1Effective Hiring and Selection

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT and significant responsibilities and opportunities that comes along with leadership lies in hiring the right people for the jobs in your company. Think about it: whether you’re an executive vice president or a first-time supervisor, your individual performance is a direct reflection of your team’s productivity. Hire the right people who are self-motivated, have a high level of self-awareness, and who hold themselves accountable for bottom-line results, and your career sails happily along while building and growing the careers of those following in your footsteps. Conversely, hire the wrong people, and you’ll end up spending considerable time counseling and disciplining workers who struggle just to meet minimum expectations. Often, you will be forced to do the work yourself—at the expense of your family time, your social life, and your sleep.

Self-motivated new hires find new ways of handling the work flow, assume broader responsibilities beyond their basic job description, and do their best work every day—with little need for your intervention. And you recognize these workers when you see them; they typically stand out from their peers in terms of their willingness to assume additional responsibilities, take creative approaches to their work based on their natural, healthy sense of curiosity, and they appreciate the opportunity you’ve given them and they behave with gratitude. If you can find these kinds of hires for every job opening, you’ll be well ahead of your peers and develop a reputation as a team builder and people developer.

Unfortunately, many leaders in corporate America have become jaded over the course of their careers. They reason that finding exceptional hires is more a matter of chance than planned strategy, and they’re so busy doing their day-to-day work that they often don’t pay enough attention to the open positions they’re responsible for filling. Then again, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of downward spiraling because if you don’t take the time to fill the open positions on your team, then you and the rest of your group become overburdened making up for the talent shortage and often plunge into a tailspin that will soon lead to burnout.

So let’s make a decision at the beginning of this book to change all that. I’ll commit to you that there’s a way to partner with your in-house or external recruiter in such a way that making outstanding hires can become the consistent norm—rather than the occasional exception—in terms of the fresh talent that you bring aboard. On the flip side, you’ll need to commit to making effective interviewing and hiring your top priority from this point forward in your career. My part of the bargain as the author of this book is actually easier than you think; a few tweaks to your interview questioning techniques and reference checking activities will go a long way in helping you land motivated and engaged new hires who are looking to make their mark in your organization as top-notch performers. Your part of the bargain is a bit more complex; focusing on effective hiring remains challenging when you’ve got so many other responsibilities that demand your immediate attention.

Our goal, then, in this chapter, is to change your perspective on the hiring and selection process. To achieve this, you’ll need to make a leap of faith with me on two critical fronts: First, with the chapter tools in hand that you’re about to access, you must believe that you can catapult your candidate evaluation skills to new heights and become a magnet for top-notch talent. Second, no matter what exigencies lie before you at any given time, you have to commit to filling openings on your team as your top-most priority under all circumstances. To do anything less isn’t fair to you or the other members of your team. In short, you’re only as good as the people you hire. Let’s venture together now and determine what new approaches and tools for recruitment and hiring are available to you as you address this critical leadership responsibility head on.

Establishing Your Brand: Social Network Outreach, Recruitment Brochures, and Adding New Life to Your Recruitment Advertising Campaigns

Up to the early 1990s, the business world ran ads in newspapers to attract candidates. Recruitment ads were short and almost cryptic because newspapers charged by the word. In large-city newspapers, you could easily end up paying $800 to $1,000 for an ad that barely stretched the length of your thumb, so needless to say, there was very little fluff about the company or its culture and vision, and the entire message was dedicated to the job’s critical requirements. Around the year 2000, Monster and other online job boards were established, providing much more room for the hiring organization to be creative and express its true spirit. Job applicants uploaded their résumés online, and both internal recruiters and headhunters had volumes of résumés to choose from at the click of a button.

Flash forward to today’s job market, and LinkedIn and other social media sites have clearly overtaken the larger online job boards in capturing talent. Researchers will tell you that employers and recruiters today are looking to the “Big 5” social media locations to source top talent:

Websites Where Employers Are Searching for New Talent

Website or Type of Site	Percent of Employers Using the Website
LinkedIn	94
Facebook	65
Twitter	55
Blogs	20
You Tube	15

Source: Jobvite Social Recruitment Survey, 2013.

In similar fashion, job candidates are defining their résumés by searchable key words, creating a comprehensive social media presence, and identifying which social media platforms are optimal for their target audience.

Where does this massive change in such a short time leave you? You guessed it: investing in and beefing up your online presence to compete and attract the best and brightest talent that your industry and local job market have to offer. It’s nothing less than critical that your company—large or small, public or private, international or domestic, union or nonunion—invest heavily in creating and developing your online brand across multiple platforms such as the Big 5 listed above. Ask yourself:

What are you doing to create visibility and credibility to attract highly qualified applicants?

Would someone looking at the career page on your website, your company’s LinkedIn or Facebook pages, or your You Tube presence be over- or underwhelmed by your message? Likewise, when was the last time you made a significant change to your online presence?

Are you engaging in best practices in terms of maintaining your online persona, and are you aware of the ROI (return on investment) of social media in terms of your recruitment brand?

If you are unsure of the answer to any of these questions, you’re probably missing out on one of the most fascinating and creative times in recruitment history! Enlist the services of an external consultant for a short-term project to spruce up your online profile and tell your organization’s story. Understand that applicants will access your company’s website on Google first and foremost, but LinkedIn, Facebook, Glassdoor, and similar sites will also be accessed. The Internet has made so much possible in terms of company intelligence gathering that it would be very shortsighted of an organization to fail to establish a compelling presence on the Internet that describes its company’s vision, values, and achievements. Be sure you make your Internet presence especially friendly to mobile devices, where so much initial access and research take place.

Next, create a recruitment/marketing brochure that can be downloaded from your website’s career page or otherwise emailed to candidates once they’re selected for interview. (Your applicant tracking system should be able to automatically email a brochure once an individual’s résumé is moved to the interviewing bin.) Your marketing and communications department or a recent new hire who just graduated from college and has solid writing or graphic arts skills can create a recruitment brochure. Sections of a typical recruitment brochure might include:

A brief company history (year founded, founder’s mission and vision, annual revenue, number of employees, stock market ticker symbol, locations, corporate governance structure, customers served, market niche, and the like).

The hiring process, including the fact that your organization conducts background checks and drug screens as well as reference checks before someone can begin working. You can also use this as an opportunity to clarify in writing that you generally expect new hires to provide you with copies of recent performance evaluations to demonstrate their strengths and areas for self-development.

Starting salaries and performance reviews: Clarify that merit increases occur either on employee anniversary dates or on specific dates for the whole company (e.g., the second payroll period in January) and that first-year merit increases are typically prorated based on the number of months served up to that point. Likewise, address whether new-hire evaluations include salary increases or are used strictly to provide initial feedback after 60 or 90 days.

Benefits: Take this opportunity to sell the value of your company’s benefits programs! Benefits and paid-time-off privileges are typically worth 30 to 40 percent of a full-time employee’s base salary at many organizations, so be sure to highlight the value of your programs that will attract new talent. Defined-benefit pension plans are rare these days, but if your company offers one, be sure to explain how it works and how employees will benefit. Do the same for tuition reimbursement, wellness programs, generous paid-time-off (PTO) policies, and the like.

Miscellaneous information that employees normally might not learn about unless they ask: parking options and costs, mandatory versus voluntary union membership, employee services (e.g., gymnasium, on-site childcare, movie discounts, and ride-share public transportation subsidies). Casual dress days on Friday can serve as a positive inducement for strong candidates choosing among multiple offers.

Likewise, consider creating and posting a video in your company website’s career page or on You Tube that introduces prospective candidates to your current employees. Companies are even creating online avatars so that prospective employees can walk through the online hiring experience and learn first hand what it’s like to work for you. The various ways and means of developing your online presence and your website career page go beyond the scope of this book because Internet technology changes so quickly, but the point is simple: The recruitment process has become highly automated and digitized, and your investment in developing a best-in-class online experience will pay considerable dividends.

Similarly, consider drafting a freestanding document titled “What to Expect When You First Come to Work for Us” if you’re hiring large volumes of entry-level employees who may not have prior industry experience. Such expectations flyers can serve as a one-sheet handout for applicants who want a clearer understanding of the job they’re applying for, and, better yet, they can be used as a tool during the interviewing process to discuss the challenges of the position. A typical expectations flyer might include:

•The particular challenges of customer service in your organization

•Work schedule demands, including weekend work, shift structure, and last-minute overtime

•The physical demands of the job, especially if they include anything out of the ordinary (like standing for eight hours or spending excessive amounts of time in a warehouse freezer)

•An emphasis on internal audits and compliance

•Excessive travel demands, on-call requirements, and the like

The point is not to let these workplace requirements surprise the new hires in their first few weeks on the job. Such transparency will not only be appreciated but will likely cut down on employee turnover in the first ninety days.

Finally, when adding new life to your recruitment advertising campaigns, remember two basic rules: First, candidates are generally more attracted to the organization than to the job, so sell your company aggressively. Outline what makes your organization stand out from the competition, what you value, what achievements you’re proudest of, and where your vision and priorities lie. Second, don’t underestimate the value of career websites that invite worker feedback regarding working conditions, pay, benefits, and opportunities for growth. Glassdoor (www.Glassdoor.com), CareerLeak (www.CareerLeak.com), PayScale (www.Payscale.com), and other websites invite employee feedback. And while there’s no way to validate salary information that’s volunteered, for example, the overall tone of the feedback that workers share online is exceptionally important for your branding. Therefore, whenever someone is promoted internally or receives some form of an award or formal recognition, consider encouraging them to log onto a site like Glassdoor to share their experiences. Building that shadow presence may take some time but could pay off handsomely over the long run.

Becoming an Employer of Choice: An Investment Worth Considering

“Employer of choice” has become a bit of a buzzword in many organizational lexicons. What exactly does that mean? It means that you value competitive pay, promotion from within, ongoing learning, corporate social responsibility, and work–life balance. But the formal “employer of choice” programs that I’m recommending here come from a source outside your company; magazines like Forbes, Fortune, and Inc. have made a big business of identifying companies that stand out among their competitors in some way, and it may be worth your investment to dedicate resources to becoming a member of these elite listings.

