for whites.
While [tag]hiring[/tag] is a complex process, there are really two fundamental aspects to the process:
- Resourcing (or searching) – how you attract qualified people to your business and job openings
- Selecting – who you decide to offer (and who accepts) from within your pool of candidates
There are some great resources to help you with attracting and finding good talent, for example:
When it comes to the [tag]selection process[/tag], I think too often we forget that its very easy to “pick someone like me.” When in reality you want to pick someone who will be the most successful in the role you are hiring for, and in the company.
This becomes a harder challenge. I’ve written before that most executives will make a [tag]hiring decision[/tag] within the first few minutes of an interview, although the interview may last an average of close to an hour. I’m sorry, but I can’t believe that executives are that good a judge of a person’s characteristics and abilities to make a decision like that. I think they are deciding on whether they like the person’s immediate appearance, mode of expression, and initial comments — all of which can be deceiving, or a basis for [tag]discrimination[/tag].
A Better Way to Select
I’m reminded of a song written by Pete Townsend about a kid who plays pinball better than anyone else, but he can’t see or hear. The interesting thing about this song is the kid is the best at pinball even with his [tag]disabilities[/tag].
Now, I’m not suggesting that the song is about real life; what I am suggesting is that you can “blind yourself” to the ‘distractions’ of your biases and win at [tag]diversity[/tag] selection.
You see, selecting the person that will give you the best business results is not about race, gender, ethnicity, age, etc. It’s about how someone will actually do the work in your environment.
The way to do this is to look at how your current top performers do their work, and find people that can duplicate their success. This sounds easier than it is. Generally, a hiring manager will look for someone who is ‘like the top performer’ rather than someone who ‘performs like the top performer.’ Because they don’t have a way to measure it.
They key is finding a way to accurately [tag]measure performance[/tag] so you can duplicate it.
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