EIGHT

Hire
FIT IS IT

Ponder this: What’s your hiring “hit rate?” How many turn out to be stars who stay and produce at their peak?

You’ve heard the adage “start with the end in mind,” right? The perfect ending is that the people you work so hard to recruit turn out to be exactly right for the jobs you hire them to do! They love being on your team and working for you. And they stay for a while.

The love ’em approach to engaging and retaining talent starts with the hiring process. Why? Because getting the right people in the door in the first place increases the odds of keeping them. As the manager, you have the clearest sense of the “right fit” for your department. Seems logical, doesn’t it? Yet some managers see selection as a less important part of their jobs. They spend little time identifying the critical success factors for a position, preparing and conducting excellent interviews based on those factors, and, finally, evaluating and comparing the candidates before making a hiring decision. They may even delegate much of the hiring process to human resources instead of being involved themselves.

Hiring is, in fact, among the most important tasks you have as a manager, and you’ll be doing a lot more of it, as Baby Boomers (the largest generation in the workforce) continue to leave the workplace and you search for their replacements. Globally, hiring remains a critical engagement and retention strategy. And it doesn’t stop with the job offer. Today re-recruiting your best people is as critical as hiring them in the first place. More about that later.

What Is Right Fit?

How do you know if a candidate will fit? How do you measure fit, manage your biases, and make more objective hiring decisions? Here is a start.

Measuring Fit

When a person has skills and interests that match the job requirements, and core values that are consistent with the organization’s values, you have “right fit.”

Southwest Airlines looks for fit, especially with the company culture. A pilot told us about his own interview and selection process. He had heard that Southwest managers “hire for attitude and train for skill.” The interviews they conducted with him certainly seemed to support that rumor. Through multiple interviews, he realized that the interviewers seemed to care more about who he was as a person than the fact that he had a stellar aviation background that should have made him an obvious choice. They probed for attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that would give them clues about how he might treat flight attendants or peers, how he might deal with conflict at work, and what mattered most to him.

Southwest managers tested his sense of humor in many ways during the series of interviews, and it became clear to him that they were truly looking for a fit between the way work gets done at Southwest Airlines and his personality.

Why does Southwest care about an employee’s sense of humor, especially the pilot’s? Because Southwest’s values include providing “outrageous customer service” and having fun at work.

“Fit” also means alignment between the job requirements and the candidate’s skills and interests. How often have you seen employees leave (on their own or with a push) because they simply did not have the right skills or interests? Why didn’t the hiring manager see the problem at the outset? How can you avoid that expensive mistake? Do your homework, be prepared, and be clear about your wants and needs.

In Search of Fit

Ramesh, a manager in a high-tech global firm, has an opening for a supervisor in the marketing department in Switzerland. He has placed Internet and newspaper ads and netted a stack of résumés to consider. With help from his human resources representative, he has narrowed the field to the top 10 candidates. On paper, all 10 have technical skills that are great fits for the job.

Ramesh is pretty savvy and has hired many people. Some worked out well, and some were absolute flops. All had looked good on paper. This time, though, Ramesh is prepared to get the right fit! He has identified his department’s core values. They include honesty, integrity, teamwork, customer focus, and work/life balance.

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Values
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The critical leadership competencies for the role include motivating others, building a team, and dealing with ambiguity. Ramesh knows that the right fit will be a person with those skills. Next, Ramesh creates his interview guide with the questions he thinks can help him. Here are four questions on his sheet:

1. Tell me about a work incident when you were totally honest, despite a potential risk or downside for the honesty.

2. How did you handle a recent situation where the direction from above was unclear and circumstances were changing?

3. Describe how you motivated a group of people to do something they did not want to do.

4. Tell me about the last global move you made and what was hardest about it.

These questions may seem tough to answer, and they are. You can imagine that each of these questions leads Ramesh and his candidates into potentially deep discussions that could reveal where each candidate truly lines up on the value or leadership competency at hand. The questions are open-ended, so they can’t be answered yes or no. They are behavioral, forcing the candidates to cite real-life examples.

Ramesh probes to learn more and takes notes so he will not forget some of their more critical answers or the assumptions he makes along the way. Of course, he asks questions to validate their technical expertise. Afterward, he compares notes with the other interviewers and looks at the assessment results to see if there are any red flags he should explore in follow-up interviews.