Why? Simply put, the high brand name recognition that your company garners in being identified on these honor roles can serve as a significant swing factor in helping to convince prospective new hires to join your organization rather than go elsewhere. In addition, think of the tremendous value you get from being identified as a leader within your industry. Unions typically won’t bother attempting to organize a company that’s ranked and recognized at the top of its pier group. It’s too much of an uphill battle, and it’s much easier for unions to pursue lower-hanging fruit where they know that workers may be disgruntled and frustrated.

Let’s look at an example: If you’re part of a large multinational company, then the Fortune Data Store (www.FortuneDatsStore.com) alone offers these prestigious lists that your organization can belong to:

Fortune 500

Fortune 1000

Fortune Global 500

100 Best Companies to Work For

But what if you’re not that large? The good news is that the proliferation of these types of company recognition programs is staggering, and it might be easier than you think to pursue a ranking that helps you stand out among your competition. For example, review the following listings and see if any of them strike you as a designation you might want to pursue:

•America’s Fastest-Growing Companies

Fortune: “Fastest-Growing Companies in the Fortune 1000 by Revenue”

http://money.cnn.com/gallery/news/companies/2013/05/06/500-fastest-growing-revenue.fortune/index.html

Fortune’s Fastest-Growing Companies

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fastest-growing/2012/full_list/index.html

Inc.: “Inc. 5000—America’s Fastest-Growing Companies”

http://www.inc.com/inc5000

Fortune’s 100 Fastest-Growing Companies

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fastest-growing/index.html?iid=bc_sp_toprr

•Global and Internationally Based Organizations

Fortune: “Global 500”

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2012/snapshots/6388.html?iid=bc_sp_toprr

Forbes: “The International 500”

http://www.forbes.com/2003/07/07/internationaland.html

Bloomberg Businessweek: “Top 100 Global Brands Scoreboard”

http://www.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/top_brands.html

Bloomberg Businessweek: “The Global 1000”

http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2004-07-25/the-global-1000

•America’s Most Respected Companies

Forbes: “America’s Most Promising Companies”

http://www.forbes.com/most-promising-companies/

Fortune: “World’s Most Admired Companies”

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/most-admired/

Forbes: “America’s Best Small Companies”

http://www.forbes.com/best-small-companies/list/

•Best Companies to Work For

Fortune: “100 Best Companies to Work For”

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/?iid=F500_sp_toprr

AARP: “Best Employers for Workers Over 50”

http://www.aarp.org/work/on-the-job/info-06-2013/aarp-best-employers-winners-2013.html

Working Mother: “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers”

http://www.workingmother.com/best-companies/2012-working-mother-100-best-companies

Working Mother: “Best Companies for Hourly Workers”

http://www.workingmother.com/best-company-list/138503

Working Mother: “Best Companies for Multicultural Women”

http://www.workingmother.com/best-company-list/140533

Glassdoor.com: “Best Places to Work”

http://www.glassdoor.com/Best-Places-to-Work-LST_KQ0,19.htm

•Specialty Designations

Forbes: “The World’s Most Innovative Companies”

http://www.forbes.com/innovative-companies/list/

Fast Company: “The World’s Most Innovative Companies”

http://www.fastcompany.com/section/most-innovative-companies-2013

CNNMoney: “25 Top Companies for Leaders”

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/news/companies/1111/gallery.top_companies_leaders.fortune/

Fortune: “Inner City 100”

http://www.money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/innercity100/

Flexible Fortune 500 Jobs—Best Companies List

http://www.flexjobs.com/company-guide/fortune-500

The Daily Beast: “The World’s Greenest Companies”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/features/2012/newsweek-green-rankings.html

Inc.com: “The Green 50”

http://www.inc.com/green/

Business Insider: “The 25 Best Companies to Work For If You Want to Get Promoted Quickly”

http://www.businessinsider.com/best-companies-for-advancing-your-career-2012-9?op=1

Forbes: “The World’s Most Ethical Companies”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/03/06/the-worlds-most-ethical-companies-in-2013/

This list is by no means exhaustive. But could it be worth the effort to have an employee look into pursuing designations as the most ethical, the greenest, the most flexible, or the best type of company for working moms or hourly employees? How about pursuing a designation as one of the most promising and admired corporations? What about being one of the best-inner city employers or one of the best companies that focus on workers over 50? As you can see, these corporate recognition publications have become a big business.

Just think of the kudos you would garner and the pride your employees might feel in being part of an organization that’s formally recognized for these types of attributes. Now that’s something to write home about, and to add to the top of your LinkedIn page and résumé if you’re fortunate enough to be a member of a prestigious organization like that. Nothing will add more spark and pep to your company’s self-image and your recruitment-advertising platform than garnering these types of credentials, and they’re mostly free (except for a nominal application fee). This may be one of the easier “low-hanging fruits” that mark a major achievement for your organization in the upcoming year.

Direct Sourcing: Alternatives and Options for Proactive Candidate Outreach

While professional networking tools like LinkedIn allow employers to proactively identify and source “passive” candidates (i.e., those not necessarily in job search mode at the time of contact), there’s a lot to be said about the advantages of approaching potential job candidates by phone rather than electronically. Initiating a limited networking campaign to spread the word about job openings in your organization and occasionally generating interviews from “outreach” telephone calls used to be the exclusive domain of headhunters, but you can be empowered as well to become a “shoulder tapper” to potential talent.

The advantages are that you’ll access a potential pool of talented workers who may not be looking for a new job but may be open to hearing about new opportunities, you’ll reduce your hiring costs if your outreach efforts succeed, and you’ll gain an opportunity to network with individuals at competitor firms. Furthermore, you’ll generate a sense of self-sufficiency as you develop the skills necessary to proactively reach out to and develop talent that ultimately helps you build your business team and shift the competitive advantage in your favor.

But there also may be disadvantages to this strategy. Many companies opt not to directly “source” candidates from competitor or peer firms for reasons of propriety. After all, if you’re perceived as “stealing” from the competition, the competition will feel free to steal from you. In addition, industry relationships could be compromised if old friends at competitor firms find out that your company is raiding theirs.

In general, therefore, it’s best to leave headhunting to headhunters. After having done executive search work myself, I can confidently state that there may be too many risks that employers run in terms of damaging industry relationships and being perceived as overly aggressive if they directly source candidates themselves. It’s not uncommon that companies will strictly forbid any form of direct sourcing from the competition. Still, on a limited outreach basis, it may make sense for line managers to carefully develop their own network of recruiting sources, so let’s discuss how you can pursue this option.

Let’s assume you’re a vice president of finance looking to fill a director of finance position in your department. You would typically post the job internally, run online ads, scour LinkedIn using a keyword search for qualified individuals in your industry or location, and possibly engage the services of a headhunter. Before engaging that headhunter, though, you might want to first try a limited telephone outreach to other organizations in your industry or geographical area. After all, headhunters’ fees typically approximate one-third of a new hire’s base salary (or total cash compensation), so engaging a headhunter is expensive.

Your first step would be to make a list of companies that compete directly with yours. For example, if your organization is a plastics manufacturer with 200 employees and $50 million in revenue, you’d identify other plastics manufacturers of similar size in your geographic area. Let’s assume there are ten companies in your city. You’d then contact those companies and ask the person answering the phone for the name of either the manager, director, or the vice president of finance.

At this juncture you’ll have to decide if you want to directly recruit the candidate (manager or director) or instead network with the individual one or two tiers above the targeted candidate (vice president). You’ll then ask to be connected to that individual. The receptionist, acting as a “screener” or “gatekeeper,” will ask about the purpose of your call. Simply state that you work for XYZ Company, a competitor organization, and you’ve got a networking question for the manager, director, or vice president of finance. That should get your call through. Feel free to leave your name and telephone number if the individual isn’t available at the time of your call. (Just be sure to write the person’s name down so that when your call is returned, you’ll remember where you left off!)

Let’s look at how these calls would differ. First, let’s call the vice president from an indirect networking standpoint. When the vice president picks up the phone, introduce yourself and your company, and state the purpose of your call:

Judy, I’m the vice president of finance at XYZ Company, and we’re not far from you in Tarrytown, New York. I’m calling you because we haven’t had a chance to meet before, and I could really use your help. Is this a good time to talk?

[It is.]

Great! We’re a plastics manufacturer headquartered in Germany, and we’re privately held. We’ve got about 200 employees and $50 million in revenue, and we specialize in manufacturing plastics primarily for the automotive parts industry. Our director of finance is leaving the company after three years because his wife has just gotten a great job offer in Phoenix, and we’re looking to fill that position. We need someone with a strong background in finance, especially budgeting and forecasting, and ideally an MBA or CPA. The base salary range is around $125,000 to $150,000, and the candidate would be bonus-eligible after the first year. The bonus target would probably fall in the 15 to 20 percent range. Is there anyone in your network who you could recommend, Judy, either because they’re in career transition right now or otherwise feeling “boxed in” in their current job? I’d be happy to return the favor in the future.

That’s a respectful telephone call, and it’s certainly to the point. Rarely will others be offended by such an open and communicative approach. The added benefit is that the call will help you build goodwill relations with others in your industry. Remember, by calling the vice president—one tier above the director-level candidate that you’re trying to recruit—there’s nothing intrusive or threatening about the phone call. It really is little more than a goodwill outreach. And don’t be surprised if this individual calls you in the future for a similar networking purpose. Who knows—you might even want to get together for lunch!

Although such networking calls are fairly simple to make, they’re typically not as effective as “direct sourcing” calls. In the latter case, you’d be calling the manager- or director-level candidates directly and asking about their interest in exploring opportunities with your company. Here’s how that type of call might sound:

Travis, I’m the vice president of finance at XYZ Company, and we’re not far from you in Tarrytown, New York. I’m calling you because we haven’t had a chance to meet before, and I could really use your help. Is this a good time to talk?

