In its most simple definition talent is any individual who has the capability to make a significant difference to the current and future performance of the company.

By Alexandra Zatarain

 

Are your hiring procedures helping you select the most brilliant candidates?

Organizations know that good talent translates into a competitive advantage. According to 5.12 solutions, in the next 10 years, “HR professionals expect three out of 10 employees in their organization’s workforce to retire”. This is a big enough reason for hiring managers to be concerned about replacing, retiring, and all the organizational movements needed to handle this process without sacrificing productivity.

Resume revision, unstructured interviews and reference check are the most common techniques used in the hiring process, but research has shown that these techniques used are not exactly the best at predicting the candidate’s performance once on the job b (Hunter & Schmidt, 1998).

Recurrently hiring managers will be unimpressed with the candidates that have applied to open positions through the postings in open job boards. Anyway they are forced to make a decision and they are pressured by a deadline.

As a consequence, employers end up hiring the wrong people because of the perceived need to hire someone right away. Since they were able to fill a position using a certain process, they will fall in that pattern thinking it will work out again with a “not so bad” result. But, as Marsha Lindquist CEO of The Management Link points out: “good talent does exist; you just have to know how to find it” (2).

Lindquist outlines some tips to help hiring managers and recruiters find the right talent. The following list includes tips from several sources, which can guide the process of hiring the right talent.

• Seek seasoned employees: companies can have seasoned or temporary employees who can bring in the required knowledge needed at specific times. Consultants can be highly skilled in a specific industry or job type, which means they can bring top tier experience to the workplace.
• Consider more than one job category: Some projects or positions may be filled with temporary employees or part-time workers, consultants or virtual assistants, avoiding bringing someone full-time when the position doesn’t really require it.
• Don’t rush: hiring managers and recruiters must not hurry into filling an empty position. Much needed analysis will result in a better decision. They must think out all the possibilities, even consider some internal hiring or promotions. As the HR truism says: “Hire tough, manage easy”. The more effort and energy invested into the hiring process, the better results can be achieved since many problems will be filtered and eliminated upfront.
• Consider a different demographic: senior citizens and retirees, can be a perfect fit for the job since often they have accumulated experience and skills but they are no longer looking for full-time employment, so companies may be able to hire them as part-time employees. Their knowledge and experience may be better than hiring someone fresh out of college if the position requires mastering a specific activity.
• Don’t hire from a piece of paper: when conducting interviews or reviewing resumes hiring managers and recruiters usually compare the job description to the information they are gathering of the prospective employee. But they shouldn’t limit themselves to this description, since the right attitude and a personality match to the organization’s culture are more important than specific details.

“In the end, you will be better off hiring the person with the right attitude and only part of the skill set you were looking for rather than someone with the right skill set and the wrong attitude. You can always train job functions, but you can’t train somebody’s attitude” (2)

“Personality is the key for me.  I prefer someone with the right personality and not sooo talented, to someone talented with the wrong personality. [My aim is] building a ‘friendly environment’ to develop big and strong ideas.”
Christian Jofre, Creative Director, MTV Networks International

• Have a strong hiring process: the components of a good hiring process include:
• Concrete definition of what’s being looked for – typically a position description, job competencies, and questioning strategies.
• Specific planning of the interview process – hiring strategy, sourcing, resume screening, the interview team, and identification of the great reasons to work here.
• Attention to the details when carrying out interviews – establishing an appropriate climate, conducting the interview, and responding to challenging interviewee questions.
• Established selection process – decision- making guidelines, evaluating the candidates, and communicating with candidates.

 

• Get demonstrated results: before hiring companies should ask and get demonstrated results, figures, statistics, that can sustain what the interviewee is claiming as achievements.

 

Hiring the right talent is difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. The human capital supply chain should be examined and established from top management, in order for it to be in compliance with business operations and the needs of the organization as a whole. The company will benefit greatly from the proper hiring decisions.

 

 

References:

(1) Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E.  (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 262 – 274

(2) Lindquist, M. How to Hire the Right Talent. Retrieved from: http://themanagementlink.com/how_to_hire_the_right_talent.html