Ramesh compares his candidates by scoring them on a 1–5 scale (using 1 to indicate the absence of a skill and 5 to indicate a highly developed skill) on each of the critical success factors that he had identified for the job, including these:

• Technical skills (including language fluency)

• Leadership competencies

• Values

As he scores them, he reviews his notes and thinks about these additional points:

• The level of each candidate’s sincerity

• Expressed enthusiasm and interest in the work

• Probable level of skill

While there is no such thing as a totally objective interview or selection process, this method allows Ramesh to make the most objective decision possible. He proceeds to offer the job to the candidate who he feels best meets the criteria.

By the way, had none of the candidates measured up to the criteria Ramesh set, he was willing to start over with a new batch of candidates. He had learned from past mistakes that it is too costly to settle for a mediocre hire.

Avoid Desperation Hiring

Love ’em managers care enough to wait for the right fit. They care about the candidates’ and the teams’ ultimate success and satisfaction.

Our colleagues in Asia tell us that with economic growth, there is a lot of pressure to “get the warm bodies” into the seats, particularly in China, Singapore, and India. When candidates are few and your needs are immediate, you, too, can fall victim to the dangerous syndrome of desperation hiring. When your only interview questions are “When can you start?” or “Can you fog a mirror?” (as in, “Are you breathing?”), you know you’re in trouble.

If you’re tempted to resort to desperation hiring, remember that today’s hiring mistake is tomorrow’s headache. You know how hard it is to rid your team of the wrong hire. (Someone recently suggested we write a sequel to Love ’Em called How to Lose Your Losers. Her point is well taken!)

They Are Choosing, Too

A much sought-after new hire, when explaining how he chose which offer to select, said, “They put me first. They asked, ‘What do you want to do?’ ‘What are your ideas?’ and so on.”

Be aware that today’s tech-savvy, talented candidates are well prepared and have many choices. Imagine that they arrive with a grid in their heads (or on their smartphones) that might look like this one. This grid helps the candidate ask you questions, evaluate the opportunity somewhat objectively, and compare yours with other job opportunities.¹⁵

Be prepared to sell your organization or team to candidates by addressing the key issues they raise. Treat candidates more like customers than subordinates. Think carefully about what you and your team can offer, and be ready to give specific examples. Whatever your unique selling proposition, recognize it and leverage it during the interview.

Beware: don’t oversell. Often an employee’s exit is due to unrealistic expectations of the job and organization. If the recruitment process is honest and open, you can avoid the quick exit.

What Do You Assume?

What if “right fit” means like me or the right age or shape/size or gender or color? It doesn’t—or shouldn’t. The “right fit” excuse has been used many times to put clones (usually clones of the boss) in jobs. That is certainly not what we mean by “right fit.” In fact, if you spend the time to identify those critical factors that spell success for a particular job and then select people using those criteria, you are most apt to avoid dismissing potentially wonderful candidates.

We all have “leanings,” and we often make assumptions based on them. Let’s test some of your assumptions about getting the right person in the job. Ask yourself, as you read this list, “Have I ever thought this about a person or a job?” Be brutally honest—you don’t have to tell anyone how you responded!

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Dignity
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Assumption Testing

Assumption: Single mothers will be a risk because when their children are ill, they will not show up.

Fact: Some single moms so need this job that they will find a way to make it to work. Some have excellent contingency planning skills and have two or three backup plans when the kids are sick. In fact, the Center for Creative Leadership has reported that being a committed parent can enhance managerial ability, according to a study conducted with Clark University.¹⁶ (And remember—it is illegal to ask candidates if they are single parents or have children.)

Assumption: A seriously overweight person can’t do this job because of the air travel required.

Fact: Overweight or obese individuals certainly can find ways of doing the job, even if it demands air travel. Obesity is viewed by law as a disability and, therefore, is protected by the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). That means that you must consider accommodation for a candidate who is qualified to do the work.

Assumption: He is too old or too young for this job.

Fact: What’s age got to do with it? Architect Frank Lloyd Wright and heart surgeon Michael DeBakey are examples of people who excelled in their crafts after the age of 90.

Assumption: We need a man in this job because it is too challenging for a woman.

Fact: The ability to function well is made up of a combination of traits, skills, behaviors, and experience that is gender-neutral (meaning gender does not predict ability).

Assumption: Someone of _____ descent just wouldn’t be comfortable or really fit in here.

Fact: If you’ve ever studied or worked in a multicultural environment you know that a person’s heritage has no bearing on his comfort or fit within a particular environment. Think about your own experiences and where you’ve fit in just fine, despite dramatic language or cultural differences.