[It is.]

Great! We’re privately held and headquartered in Germany with about 200 employees and $50 million in revenue, and we specialize in manufacturing plastics primarily for the automotive parts industry. Our director of finance is leaving the company after three years because his wife has just gotten a great job offer in Phoenix, and we’re looking to fill that position. We need someone with a strong background in finance, especially budgeting and forecasting, and ideally an MBA or CPA.

I don’t know if my timing is right or if you’re currently looking to explore other career opportunities right now. However, as the manager of finance at Global Plastics, this might potentially be a good move in career progression for you. I guess my question to you is, Would you consider sitting down with our organization for an hour or so to see if we could build a career path or develop a compensation package for you that might be more progressive than your current situation?

And there you have it—a direct recruitment call to a targeted candidate that is nonthreatening and casual in tone. After all, it is somewhat enticing to spend an hour with a competitor to see if a stronger career path or compensation package could be at hand, isn’t it? Even the most satisfied employees might have their curiosity piqued enough to meet with you or at least want to hear more about the opportunity you’re offering.

A few final tips when it comes to direct sourcing phone calls: Don’t mention salary or bonus specifics during a direct sourcing call until you know the candidate’s current compensation package. If the candidate asks about pay, simply say, “Travis, I’ll tell you all the specifics in a moment, but if you wouldn’t mind, tell me about the current compensation package of the person that you have in mind. I don’t like shooting in the dark or answering these types of questions in a vacuum, and I may have some flexibility in the salary or bonus depending on the person’s background. Who do you have in mind?” Once you have the individual’s salary information, feel free to give the compensation specifics of your package or, if you need to go back to the drawing board for additional compensation, you can always call the candidate back at a later time.

Close the call by saying, “Please make me part of your network. If you have any openings and care to run them by me, I’d be happy to return the favor and refer you to the candidates who we weren’t able to hire for whatever reason. And if you ever feel like there might be a better time to explore other career opportunities in the future, just give me a call or email me your résumé. I’d be happy to help.”

Likewise, expect candidates to ask you how you got their name. There’s no mystery to these phone calls; they will only work if you’re open and honest about your approach to networking with competitors: “Travis, I can’t say that I knew your name before initiating the call. I’m aware of your company’s reputation, and I respect the work your organization does. I figured that a manager of finance at Global Plastics might be interested in a director-level job at our firm, so I simply called the company and asked who the finance manager was. They gave me your name and transferred the call. That’s how I got your name.” Or you could state that you looked up Global Plastics on the company’s website or on LinkedIn and got his name from there.

If you got the name from an individual at another company, be sure that the person is comfortable allowing you to use her name: “Travis, I got your name from Heather Hand at the Chamber of Commerce. She told me that you might consider possibly exploring other opportunities with new companies, and she thought that networking with you would make sense. She said if you weren’t interested yourself, you might be in a position to refer others who were either in career transition or otherwise feeling boxed in on their current jobs. Does that explain it?”

If five to ten outreach calls to competitor firms in your area generate one or two exploratory interviews, congratulations, you’ve done well! If your preliminary networking outreach is not successful, then be sure to tell the headhunter you later retain which organizations you’ve already contacted. This way, you’ll make the best use of the headhunter’s time and allow him or her to then generate the additional 100+ calls to indirect competitors that are often necessary to generate qualified candidates with industry-specific background or with functional line experience (as finance professionals in this case). That’s a smart way to maximize your relationship with a search firm and simultaneously develop a reputation as a progressive employer looking to find the best and brightest talent for your organization.

Effective Telephone Screening Calls: An Incredible Time Saver for Initial Contact

Hiring managers who use telephone screening for first rounds of interviews save themselves considerable time in that they bring in only those candidates who fit both the technical requirements of the role and the personality and business style of your corporate culture. Most managers will tell you that they screen out between 40 and 60 percent of candidates over the phone, which saves them tremendous amounts of time in terms of personal introductions, small talk, and formal interviewing.

Telephone screening calls should generally last ten to twenty minutes and cover the basics in terms of what candidates have done, what their key accomplishments look like, why they’re considering leaving their current company, and, very importantly, whether joining your organization can fill those needs. You’ll also want to include initial salary discussions at this initial stage, because there’s no point in scheduling an in-person interview with someone who’s earning $50,000 more than your position is paying unless salary expectations are discussed upfront and the pay cut is justified.

Telephone-screening interviews are never meant to replace full-fledged, in-person interviews. But by the time you’re ready to commit to an in-person interview, the initial screening and salary review discussions should have already taken place. An exception, of course, may be made for geographically remote candidates if you’re not yet sure, for whatever reason, that you want to go to the expense of flying them in for a formal round of interviews. But formal interviews should always be done in person, because there is considerable information you need that telephone interviews cannot provide, such as the candidate’s body language, energy level, ability to make eye contact, and so on. Also, a telephone call can rarely tell you is there is a personality match, so be sure to conduct the formal interviews in person whenever possible.

Your strategy for handling telephone interviews, similar to in-person meetings, is twofold: (1) employ the questioning matrix in Figure 1.1 to gather adequate information regarding a candidate’s suitability; (2) after you’ve completed your initial questioning, sell your company to the candidate. You’ll also want to garner information that isn’t readily available from a cursory résumé review: ask candidates to describe their company’s market niche or size as well as their own straight- and dotted-line reporting relationships. This way you have a contextual framework around which to evaluate the individual more fully.

There are three major segments of the candidate telephone screening: (1) company and job specifics, (2) the candidate’s success profile, and (3) your assessment of the candidate’s needs. All three are critical because any one area could raise the candidate’s appeal or knock him or her out of contention. Furthermore, the information you develop in advance will go a long way toward further preparing for the in-person meeting still to come. Therefore, simply make copies of the matrix in Figure 1.1 and attach it to the résumés (if available) of prospective telephone interviewees. Once you’ve completed a full round of telephone interviews and gained critical insights into the candidates’ success profiles and career needs, you’ll be better positioned to call back the finalists and arrange in-person meetings.

Figure 1.1.Telephone Screen Interviewing Guide

Telephone screen interviewing guide.
Candidate Name
Date
Position Title and Location:
I. Current or Last Company and Role
Progression indicator: “Walk me through your progression in your career leading me up to how you landed in your current role at your present company.”
Company demographics analysis (size in terms of revenue and number of employees; market niche; primary product markets; specialty areas)
Current salary and future salary expectations; distinguish base salary from bonus or overtime for total cash compensation (TCC)
Direct supervisors (numbers and titles, straight-line versus dotted-line reporting relationships)
Direct reports (numbers and titles) and candidate’s immediate org-chart structure
Budget under control
Technical systems (basic, intermediate, or advanced knowledge)
II. Success Profile
Greatest career accomplishment (in terms of increased revenues, decreased expenses, or saved time)
“What was the score on your most recent performance review? Do you feel it was justified as an accurate reflection of your work?”
Reason for leaving current company (qualify circumstances)
III. Self-Assessment of Candidate’s Needs
“What are the three criteria you’re using in selecting your next company or position?”
“What would the ideal opportunity look like in terms of the industry, company, and role you’re pursuing?”
Counteroffer prep: “What would be your next logical move in progression if you remained with your current employer? How long would it take for you to get there? What would have to change at your present company for you to continue working there?”
“Generally speaking, are you far along with any other organizations in terms of the interviewing process, and if so, do you have any specific time limitations?”

As I outlined in my book 96 Great Interview Questions to Ask Before You Hire (AMACOM Books, 2009), the candidates’ current level of responsibilities, technical knowledge, achievement profile, and company niche will help you quickly determine whether their experience matches your company’s way of doing business. Generally speaking, the closer the match between a candidate’s present employer (the company’s demographics and market specialty) and your firm’s operations, the better the chances of a successful hire.

Screening for salary history and salary expectations is probably the most significant part of the telephone interview. If candidates are unwilling to tell you about their current salary or future compensation expectations, it’s usually for one of two reasons: they think they’re underpaid currently and want to be evaluated based solely on their potential rather than on their current salary, or they’re concerned that they’re way above the market relative to what your position is likely paying and don’t want to be screened out for being overqualified.

In either case, gently inform candidates that you need to know their current (or most recent) salary package details so that you have an understanding of where they stand relative to the market. Explain that you’ve seen people who were reluctant to state their salary details for fear of being over- or underpaid relative to the job at hand, but you’ve got to know where they’ve been so you have an idea whether they’re in the ballpark or if you’ll need to get additional information about flexing your current compensation package before they come in for an interview. That’s only fair: You don’t want to spend time interviewing a $200,000 candidate for an $85,000 position and vice versa. Simply put: you’ve got to know where the salary anchor rests before inviting candidates into your office for in-person interviews.

Further, when you’re evaluating candidates over the phone, jot down their base salaries and total cash compensation (TCC) in the left margin of their résumé next to each position they’ve held. Expect to generally see salary progression, or positive earning increases, over time. However, in today’s competitive business environment and corporate America’s constantly shifting priorities, it is not uncommon for workers to retool and learn new trades as former skills lose market value. Salary cuts typically go hand in hand with such skill shifts.

That being said, salary regression (meaning that the candidate has made less money each time over the past three or so job changes) could be a warning sign that the individual is incapable of assuming, or unwilling to assume, greater responsibilities. That’s because salary and responsibility are inextricably linked. A candidate willing to accept less money often ends up accepting less responsibility, and that could definitely spell career burnout. Proceed with caution and keep questioning until you’re comfortable with the individual’s explanations for the negative earnings progression.

Section II, the Success Profile, and section III, the Self-Assessment of Candidate’s Needs, of the matrix are fairly self-explanatory. Pay special attention to the Counteroffer Preparation question in section III. It addresses upfront the possibility that candidates will be enticed to stay with their current company once they return to give notice. If the candidates are currently employed, it’s worth an initial query regarding the likelihood of their being propositioned to stay put. Likewise, you’ll want to find out now if the candidates are deep into interview rounds with any other organizations. If so, the timing may not be on your side to bring them in at the present time. Again, it’s better to ask now than be surprised later.

