Data for Hiring
One of the hardest parts of leading any organization is hiring great talent. As organizations are hiring to keep up with growth, and are dealing with this challenge, we wanted to share a little insight into some ways that we approach this process along with a quick case study.
Currently, the job market is red-hot and employees literally have their choice of places to work. According to data, we are near a 50-year low on the unemployment rate. While this is great news for the economy as a whole, it does create a challenging situation for the companies trying to attract and hire talent.
As a Lean Six Sigma guy, I love a good process and like most things, there is always a good process to be developed if one looks hard enough. Additionally, I like data a whole-bunch more than I like emotions. While data for hiring may not be as readily available as other metrics, there is data to be found and/or developed around the hiring process. The following is a simplified case study for how to bring data to your hiring process to help supplement your instincts.
If you know anything about The Effective Syndicate, you know that our driving principle is “Lead the People, Manage the Process.” So, in keeping with our principle, we like to evaluate talent based on what we can learn about their ability to develop and/or execute processes, and their ability to fit in and enhance our culture. With this as our backdrop, here is the case study.
A client had already started the process of hiring a new regional sales leader when I was plugged in. They had a candidate already in the process and were moving forward rapidly with the hiring process. This person presented an exceptional resume regarding experience and exposure in the industry the client served. If you had a checklist for requirements, she hit all of them solidly: length of experience, education, industry service, product knowledge, etc. If you have not yet hired someone who had a great resume but who was a horrible fit, congratulations! Most of us have, so we needed to figure out part 2 of the hiring process. How does she fit into the client’s culture?
Because this client was pretty advanced, they had identified a sales “assessment” test online to see if they should hire this candidate. The candidate passed the initial phone screen, the resume looked great, passed the assessment and the only thing left was to perform the face-to-face interviews with her. The original plan was for them to come in and have 4 individual interviews with the VP of sales, the CEO, the CFO and the HR leader. From there, they would make their decision.
One more caveat that is relevant to the conversation. They had hired and lost 3 other sales people in this particular geography over the previous 5-years. They were, rightfully so, very concerned about hiring the wrong person again, and having the customers in that area see another new face, another new pitch, and then nothing. This was a very important hire for the client, and we needed to get it right.
It turned out that I was going to be on-site for my engagement at the same time they were conducting the interview. I was excited to be a part of it when they asked me if I minded helping them. When they told me that this person had “passed” the sales assessment, I asked them not to tell me what her score was until after the interview.
I wanted to mix things up a bit for the interview process. Rather than having several individual interviews, I wanted to have a panel interview at the same time and use a standard set of questions. I convinced them to agree to my approach, and we created it in the following way:
1. I provided a large list of behavior-based questions and asked the client’s interview team to select the questions that they liked most for the interview.
2. We built the interview panel based on the same group as above (CEO, CFO, HR and VP of Sales) and I added another salesperson who could participate as a peer.
3. We went over the flow of the interview with the candidate and then performed the panel interview.
The candidate was a bit nervous and maybe a bit overwhelmed, but that was also part of the plan. Sales more than any other position needs to be able to adapt and overcome stressful situations, so while we aren’t trying to make anyone uncomfortable, we are trying to see how they perform in a “real-life” situation.
After the interview was over, we gave the candidate a cup of coffee and asked her if we could debrief and we would be right back with her. The people who were on the panel went around the table and talked about what they saw with the candidate and how well (or how poorly) she had answered the questions and we gave her a score.
At the end of it, we rated her on the very simple scale:
Should we hire this candidate, 1-10? Where 1 is definitely not, and 10 is hell yes!
We then averaged those answers and our score was an 8.4 out of 10.
After a very short deliberation we agreed that she was definitely a YES!
As we were wrapping up the process, I asked the VP of sales what the assessment said about how she had answered the questions for a sales leader. He looked into his folder and started laughing. The rest of us were confused and asked him why he was laughing. He said the assessment score was an 83% good fit (compared to our 8.4 or 84% fit).
So while the data isn’t always perfect, you are able to move towards data that you can measure, instead of just opinions and emotions. In this case, the client was amazed at how closely our unscientific method had mirrored the very scientific (and expensive) assessment. I’m a fan of using assessment tools and if you have one, please continue using it. However, I’m also a fan of the panel interview, especially in cases of VIP (very important positions).
Additionally, because the leadership team made this hiring decision, they are more committed to the candidate’s success or failure. There is more ownership of the person’s success and well-being, and to a lesser degree, it also facilitates that the whole team knows the new team member.
I’m happy to report over a year later, that the sales person we hired is now number 2 out of 6 sales people at the company. She came on board and proceeded to start kicking butt and taking names! I’m very proud of this process and I hope that it helps you.
If you have a problem where you aren’t sure how to get to the data, or aren’t sure how to develop a process, please reach out. We would love to help you be more effective.