When you find yourself forming assumptions about candidates based on their gender, size, accent, attire, or color (and, by the way, we all do that sometimes), then gently move yourself back to the key criteria you have identified and your methodology for assessing all of your candidates fairly.

Note: You can learn a lot about yourself, your organization, and hiring if you have the chance to do some global recruiting. Here’s what one recruiter experienced and learned. Thanks to Jeremy Eskinazi of Riviera Advisors.

I was shocked by the appearance of a Confucian candidate who came to interview for a key position in our Asian headquarters. The candidate had a large mole on his face, with a long hair growing out of it. He also had two long pinky fingernails. I’d frankly never seen anything like it and wondered what it was all about. Why wouldn’t he have plucked the hair and trimmed the nails? I asked my global partner, who said, “To have a mole brings you very good luck. To have a hair growing out of the mole is even luckier. And it’s common for men to grow their pinky nails long to show they are not laborers.” As my understanding grew, my impression of this candidate changed for the better.

Now there’s some assumption testing for you!

Prevent Quick Quits

Your risk of losing talent is highest in the first three to six months on the job. Why might that be? Too often we choose the right people but fail to support them as they assume their new roles. It is crucial that you extend the handshake in ways that matter to each new hire.

Orientation (also known as onboarding) and ongoing support are key pieces of the selection process and will increase the odds of your new hires’ success, contribution to and tenure on the team. New hires come to an organization fully charged, excited about their new adventure, and filled with energy and potential. By effectively tapping into that energy, knowledge, and wisdom right from the start, you can maximize the new employee’s potential and productivity well past the first year.

We know that many quick quits can be prevented. There is a direct correlation between shortened tenure and actions you do, or do not, take (yup, sorry—you again). Develop a relationship. Show you care. Start by having conversations with your new employees.

Talk About Relationships

Help them build relationships, and they’re more likely to stay. Fill their “lunch cards” for at least the first two weeks. In your early, ongoing conversations, you might ask questions like these:

• What kind of support or direction do you need from me that you aren’t getting? What are you getting that you don’t want?

• How are you getting along with your other team members? What introductions would you like me to make? Are you finding people to go to lunch with? Are you finding people to go to when you need help?

Talk About the Job

They joined your organization because you offered work they love to do. Are they doing it? If the job doesn’t measure up to what you promised, find ways to close the gap. Check in early and often—daily in the beginning. These questions should help:

• How does the job measure up to what we promised so far? Where are we on or off? How might we course-correct?

• What other interests would you like to explore, either now or over time?

Talk About the Organization

The people you carefully recruited and selected are now onboard. Are they wondering who or what they’ve joined? Early on, ask questions like these:

• How does the work pace and schedule work for you? Is there anything we need to adjust?

• How is our organization the same or different from your last employer? What do you miss most? Least?

• How can I help you get more of what you want from this workplace? We want you to be happy here!

Yes, all this conversation and connecting requires time and energy on your part. But it might just prevent a quick quit!

Be available to support new hires in this uncertain early stage of their employment. That may mean seeking them out to see how they are doing and conveying that you are behind them all the way.

Marta showed up for her first day of work and found bagels and cream cheese on her desk—lots of them! Then people started coming to introduce themselves, welcome her to the team and get their bagels. Marta’s boss said it’s one great way to ensure his newly hired talent met everyone on the team—before 10 a.m.

Get creative as you think about ways to welcome your new talent!

Re-recruit as Well

But what about the rest of your talent? While you are busy hiring the best-fit candidates for key roles on your team, do a little re-recruiting along the way. Often candidates and new employees are viewed as close to perfect (their warts haven’t surfaced yet), and they get all the attention. If you have done a great job of selecting, you will have a whole new collection of stars. Your long-term employees can feel less noticed, less appreciated, and perhaps even taken for granted as you carefully select, orient, and train these new folks. Avoid that dangerous phenomenon by re-recruiting all of your talent. Show your current employees that they are important and critical to you and to the success of your team, especially as you recruit new team members.

If you’re not recruiting your best people, you’re the only one who isn’t.

Bottom Line

Great managers are great recruiters. The best never take down their “Help Wanted” sign. Fit is it when it comes to hiring. If you get the right people in the right roles in your organization and on your team, you absolutely will increase the odds of retaining them. And don’t ever stop re-recruiting your key talent. Remember, your competitors want the talent you’ve worked so hard to hire.