And there you have it: a one-page questionnaire with some of the most critical questions you’ll want to have answered before someone walks in the door and takes up two hours of your time. The fifteen-or twenty-minute upfront investment that you make could save you hours of time on the back end because—let’s face it—once someone is in your building, it’s much tougher to cut the meeting short without embarrassing moments of discomfort. While these questions can be amended to fit the type of hire you’re making—hourly versus professional, for example—this structure for conducting prescreening telephone interviews will go a long way in helping you work smarter by ratcheting up your efficiency and honing your candidate selection skills.

Identifying Candidates Who Stand Out Among Their Peers: Criteria to Help You Define the Best and Brightest Talent

Before we begin our discussions regarding high-yield interviewing questions that will help identify the best candidates, it’s important that we define the key criteria that we’re looking for in general when evaluating résumés and selecting finalists to come in to interview. Giving thought to the top three or four criteria you value in candidate selection in general is a critical step before journeying down the interviewing rabbit hole, so allow me to share the four key attributes that I look for:

1. Longevity

2. Progression through the ranks

3. Technical skills and education

4. Personality match/X-factor/personal chemistry

These are my recommendations; feel free to choose your own. But before you delve into isolating the core competencies for a particular position and generating behavior-based questions that highlight those competencies, you’ve got to develop your “philosophical four” values that drive your recruitment and selection efforts. Once you’ve done that, you’ve then got to determine which interview questions help you determine if a particular candidate meets those criteria.

The following subsections explain why the above four characteristics are so important to me in selecting new hires to join my team, and suggest a few interview questions that will help you determine if a particular candidate meets your criteria.

Longevity

Longevity represents the potential return on investment (ROI) that you can expect to get from a new hire relative to your involvement in that individual’s onboarding and training. In many cases, candidates’ résumés display a rhythm or cadence in terms of how long they remain with companies (barring exceptional circumstances that are outside a candidate’s control, such as layoffs). When evaluating a résumé and interviewing candidates either over the phone or in person, therefore, focus on their reasons for leaving prior positions to gain a better understanding of what circumstances drive them to leave certain companies and join new ones. The reason for leaving serves as the link in career progression that defines an individual’s values and career management strategies. And the most important reason for leaving is the current one: Why is the individual considering leaving his or her current company, and can your organization fill the need that the candidate is trying to achieve?

When evaluating reasons for leaving on an employment application or during an interview, distinguish between reasons for leaving that are within a candidate’s control and those that are beyond a candidate’s control. The aftermath of the Great Recession of 2008 has resulted in waves of layoffs that derailed many otherwise successful careers. Qualifying the layoff therefore is important to understand the nature of what occurred and how many people it impacted. In comparison, when candidates are orchestrating their own job changes, they often cite “No room for growth” as the number one reason why they left or are leaving a company to pursue greener pastures. Therefore, it’s important that you’re prepared to discuss both scenarios. Mapped out, your questioning strategy might look like this:

Layoff/Position Elimination due to Restructuring	Orchestrating Your Own Moves/Leaving a Company of Your Own Accord
“How many employees were laid off simultaneously?”	“What does ‘growth’ mean to you?”
“How many people survived the cut and why? What selection criteria did the company use in selecting positions and people for layoff?”	“What would your next logical move in career progression be at your current (past) company if you chose to stay there?”
“How many waves of layoffs did you survive before you were let go yourself?”	“How long would it take before your next promotion theoretically became possible?”

On the layoff side of the equation, always distinguish between group layoffs and individual layoffs. Group layoffs can impact hundreds or even thousands of people, so that’s clearly a no-harm, no-foul type of reason for leaving a company. But if employees appear to be individually selected for layoff, that could be a red flag: companies may be opting to lay off specific individuals and offer a severance package as an alternative to pursuing progressive discipline and structuring a termination for cause. Likewise, if a candidate can explain objectively how the layoff selection criteria were applied without sounding bitter or resentful, those objective career introspection skills may demonstrate a high level of emotional intelligence. Finally, if someone survived multiple rounds of layoffs and was the last to leave and asked to “shut the lights off” on the last day, that could speak to a high level of trust and loyalty that the organization placed in him or her and weigh very favorably in that person’s candidacy.

When candidates orchestrate their own moves and point to the most common response, “No room for growth,” challenge their interpretation of what growth means to them. For some, it may mean promotion to higher levels of responsibility, and for others it may mean a lateral assumption of increased responsibilities (for example, an overseas rotation or exposure to other parts of the business). Still others view growth potential strictly in terms of salary increases and believe they’re not paid their market worth. Candidates who expect your company (or any employer) to make up for their failure or inability to maintain market pay parity are making a mistake. It’s not your organization’s job to help restore candidates to their perceived level of market worth. So be wary of candidates expecting salary increases in excess of 20 percent.

The key question always when addressing “no room for growth” and career growth expectations is, “What would be your next logical move in progression if you remained with your current company, and how long would you expect it to take before your next promotion became available?” If the candidate responds, “Well, my company is in downsizing mode, and my current supervisor has been in her role for twenty years, so I don’t see much upward progression opportunity,” then pursuing a promotional opportunity with your company would make total sense. But beware of a candidate who responds, “I’d guess I could expect to be promoted in the next six to twelve months.” If that’s the case, why are they here interviewing with you?

Such a red-flag response typically indicates that there’s something else going on that candidates aren’t mentioning; maybe they’re fishing for a counteroffer at their current company and looking for a bona fide offer from a third party employer to use as leverage back at the office. Maybe while they technically could be promoted within six to twelve months, they’re now on the outs with their boss and feeling politically isolated. Whatever the case, there’s more to their reason for leaving than meets the eye, so explain your concerns and ask them what’s really going on: “When candidates tell me they expect to be promoted in six months but they’re interviewing here at our company, my antennae go up. There’s clearly something else going on: otherwise, they’d be staying put, patiently awaiting their promotion at work. Can you give me a bit more insight into the story behind the story so I have a better understanding of what’s primarily driving your decision to interview here or elsewhere?” Ah, nothing like injecting truth and honesty into an employment relationship—especially at the very beginning. Your transparency will go a long way in setting expectations and creating a healthy foundation for your potential working relationship.

Progression Through the Ranks

To identify and highlight candidates’ penchant for promoting through the ranks, our second criterion, ask: “Walk me through your progression in your career, leading me up to how you landed in your current company and role.” This question cuts right to the chase. It helps candidates frame their entire résumé, demonstrating where they began and how they got to their present company and level of responsibility.

The question could also be phrased this way: “Walk me through your progression in your current company, leading me up to what you do now in your current role.” This wording provides candidates with an open invitation to explain where they began, how their roles have changed over time, and what led to specific promotional opportunities (e.g., did they apply internally or were they tapped by senior management to assume a certain position or level of responsibility). It’s a great question for lending context to candidates’ responses and gauging their ability to summarize large blocks of information succinctly and accurately.

What if a candidate began in his or her current role of controller eight years ago and is still in that role (i.e., there has been no vertical progression)? Of course, that’s absolutely fine in terms of the candidate’s credentials—who wouldn’t want someone with eight years of dedicated service to a particular role within the same company? But this question itself may imply that there should be some sort of upward progression, and candidates may be embarrassed or feel bad about not being able to answer it within that context. To allow for an easy out, simply add a follow-on question like this: “It’s great that you’ve been in your role for eight years. Let me ask you this: How has your role changed over the years, and how have you had to reinvent your job in light of your company’s changing needs?” That follow-up question goes a long way in allowing the candidate to respond in a different way and explain the many challenges faced over that period of time and how the candidate adapted to them.

Technical Skills and Education

Technical skills and education provide a foundation that helps justify hiring one candidate over another. After all, if candidates have the right software or equipment skills, medical licensure, educational certification, and the like, they certainly qualify on paper as finalists for the position. But like all things in life, having the paper certificate or the background experience alone doesn’t tell you much about how well they perform in a particular area or how they approach their work on a day to day basis. Therefore, engage candidates by asking questions such as this: “On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being a perfect match for this position based on your current understanding, how would you rate yourself from a technical standpoint?” Expect a typical response of 8; most candidates won’t tell you they’re a 10 because they don’t want to come across as arrogant or as a know-it-all, but they probably won’t grade themselves below a 7 for fear that you’ll screen them out as underqualified.

Your follow-up question, then, would logically be, “Okay, tell me why you’re an 8, and what would make you a 10?” Asking the question this way allows candidates to highlight their skills gap and explain why accepting this position would help them learn new things and be motivated by the role. Additional follow-up questions might then be: “Where do you think you’ll need the most structure, direction, and feedback in your first ninety or 180 days?” and “Why would you consider accepting this position as a good move in progression from a career development standpoint?” Again, extend an offer to allow candidates to explain why they want to join your organization, what motivates them most, and why they see this opportunity as an excellent move overall within the context of their own career management planning. It’s a healthy opening exercise for any interview, and candidates generally appreciate your interviewing style because you’re helping them connect the dots in their own career development.

Personality Match/X-Factor/Personal Chemistry

My fourth criterion, personality match or personal chemistry, is often misleading. We all tend to hire in own image, but initial likability doesn’t necessarily equate with compatibility on the job. Since many managers tend to hire people they initially like and hit it off with, be careful not to make this your first criterion; make it your last. Only use this issue as a swing factor once you’ve delved into the first three objective criteria in a diagnostic and dispassionate manner. I’ll address “personality” and “personal style” further in Question 8. For now, though, understand that the glue that binds someone to a particular job or company is emotional in nature more than it is technical or cognitive, so this aspect of your interview questioning strategy will play a critical role toward the end of the in-person interview.

