Strategic Management Insights

Hire the Best

Perhaps the most critical factor in the success of your business is your ability to hire and retain the best people.  Those of you who have read “Good to Great” will remember Jim Collins’ early chapter on the subject in which he points out that great companies “got the right people on the bus.”  But even managers who haven’t read the book will know this is true.

Although it’s sometimes hard to put a finger on it, everything seems to work more smoothly when the right people are on board.  The right people work together effectively, they make the right choices, they’re motivated, and they make good things happen.  The wrong people, on the other hand, struggle with doing the right thing in the right way.  There’s often a problem, a little “snafu,” or an inexplicable delay that is typically followed by a reasonable sounding explanation – or at least it’s reasonable the first few times.  But after a few rounds of this you know there’s something wrong.

By the way, poor performers aren’t bad people.  Everyone wants to do well and is able to do so if given clear direction, the proper tools, ongoing feedback, and continuous training.  But the right person has to be in the right job.  With that in mind, I have listed below some practical, time-tested hiring steps, much of which I draw from Brian Tracy, who is one of my favorite business performance educators.  If you do the following every time you hire I can assure you that you will make consistently better hires over time and your business will flourish as a result. 

Hire slow and fire fast  
Those are the five most important words in this article.  We’re always in a hurry to hire but the wrong hire costs a multiple of a person’s annual salary in wasted compensation and benefits, lost productivity, lost time, lost opportunity, etc., not to mention the aggravation.  

Think through the job
Be clear about what you want and what it will take for someone to get the job done properly. 

• The time you spend defining the job requirements up front will save you a considerable amount of time down the road
• Think of the job as a pipeline; be clear about the desired results and outputs and consider what inputs are required to generate them
• Identify the exact skills and personal attributes the candidate must have
• Make sure that a single candidate is sufficient to do the job

Practice the Law of Three
Most bad hires can be avoided by taking the time to thoroughly interview your leading candidates. 

• Begin by interviewing at least 3 candidates for any position
• Interview the candidate you like the most at least 3 times and in at least 3 different locations; e.g.:
  1. In your office
  2. In a conference room
  3. Over lunch or a cup of coffee

(You’d be amazed at how much more you find out about a person when you meet with them multiple times and outside of the traditional interview setting )

• Have your top candidate interviewed by at least 3 coworkers
• And please - never offer a candidate the job on the first interview 

Probe Past Performance
Remember that past performance is the best indicator of how someone will do in the future. 

• Be sure to check resumes for relevance and accuracy 
• Don’t be afraid to ask detailed questions about a candidate’s work history and achievements, and be careful to separate individual achievement from that of the group. 
• And be sure to ask what-if questions that present hypothetical situations that the candidate must address spontaneously.  If the candidate is experienced and capable they should have little trouble formulating a reasonable response. 

Finally, take the time to thoroughly check references yourself; don’t delegate this vital step to someone else.  You can often learn as much from talking with references as you can from interviewing the candidate directly.  I always insist on speaking to prior supervisors, peers, and direct reports.  The more recent the better.  A few people you call may be reluctant to talk but most will be happy to do so.  Friends are rarely good references although sometimes they are surprisingly honest about a candidate’s shortcomings. 

The bottom line is that it takes time and effort to hire the right person.  Most of us know what we’re supposed to do but we often rush the process and rely on feelings and intuition.  That’s a mistake because there really is no effective shortcut.  But the good news is that any one of us can build a great company if we simply take the time to hire the best!

- Brian Kinahan

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