Performance Principles™
September 10, 2008
A-Players are Attracted by High Standards
A Performance Principle from Eric Herrenkohl
An executive recently interviewed for and accepted a leadership role with a new company. As part of the interview process, the company required him to go through multiple interviews and a series of leadership and management assessments. The human resource person apologized to this man for how much time the whole process took – she was embarrassed that he had to take most of the day to complete the assessment process. The man’s reply was telling. He said, “Please don’t apologize, I think this assessment process is terrific. It communicates that you are serious about hiring the best leaders you can find for this company.” Far from being put-off by the demanding standards of this company, he was attracted by them and took the job.
If your current process for interviewing and hiring new employees is less than rigorous, you may be concerned that an in-depth, time-consuming interview process will scare off good people. I have found just the opposite to be true. A-players are attracted by high standards. They want to work with other strong, effective people. When you take them through a challenging interview process, they figure that your current employees must be pretty good – otherwise they would never have made it through the process.
Here are five steps for taking your job interview process to the next level:
1. Benchmark the job. When I help companies to improve their interview process, we start by defining success for the position and being specific about the talents and experiences people must have to be successful. If you haven’t defined these factors, you can’t ask good questions in the interview.
2. Create an interview scorecard. Judge every candidate according to the same performance-related criteria. This helps you to avoid the tendency to “fall in love” with a candidate who interviews well but can’t or won’t perform. It also helps you to focus on candidates who may start out the interview process slowly, but in the end have all the characteristics of an A-player.
3. Use multiple interviewers. You will make better hiring decisions if you have the same group of informed people interview every candidate. Include all the interviewers in creating the job benchmark – it will keep you all on the same page when you are making your final hiring decision.
4. Do a post-game analysis. Immediately after an interview, each interviewer should individually score the candidate using the scorecard. Then, the interviewers discuss their scores and come to agreement on the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate. It never fails that one interviewer catches an important point that everyone else missed.
5. Use multiple visits. Have candidates come back for at least a second interview. This gives you an opportunity to see how each person follows up and follows through.
6. Use validated assessment instruments. Good assessments give you insight into people that you will never get from an interview. Incorporate them early enough into the interview process that you can follow up on the results in a second interview.
There is no downside to following these steps every time you need to fill a position. Not only do they help you to avoid hiring mistakes – they help to attract the best people to your company!
I work with companies across the country on implementing this process – if you want more information, just drop me an email or give me a call. I would love to talk with you.
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