A Twist on Traditional Interviewing Questions: The “Career Coaching” Approach to Getting Inside Candidates’ Heads and Hearts

Many employers jump into an interview prematurely: “Tell me about yourself, Paul . . .” followed immediately by: “Give me an example of a time when you’ve . . .” And before they know it, they’re off and running into the formal question-and-answer paradigm that defines so many interviews in corporate America these days. Unfortunately, the relationship may not be quite ready for the formal Q&A structure right off the bat. There’s actually a more practical and wiser way of approaching candidates at the outset of each interview, and it has to do with focusing on candidates’ career needs and aspirations. Get them talking about themselves in light of their longer-term career planning goals, and you’ll have a much more meaningful initial exchange of information—even with someone whom you’re only meeting for an hour.

“Piercing the veil” of the candidate façade is both an art and a science. We should simplify the interviewing process so that the interview itself becomes an exercise of value rather than a game of wits, strategies, and defenses, that is, an exercise that provides gateway access into your organization. You’ll likely get much more from each interview meeting if you’re willing to ask questions that help candidates learn from the process, think about their own priorities and longer term career goals, and articulate why the position you’re offering may make sense for them in terms of building their careers.

Reinventing your interview questioning strategy to focus on the individual’s needs can be labeled as a “career coaching” approach to evaluating job applicants because it initially places their needs ahead of your own. As such, it serves as a roadmap for building immediate rapport and goodwill and for turning your current interviewing style, as sophisticated as it may be, into a more open and honest dialogue that focuses just as much on the candidate’s needs as on the needs of your company. After all, you’ve determined that most candidates meet the technical requirements of a position by the time they come in for a face-to-face interview. But what will help you distinguish the most suitable individual for your organization or department will ultimately be based on a personality match, immediate rapport, and a compatible business style that complement your organization’s corporate culture and unique personality.

Pick up where you left off during the telephone screen to learn more about the reason for leaving the person’s current organization. Repeat some of the questions you initially asked during the telephone screen, but dig deeper to refine your understanding of the individual’s motivation to change jobs and companies. For example, ask again: “What’s your primary reason for leaving your current company, and how would joining us satisfy that reason?” Likewise, you could ask, “What would joining our organization do for you in terms of building your résumé over the long term?” And then to really delve deeper, try this: “If you were to accept this position with us today, how would you explain that to a prospective employer five years from now? In other words, how would this job provide a link in your future career progression?”

For those employed candidates who may be considering a lateral move into your organization, be sure to ask, “What would have to change at your current organization for you to consider staying?” Similarly ask, “What would be your next move in career progression if you remained with your current company?” along with the follow-up question, “And how long would it take you to get there?” In essence, you’ll be asking candidates to articulate what’s driving the need to change companies, what’s important at this point in their career, and why your organization makes sense in terms of building their career and résumé. It’s very open and honest, and most candidates will appreciate your transparency—especially so early in the relationship.

Similarly, gain a deeper insight into some of the questions that you initially fleshed out during the telephone screen by picking up where you left off:

We touched on this during our telephone screening call, but tell me again about the three criteria that are most important to you in selecting your next company.

I know that industry, company, and the people you’d be working with are typically the three most important elements when selecting a new company where you’d like to work, but which of those three is the most significant to you at this point in time?

What are the top three companies (besides us) that you would pursue right now if you could, and what would the titles be for the positions you would plan on pursuing in those companies?

What jumped out at you when you researched us? What makes us stand out in your mind even at this early stage, and what do you picture the role you’re applying for looking like in an organization like ours?

Yes, this may be a lot of information before you’ve formally begun discussing the individual’s specific qualifications, but gaining candidates’ trust and benefiting from their initial impressions will help you steer the interview in a particular direction. Assuming candidates have similar work experience, their responses will probably be pretty close to reality. More importantly, though, you’ll be asking them to frame their responses within the context of the relationship you’re creating by asking them to share more about themselves before you launch into your own technical questions.

You’ll find that candidates may be a little thrown off by your self-assessment questions because they may never have been asked to articulate those considerations to a prospective employer in such detail before, but it will open the door to the bonding relationship you’re looking to develop. That’s because candidates will walk away thinking, “Wow, I’ve never interviewed with a company that took such a strong interest in me and my own career needs like that. They really forced me to think this move through, and if they put candidates’ needs first, they probably do that for their employees as well.” In short, forcing career introspection builds goodwill and trust early on.

Be prepared as well to offer candid career advice for the candidate’s benefit. Be willing to think out loud and share your opinions upfront, especially if you think the role might not ultimately be a good fit for the individual. Your comments might sound something like this:

Sam, I really like you, and I think you’ve got the perfect skill combination for this job, which has been so hard to find, believe me. You’ve been in a senior financial analyst role with your current company for the past five years, and you’ve got three years of senior staff accountant experience right behind it. Yes, you could certainly do this job. But it looks to me like your next step in progression should be to a manager level: your skills are in demand, you’ve got longevity, and it would make more sense to see a manager title on your résumé at this point. If I had a manager opening, you’d be my finalist candidate, no doubt. But you might have a hard time explaining to a future employer three to five years from now why you left XYZ Company for another senior analyst role at our firm. Do you see my concern for you?

I know that it would be tempting to hire Sam and let him worry about his own career progression. Truth be told, though, you want all the pieces to fit together both for the company and the candidate. If your position offers a learning curve, new skill sets, broader responsibilities, and more money, then everyone will be happy, and the hire will stick. If it only makes sense for your company, though, and you could see that the position may be to the longer-term detriment of the candidate, become the mentor and coach that you were meant to be and steer the candidate in the right direction.

You’ll not only have helped a junior member of the workforce gain new insights into how he should be looking at his own career; you’ll also have strengthened your reputation as a skillful and selfless leader and developer of people. In essence, you’ll have shifted the “employee development” paradigm to the preemployment stage. And maybe candidates deserve those few extra minutes of your time to benefit from your expertise. You may just find that a little short-term sacrifice and career coaching on your part will lead to greater stability in your staff and a lot of goodwill in your own career as you build strong teams from this selfless leadership orientation.

Achievement-Anchored and Holistic Questions: Cutting to the Chase

Once your warm-up questions have drawn the individual into your selfless interviewing and leadership style, it becomes time to launch into more structured types of queries. Many employers prefer asking questions in a behavioral format that aims to extract real-life examples of past performance in order to predict future behavior. That’s an excellent strategy, but I’d caution you not to use only behavior-based questions throughout your interview. A few well-placed questions that relate to the core competencies of the role you’re looking to fill make sense, but too many examples end up wearing the candidate down, and the tendency to make up answers may result.

Let’s say that one of the core competencies of the position you’re attempting to fill focuses on strong communication skills. A typical behavioral interview-questioning paradigm might sound like this:

Give me an example, Sam, of your communication skills. How do you typically communicate best, how do you confront problems head on, and how would your supervisor and subordinates rank your communication skills overall?

Okay, that’s three questions in one, but it certainly gives the candidate plenty to ponder. You can also observe how he approaches multifaceted questions like this and compartmentalizes the information to feed back to you.

The beauty of this questioning strategy allows you to go off script. Depending on the candidate’s initial response, you can then go deeper into the topic by picking up where Sam left off and asking for additional information about the individual’s response:

So you’re not afraid of confrontation and believe it makes more sense to address minor issues before they become major impediments. I’d agree with that. So tell me how you’d typically approach an employee who appears to be falling behind on his work. What about someone who appears to display a bad attitude when asked to take on additional responsibilities: how would you go about addressing that?

Likewise you can ask,

What is it about you that makes you more comfortable on stage leading an all-hands meeting rather than addressing someone one-on-one behind closed doors?

Clearly, the further you can get away from the structured Q&A response and personalize the conversation, the more you’ll get to know the real person. You’ll probably also pick up some gems via this interviewing strategy that you could later vet during a reference check with the candidate’s prior boss at another company.

It’s likewise important that you have a short list of key questions that focuses on the individual’s strengths, achievements, and areas for development. You can launch into a behavior-based format with these questions if the opportunity arises, but try the following questions to help differentiate stronger players who are more self-aware of their accomplishments and career goals from those who go about their careers less consciously or purposely than may be ideal for your tastes:

Overall, what would you say makes you stand out among your peers? I don’t mean to make you feel like you have to brag to answer this, but share with me what makes you unique or a rarity relative to your peers.

What have you done in either your current position or a former one that you consider a key accomplishment? Were you able to link your achievement to increased revenues, decreased expenses, or saved time?

Tell me about your last few annual performance reviews. What types of scores did you receive, and do you feel they were an accurate reflection of your performance at the time?

What would your most respected critic say about your areas for development? No one’s perfect and there’s no such thing as a perfect match for any particular job, but what are some of the real challenges you’re focusing on in your career right now where we’ll need to give you additional structure and support in order for you to excel in this role?

What are the broad responsibilities of a [job title]? Where do you tend to focus most in your role, and what aspects of your job do you consider less crucial?

These questions tend to cut to the chase in terms of identifying an individual’s level of self-confidence, job knowledge, and career focus. Does the candidate sit up and consider these questions to be challenging and an opportunity to be engaging in a healthy sense, or does the candidate sit back and shy away from engaging in these types of conversations? Not everyone you hire will need to be self-assured in his achievements and accomplishments or have a deep level of career introspection about his self-admitted shortcomings. But identifying candidates who demonstrate a heightened awareness of their strengths and weaknesses and who have given thought to quantifying their results will lead to stronger teams and higher performance.

Develop your own core achievement-anchored and holistic questions to help define who will excel on your team. Ask those questions consistently and be open to fine-tuning them over time. After all, interviewing is about a lot more than posing canned questions with little bearing on the candidate’s career history. Questions like these tend to cut to the chase because they’re meant to reflect your values about work. Using them effectively will help you differentiate candidates who excel from those who have a less accomplished track record of success and achievement.

Hiring in Our Own Image: Likability Equals Compatibility

Question 5 touched on the importance of hiring in our own image. We cautioned, however, that candidates’ initial likability doesn’t necessarily equate with compatibility on the job and that we have to be careful to make the likability factor the last, not the first, criterion in selecting candidates for final interview rounds. It’s time to pick up with that topic because the personality match and personal chemistry issues belong toward the end of the interview—after we’ve gone through the “career coaching” portion of the meeting and the achievement-anchored questions described above, and the behavioral and other questions that you typically ask.

The beauty of the questions that follow is that they can be used in two separate arenas: first, they open the door of communication and transparency with the job candidate; second, they can then be asked of former supervisors during the reference checking process. In other words, these stylistic questions lend themselves to initial candidate responses and then vetting by a third party once all rounds of interviews have been completed. Here are questions that lend themselves to this dual usage format:

What kind of structure and supervision would provide you with the most support from day one? Do you prefer a structured environment with clear guidelines and immediate feedback or more of an autonomous, independent, “hands off” type of working relationship with your boss?

In hiring [job title], we look for a solid balance between quality and quantity in candidates’ work. Still, most people lean more in one direction than another. Where do you typically fall on the quality–volume spectrum?

Tell me about your ability to accept constructive criticism. Can your feelings be hurt, and should I be cautious about delivering tougher news, or do you pride yourself on having a thicker skin?

As far as your natural and preferred pace of work, do you function better in (a) a moderate, controllable, and predictable environment; (b) a faster-paced atmosphere with deadline pressures and time constraints; or (c) a “hyperspace,” chaotic, “management by crisis” culture like the floor of the New York Stock Exchange?

How would you describe your day-to-day approach to working with others? I don’t like to use the word “attitude” because it’s open to so many different interpretations, but how would people describe your overall demeanor in the workplace? Will people know when you’re not having a good day and, if so, how can they tell?

How many hours a week do you find it necessary to work in order to get the job done? There’s no right or wrong answer here: I’m just looking for what your historical time commitment has been and what you’d like to see it look like going forward.

Has anyone ever critiqued your reliability or dependability? I’m not asking about absenteeism or tardiness so much, but rather I’m looking more to see how you’d grade yourself in terms of your overall reliability to be present and to accomplish your work projects on time and under budget. What are your thoughts?

What motivates you? Is there anything that typically “unwinds” you or bothers you that you’d like me to know about?

Of course these questions can be adopted for the type of role you’re hiring for. You’ll ask different types of questions for salespeople versus Ph.D. research scientists. For example, here are some alternative questions that you might want to ask of potential senior leader candidates:

Would you describe your management style as more autocratic and paternalistic or geared toward a more participative and consensus-building approach?

How do you approach taking action without getting prior approval? Is it your natural inclination to report to someone else for sign-off, or do you prefer to operate more with independent responsibility and authority? Can anyone ever accuse you of asking for forgiveness after the fact rather than asking for permission up front?

Looking back at your past performance over the last few years, how effective have you been at orchestrating a corporate ensemble of functional areas? What area or department got most focus, and which one suffered a bit from benign neglect?

How would you describe your ability to cope with the significant pressures associated with senior management?

Have you ever delayed the inevitable in terms of disciplining or dismissing employees? Would people describe your communication style as more aggressive or passive overall?

What’s important is that you give thought to what your questions and a candidate’s prospective responses might look like. Remember that most new-hire failures are not a result of a technical mismatch; early turnover typically results from a difference in core values about leadership, communication, and expectations regarding teamwork. In short, it’s the lack of compatible business styles that doom new hires. Find a way to inject those issues into your early discussions during the interview process, and then vet them during references. The chances of making a high-probability hire can skyrocket when you take such an honest and transparent approach to candidate evaluation and selection.

The Critical Importance of Reference Checks (and Scripts to Help You Maximize Each Call)

We all want to make “high-probability hires,” but with human beings, there are no guarantees. You can hire someone who comes from a direct competitor, knows your systems inside and out, has great references and top-notch test scores, and that individual could fall apart in his first ninety days with your organization despite your best efforts. Likewise, you could pull a stranger off the street with little experience in your field who could end up being your employee of the year. That’s what makes hiring and leadership so challenging and rewarding yet at times so frustrating.

Fear not: while you can’t guarantee absolute success each and every time, you can ensure a high level of relative consistency in making high-probability hires. Simply put, that means that hiring someone with similar experience, skill sets, and communication and personal styles will typically yield better results than pulling a stranger off the street and hoping for the best. But the key to this process doesn’t lie so much in interviewing and testing but rather in running your initial impressions by former supervisors at prior companies who can speak openly with you about the individual’s potential based on his historic track record.

Companies often overlook the importance of reference checking, especially with candidates who had earlier careers in other fields. Yet there’s nothing unlawful about checking references and, contrary to popular belief, former supervisors will speak with you if you set up the call in the right way. Just remember that hiring someone without checking references is like having a loose cannon on the deck of your ship: you’re basing your entire decision on how well the individual interviewed, but as we all know, too many new hires can go “Dr. Jekyll–Mr. Hide” soon after starting in a new job. Further, there are such things as professional plaintiffs and union salts whose sole motivation is to take unfair advantage of a company and cause total disruption by organizing from within. Consider references your safeguard for ensuring that past behavior is a significant indicator of future performance and overall success.

Still, many employers shy away from checking references from candidates’ prior employers under the mistaken belief that past employers won’t speak with them, or that it’s a waste of time because candidates only provide the names of people who will give favorable references, or that it’s illegal to check references.

Nothing could be further from the truth! Until you’ve vetted your impressions with prior supervisors who have managed the individual on a day-to-day basis, you won’t know what you’re getting or what the real person behind the “interviewing facade” is all about until you’re well into the relationship. And checking references is not illegal! People pick up the phone all the time and check with associates who work at a candidate’s former place of employment to find out if the individual is a good performer. They look for shared connections on LinkedIn and other social media to see if they have any connections in common who could shed some light on what it’s like working with the person.

To be on the safe side, have applicants sign a waiver that allows your company to investigate all information submitted on a job application, including the ability to conduct reference checks. Remember as well that it’s true that a candidate’s providing references could result in a lawsuit for invasion of privacy or defamation if the candidate believes he was denied employment because of false or misleading allegations.

Such claims are fairly rare, however, and are countered by a legal concept known as “negligent hiring.” Under the negligent hiring theory, an employer may be found to have acted negligently in selecting an applicant for employment if the hiring company, among other things, neglects to contact the applicant’s former employers to determine suitability. While negligent hiring claims typically result from acts of workplace violence, courts have generally held that companies may be liable for negligent hiring for certain acts of their employees that the employer should have known might occur. Further, even if the applicant’s former employer refuses to give you information, documenting that you attempted to check the applicant’s prior work history might fulfill your obligation to avoid or at least mitigate a negligent hiring claim.

The pro-and-con debates about references checks will undoubtedly continue and go well beyond the scope of this book. Remember, however, to keep notes demonstrating your attempts to pull information from prior companies regarding a job candidate’s performance and behavior on that job. Keep the reference checking notes in a separate folder from the candidate’s personnel file (should he ultimately be hired). Employees generally have access to their personnel files and shouldn’t ever see documented comments from past employers under any circumstances. Instead, your reference checking notes should be placed in and remain part of the job requisition folder that was used to hire the individual.

The critical part of effective reference checking lies in how you structure your call and set expectations, both with the candidate and the prior supervisors. It’s a lot easier than you think and yields outstanding results if you’ll follow these three simple steps:

1. Tell the candidate that you’re in the process of checking references on several finalists for the position in question. This builds a sense of competition into the process and will typically motivate candidates to work harder to set up the referencing checking phone calls with their prior bosses. Also, since candidates will believe that they are one of several finalists under consideration, they won’t be shocked if they don’t get your job offer after the reference check step has been completed.

What you don’t want to do is explain it this way: “Good news. You’ve completed all interviews and tested well, and now the only thing left to do is call your references.” Clearly, this could be a problem if you then don’t hire the candidate, as he’ll assume it’s because he got a bad reference from one of his prior supervisors. That could create unnecessary drama and potential legal exposure for both the referent and your organization in the form of a libel or slander accusation or a wrongful-failure-to-hire claim. That’s easily avoided by saying that reference checks are the final step in the process for all finalist candidates, this individual included.

2. Have the candidate do all the legwork in terms of “reference bridging” and setting up the calls. Prior employers likely won’t engage in a reference conversation with you if you’re making a cold call. After all, their company has probably told them that giving a reference violates company policy. Further, if they haven’t heard from the candidate in a few years and had no idea this call would be coming, then the standard response will typically be: “Sorry, all reference calls need to be referred to our HR department.”

However, you can say to the candidate,

Peter, our next step in the hiring process is to check references on our short-list of finalists. References are actually very important to us in the selection process, and I’d like to ask for your help. You listed four prior supervisors on your employment application, and I’d like to discuss them with you. I’d like to also ask you to reach out to them and ask them to vouch for you, so if you could call them and let them know that you’re a finalist with us and tell them how excited you are, then they’ll probably feel more comfortable speaking with us. In fact, your former bosses could either call me directly, or we could arrange a time for me to call them.

This approach shifts to the candidate the responsibility for tracking down the supervisors and setting up the calls, which is where it belongs. And if a candidate is excited about the new job possibility and asks a prior boss to speak with you, the chances are high that you’ll have a very insightful conversation. In addition, it’s generally safe to assume that former supervisors may be willing to speak with a prospective employer—even if it potentially could violate their company policy—if they like the person and want to help him land a job that he’s excited about.

3. When opening a conversation with a past supervisor, spread honey on the situation and say, rather than ask, how you’d like the individual’s help:

Laura, Sam said some excellent things about your leadership abilities in terms of providing him with clear structure and direction in his job, and I was hoping that you could share some insights into his ability to excel in our company.

[Sure.]

Our challenge here at XYZ Company is to find someone whose personality best matches the temperament of this role. The position that Sam’s applying for is very fast paced, it requires someone who enjoys working with the public and who can sometimes tame cranky customers, and it also requires an analytical eye because there’s so much detail in the follow-up compliance reports. Did he tell you anything about the job or express interest in it at the time he asked you to speak with me?

[Yes, he said he was very excited.]

Great! Then how does that sound as an overall fit in terms of his personality, his ability to work with the public, and his attention to detail?

[That sounds like a great match. It’s very similar to what he did here with us.]

I’m glad to hear that. Then allow me to ask you some specific questions about Sam and his ability to excel in this particular role.

Once you’ve set up the terms or context of your call this way, you can then begin asking specific questions about the candidate’s ability to excel in your environment—communicate effectively, accept constructive criticism, balance quality and quantity, for example, as well as areas for professional development, eligibility for rehire, and the like. With the proper setup and a handy list of insightful questions that match what you discussed during the interview, you’ll be well on your way to engaging prior supervisors in the preemployment selection process and developing an accurate understanding of what it’s like working with this individual side-by-side every day. In short, you’ll gain the advantage of developing a realistic glimpse of the real person whom you’re hiring—not just the candidate behind all the interviewing hype.

What if the prior supervisor won’t speak with you because of company policy? It depends. If one person won’t speak with you but two or three others will provide accurate and detailed feedback, then the one referent withholding information shouldn’t necessarily knock out the candidate as a finalist. In cases like that, ask the candidate to provide you with a copy of one or two performance evaluations from that company so that you could vet his strengths and weaknesses. That should suffice in terms of doing your good-faith due diligence and looking for similarities with the feedback you receive from the other references. If no performance reviews were given at that company or are otherwise attainable (for example, because the company is no longer in business), simply ask to speak with someone else in a leadership capacity from that company—a different supervisor from another team who’s aware of the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses or, depending on the level of the position, internal clients or subordinates who might be able to share insights into the candidate’s working style.

But if none of the references from the various companies where the candidate worked will speak with you, be very cautious about bringing this person on board! At best he’s a poor relationship builder and not someone that prior bosses would be willing to risk speaking about. At worst, the candidate could be a serial poor performer or a professional plaintiff. While you’ll not likely get that level of specific feedback from a referent, the lack of information from any of the former supervisors may be a sign that this person was a troubled and problematic performer or had significant conduct issues across multiple companies.

References don’t have to be an absolute knockout factor; that’s a value judgment that you’ll have to make for yourself. But making high-probability hires relies on in-person interviews, testing, background and credit checks, and, yes, reference checks to see if all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. They’re a clear indicator of character and relationship building abilities, which are critical for any new hire. After years of working as both a headhunter and a corporate recruiter, I came to learn that poor references or no available references were typically a highly reliable sign of some significant problem or flaw either in performance or conduct. Proceed with caution when no one is willing to speak with you.

Making the Offer and Closing the Deal: Don’t Flinch at the Finish Line

Hiring managers typically focus their interviews on questions that help them better understand the candidate: behavior-based questions, strength/weakness queries, discussions of long-term goals and desires, and the like. Although adding critical mass to the actual questioning process is essential, the most important part of the employment offer often gets overlooked: the finish-line negotiations. Questions are critically important there too!

Too many managers mistakenly assume that candidates will accept offers once they’re extended. Hiring managers consequently extend offers without qualifying whether candidates are in “acceptance mode” or have otherwise had all their questions answered and needs met. It’s important to remember, therefore, that the timing must go both ways: you’ll want to ensure the likelihood that a candidate will say yes within the same timeframe that you’re ready to extend an offer. To do otherwise would be to assume that the fish will simply jump into your boat once you’re tired of all the reeling that goes into landing a big catch. What any good fisherman will tell you, though, is that the most important part of the whole process is hours after the initial connection—when the trophy fish is just a few feet under your boat and within reaching distance. One false move and the line snaps, and all your hard work floats quietly away.

Once you extend an offer to a candidate, the balance of power is shifted. Up until that moment, you’re in control: you’re the employer and you’ve got the job to give (no matter how tight a market or how qualified a candidate). However, once you say, “Janet, we’d love to have you join our team. You’ve got the job—congratulations! So let’s talk salary and your availability to begin,” you’ll be on the candidate’s terms. Beware!

You’ll know you’ll have fallen victim to a troubled negotiation when you’ve extended an open invitation to join the company and then candidates share new information at the finish line: “I’m so happy to hear that. I’ve got some updates that I wanted to share with you. First, I recently learned I was in line for a promotion if I stay with my current company. I believe that probably should have some bearing on my starting salary. Also, if I accept your position, I’d really like to give my current employer six to eight weeks’ notice since it’s such a busy time of the year for the company, and the team will need my help in reorganizing my department before I leave. And did I mention to you that I had a three-week trip to Aruba planned for two months from now?” Because candidates can throw you similar last-minute curve balls, you should be wary of extending offers and giving away your negotiation power prematurely—that is, until you have all the answers to your questions regarding the candidate’s readiness to move ahead.

So how do you keep control of the negotiation and minimize the bumps along the way that are inherent in the salary negotiation process? Simple: Just ensure that no offers get extended until after you’ve taken the candidate through the “offer drill” delineated in the following subsections.

Question 1: “Has anything changed since the last time we spoke?”

Most of the time candidates will respond that nothing has changed, and so you’re free to move to the next step of the negotiation process. But if something has changed, such as a sudden increase in responsibilities at the candidate’s current company, a significant raise, or a job offer from another organization, then you’ve got to put the offer on hold and discuss these new developments. Don’t assume that time has frozen since your last discussion. By inviting the candidate to make the first move in the negotiation, you’ll save yourself time and also demonstrate respect for the individual.

Question 2: “Interest-wise, where do you stand right now in terms of the possibility of joining our organization? On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, how motivated are you join us if we were to extend an offer?”

Now’s the time to find out where things really stand. By implying that you may be in a position to extend an offer, you’ll certainly get the candidate’s attention. If she has any reservations at this point, now’s the time to find out. What you don’t want to do is learn about these new changes in plan after you’ve extended your offer. That would not only be uncomfortable for the candidate, it could be embarrassing for you as you appear to be chasing someone who may or may not want to join your organization.

Question 3: “If we were to make you an offer today, when would you be in a position to either accept or reject it?”

The ideal answer is, Right away! Beware candidates who suddenly request long time frames to come to a decision or tell you that they can’t commit until next Friday. Ideally, candidates will have had enough opportunity during the multiple rounds of interviews to research your organization, speak with the key players, and determine the career benefits of joining your organization. Candidates who ask for more than a day to consider your offer may be delaying their commitment to you because they’re more excited about another company’s offer. Putting you off is the only way to buy time to see whether they can generate the offer they really want.

If you suspect that this is the case, then communicate your concerns openly:

Janet, I want to start our relationship on the right foot, and I’d appreciate a candid response. I’ve found that people who suddenly need more time at the finish line usually have another offer on the table that they’re more excited about. If that’s the case, I understand. Still, I’d like to know where we stand relative to your other offer.

At that point, if your perceptions are correct, the candidate will admire your intuition and openness and respond to your legitimate concerns. You’ll learn what your chances are of landing this individual, and you can prepare to either wait out her decision or line up additional candidates.

What you don’t want to do is attempt to convince the candidate at the finish line that your offer is superior. Her focus is definitely on the other offer; otherwise, you would have heard an “I accept!” already. So persuading her that you’re better than her other suitor puts you at a disadvantage in the negotiation process. It will appear that you’re placing your company’s interests above hers as you attempt to resell the benefits of joining your organization. In reality, by the time of offer negotiations, you’ll have done all the selling you have to. Make a firm commitment to your own plan of action, and respect the individual’s right to plan her own destiny.

Question 4: “If we were to make you an offer, tell me when you’d be able to start. How much notice would you need to give your present employer?”

Most candidates will need to give their current employers’ two weeks’ notice, and senior-level managers may need to give more than that because of their broad responsibilities. In analyzing a candidate’s response, follow two general rules: First, watch out for candidates who don’t feel obligated to give their current employers appropriate notice. An individual’s failure to follow proper corporate etiquette may in itself play a role in your decision to extend an offer!

Second, remember that high performers are sophisticated consumers regarding the employment marketplace, and they realize that their current employers will be providing references for them for the next ten years. Therefore, don’t pressure candidates to start earlier than would be appropriate. You could create a lot of resentment if you force individuals to walk away from their current companies without appropriate notice—not only for reason of loyalty but also for fear of a negative reference. In short, if you need someone immediately, hire a temp. In fact, encourage new hires to take an additional week off between jobs so they have time to catch up on things at home and in their personal lives. That selfless recommendation on your part will be very much appreciated and will set a very positive tone for the on-boarding experience to come.

Question 5: “At what salary point would you accept our job offer, and at what salary point would you reject it?”

This is the million-dollar question, and that’s why it’s saved for last. Of course, you’ll probably have already discussed initial salary expectations during the telephone screen and possibly during the interview process itself, so the answer shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. But depending on how motivated the candidate is at this point to join your company, the “interest–demand barometer” kicks in: If her interest is high, her demands will be low and vice versa. This is also typically part of the discussion where other factors come into play: requests to take additional time off, to work from home one day a week, to fly business class, and the like will typically weave themselves quite naturally into the conversation at this point.

Candidates typically expect to hear salary offers rather than volunteer numbers themselves. Still, it’s best to open this critical piece of the negotiation this way:

Janet, you’ve researched our financials, you’ve seen the job description, you have a general understanding of our benefit plans, and you’ve met the key players who you’d be working with every day. In short, you should have all the information necessary to come to an informed career decision. I’m asking you this question for two reasons: First, I’d like to gauge your perception of reality against ours in terms of what you believe the market worth of someone in this position should be. Second, I’d like you to discuss the minimum versus ideal salary for this job to again help me gauge your level of interest. Share with me what that walkaway point is for you.

Ideally, candidates will accept lateral offers to their current base salaries. It’s more commonly the case that candidates peg an increase in their base pay to a percentage hike of 5 to 20 percent, depending on their desire for the job and their perception of their market worth. If any of those assumptions are within your salary range, you’ll be safe to make the offer at this point.

Of course, by the time you get to this stage, you’ll have already looked at internal equity considerations and determined a fair rate of pay. Still, you should find out if candidates’ perceptions of reality make sense. Someone demanding a 25 percent increase in base salary or looking to earn a contractor’s rate for a staff position may lack business maturity. Simply stated, they may have an overinflated sense of their own value or they may be looking for you to make up for lost opportunities in the past. In such cases, delaying an offer may make sense while you investigate the individual’s concerns further.

Most importantly, you’ll have retained control of the negotiation until you’ve had all your critical questions answered. As an employer, you wouldn’t expect a candidate to accept an offer without all the information necessary to come to an informed career decision. Expect no less for yourself, because a candidate’s behavior during the actual “offer drill” may in itself strengthen your commitment to bring that individual aboard or cast doubt on her ultimate suitability.

Effective Onboarding to Maximize the Chances of Initial Success and Create True Believers

When it comes to effective onboarding practices, many companies fail by a wide margin. They spend significant amounts of time sourcing and attracting candidates, interviewing and reference checking, and background checking and drug screening, but when the candidates show up for the first day of work, companies often underwhelm them. Few organizations dedicate appropriate resources to the overall on-boarding experience, which, unlike the new employee orientation (NEO) that takes place on the first day, should occur over the first one to three months, with a one-year follow-up for good measure.

Many companies do little more than NEO on a new hire’s first day. Some dedicate a full day to NEO, while others try to limit it to a half day or even to one hour. That’s a critical oversight on their part. Transitioning new hires into your company has multiple cascading events that take place over time—for the leader, the new hire, and the organization. Much more than merely enrolling people in benefits and setting up their payroll, it’s your first chance to make a good impression and truly integrate the individual into your culture. Let’s discuss various aspects of onboarding to ensure that your investment in your new hires is well spent and appropriately planned.

While NEO typically introduces new hires to company policies, codes of conduct, safety requirements, organization charts, and key leaders within the organization, the onboarding process provides you with an opportunity to orient new hires to ensure maximum engagement and productivity right from the start. On a very broad level, onboarding provides you with an opportunity to do the following:

1. Explain what your organization emphasizes and values. These issues need to be clearly demonstrated over time because they define your company at its core and clarify what differentiates your organization from your competition.

2. Create “true believers” and sell your company’s story while highlighting its history and achievements. Not everyone needs to understand your company’s financial statements and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis, but all new hires should understand what your company does, how it does it, and what it wants for its employees. This is a very special opportunity to sell your organization’s uniqueness, and trying to unload everything in one day will surely miss the mark in helping your new employee appreciate and value your culture and heritage.

3. Set expectations regarding the customer service experience. What is it that you expect from your new hires in terms of servicing both internal and external customers and clients? What are your rules of engagement so that everyone knows what you value and what you model? Figure 1.2 is an example of a handout that can be given to new employees explaining the company’s expectations.

4. Set appropriate standards for how you want new hires to value their work and see their connection to the bigger picture. As the Walt Disney Company aptly puts it, do you teach your employees to lay bricks or build cathedrals? Do your employees understand their connection to the broader picture? Do they know why the founders created the organization and how? Do they recognize the value your organization brings to its customer base and the community overall?

5. Explain that a new hire’s performance is reviewed at ninety days, six months, and one year, and that merit increases are based on annual reviews. New hires can use these review opportunities to better understand where they are now, where they want to be, and how to get there. Explain how performance review templates, goal-setting worksheets, and self-review forms are used, as well as individual development plan templates to help employees set their sights on longer-term achievements and goals right from the start.

In short, how you handle the employee’s first hour, first day, first week, and first three months on the job provides you with multiple opportunities for contact, feedback, suggestions, and clarifications. Compared to the “sink or swim” onboarding method used by many companies during NEO, this strategic approach to new-hire onboarding will drastically increase your chances of success and long-term retention.

Assign a mentor to the new employee. Weekly one-on-one meetings with a mentor on the same team can provide a terrific return-on-investment for both the mentor and the new hire. New employees appreciate having someone to guide them through the ins and outs of the organization and the hidden “land mines” that could otherwise derail an early career, and to be a resource to help them get to know the players and their personalities and penchants that much better. Such relationships build trust and camaraderie, but more than that, they help new hires integrate into your company with more confidence because of the safety net they provide. And what a great stretch assignment for more senior or tenured team members! Placing people into leadership roles on an intermittent basis increases their sense of self-worth. It provides them the opportunity to grow and develop new team members—a great strength to add to someone’s personal brand and reputation. And it provides a healthy sense of competition where the more senior member has skin in the game to ensure that the new hire is successful. These are all important elements of a healthy working environment that focuses on employee growth and development while capitalizing on the organization’s investment in the new hire.

Figure 1.2. Leadership expectations handout. CEOs, general managers, and department heads should select eight or ten key principles to discuss with new hires regarding culture, communication, behavior, and the like. The examples listed here will help you draft the items that meet your department’s unique needs.

Leadership Expectations

This is your company. You create and sustain the culture, your team’s work experience, and our productivity and performance!

Principles	Communication
Mutual Respect Pride in What We Do Passion for Who We Serve Strong Work Ethic Exceed Customer Expectations Welcome Change as an Opportunity to Learn and Grow Give Credit, Don’t Take Credit Drive Creativity and Innovation Safety First	Say “Hi” and “Thank you” Create a culture of openness and information-sharing Praise in public; censure in private It’s okay to say “I don’t know” Proactively feed information up and out Provide consistent feedback in a constructive manner Keep others informed and leave no one flying blind Listen openly and look for common ground
Leadership	Teamwork
Lead by example Practice MBWA (Management by Walking Around) and raise visibility Make others feel welcome and included Celebrate successes and learn from mistakes Create a work environment where team members can motivate themselves Create a continuous learning environment Teach what you choose to learn Respect others’ points of view and value their opinions Focus on bringing out the best in others Demonstrate the highest level of ethics and values at all times	Always assume good intentions Create a positive and inclusive work environment Err on the side of compassion Practice the adage “What you want for yourself, give to another” Place others’ needs ahead of your own and expect them to respond in kind Always look to bring out the best in others Share best practices Resolve team conflict without drama or angst Foster a sense of shared accountability and group responsibility

What should you focus on in your follow-up meetings with your new hires? Your primary focus should be on developing their understanding of the business, its key players, and its current initiatives. What are the high-level goals that your company is focusing on, and how does each person’s role contribute to those goals? What opportunities exist where new hires can make a difference? Further, these segmented and extended onboarding programs provide you with opportunities for one-on-one feedback with a member of management outside of the new hire’s immediate team or department. For example, the recruiter, HR representative, or a department head may want to spend one-on-one time with new hires at various intervals, conducting a “pulse check” to see how their onboarding experience is progressing. Further, according to the editors at Business Management Daily (www.businessmanagementdaily.com), some questions that you might want to ask include:

•30-Day One-on-One Follow-Up Questions

Why do you think we selected you as an employee?

What do you like about the job and the organization so far?

What’s been going well? What are the highlights of your experiences so far? Why?

Tell me what you don’t understand about your job and about our organization now that you’ve had a month to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.

Have you faced any unforeseen surprises since joining us that you weren’t expecting?

•60-Day One-on-One Follow-Up Questions

Do you have enough, too much, or too little time to do your work? Do you have access to the appropriate tools and resources? Do you feel you have been sufficiently trained in all aspects of your job to perform at a high level?

How do you see your job relating to the organization’s mission and vision?

What do you need to learn to improve? What can the organization do to help you become more successful in your role?

Compare the organization to what we explained it would be like when you initially interviewed with us. Have you experienced any surprises, disappointments, or other “ah-ha” moments that you’re comfortable sharing?

How does it go when your supervisor offers constructive criticism or corrects your work?

•90-Day One-on-One Follow-Up Questions

Which coworkers have been helpful since you arrived? (Goal: Pinpoint which employees can be influential in retaining new hires.)

Who do you talk to when you have questions about your work? Do you feel comfortable asking?

Have you had any uncomfortable situations or conflicts with supervisors, coworkers, or customers?

Does your supervisor clearly explain what the organization expects of you? How would you rate leadership communication overall on a scale from 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest)?

Do you believe your ideas and suggestions are valued? Give me some examples.

In retrospect, what could we have done differently in terms of setting your expectations appropriately for working in our company overall and for your job specifically?

The end result: better performance, improved engagement, and stronger retention. After all, it only stands to reason that employees who are engaged in these types of activities from the first day will feel a stronger connection to your organization over time. They’ll feel acknowledged, included, and more excited about their prospects for long-term success and commitment so they’ll likely demonstrate greater loyalty and productivity. What’s interesting is that it won’t even take that much time. While traditional NEO may still last one full day, follow-up meetings on days 30, 60, and 90 may be scheduled for four hours, two hours, and one hour, respectively. All in all, your total hour commitment may be little more than 16 hours, but because the meetings are spread wisely over the new hire’s 90-day introductory period, the constant follow-up and ongoing contact help cement a relationship that will stand the test of time. And of course, you can extend this initial contact period to six months and then to the one-year anniversary if you agree that the feedback you’re getting is worthwhile.

Is there an “opportunity cost” (i.e., a downside or disadvantage) to removing the individual from the field at these various intervals? Of course there is, but think of all you’ll be gaining. You’ll have a chance to identify your top performers, provide special assignments to those looking for more, spot individuals who may be challenged and need to course-correct, and flag others who may not have been cast in the right role during the hiring process. Your extra attention will help new hires incorporate new concepts and skills into their natural learning process when the timing is right for them, and your extra set of eyes will identify opportunities that your organization may not have otherwise been aware of.

An extended onboarding program is a rare opportunity to help your organization maximize its investment in new hires and increase the chances for success. Employ this strategy for the next six months and measure your new-hire retention results as a before and after. Don’t be surprised to see a superior return on this particular investment in your new hires’ futures because of the time you’ll save, the opportunities you’ll identify, and the ongoing commitment that will benefit your organization over the long haul.