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How to recruit and keep the best people

Posted by Michael under Business Growth, Leadership

According to GH Smart in his New York Times bestseller a certain structured framework works to recruit and retain the staff your organisation needs. I’ve summarised the methodology into four key stages:

1. Develop Scorecard – the scorecard must outline the key objectives and explain what the job is about; here’s an example –

Key Accountabilities

1 Grow revenue from $25m to $50m by 12/31/11
• Increase number of national industrial customers from 4 in 2008 to 8 in 2009 to 10 in 2009
• Reduce revenue from residential customers from 75% of total sales to 20% of total sales by 12/31/11

2 Increase EBITDA margin from 9% to 15% by 12/31/11
• Increase fluffo-matic 70% margin add-on sales from 33% to 90% of all customer orders by 12/31/07

3 Topgrade the management (build a team of A players) team
• Hire an ‘A’ Player Director of Outside Sales by 12/31/08
• Hire an ‘A’ Player CFO by 12/31/08
• Conduct Semi-annual talent reviews to identify non ‘A’ players. Present action plan to the board

4 Establish a robust product development process
• Hire an ‘A’ player Head of Product Development/R&D
• Put in place an industry best-in class process capable of identifying customer needs and developing appropriate products for a 24 month product cycle that can be sold at an attractive margin

5 Open a West coast sales office by 6/1/09
• Open a sales office in Los Angeles.

2. Establish Competencies

What skills does the person need to be good at the job?

1. Leadership Competencies
 Hires A players
 Develops people
 Removes underperformers
 Treats people with respect
 Network of talented people

2. Personal Competencies
 Integrity/honesty
 Organization and planning
 Calm under pressure
 Aggressive
 Moves fast

3.Interpersonal Competencies
 Listening skills
 Oral communication
 Teamwork
 Persuasion
 Holds people accountable

4. Intellectual Competencies
 Brainpower/learns quickly
 Analysis skills
 Strategic thinking/visioning
 Creative/innovative
 Attention to detail

5. Motivational Competencies
 Enthusiasm/ability to motivate others
 Persistent
 Proactive/takes initiative
 Work ethic
 Sets high standards.

Rate the candidates on these competences and add key comments to help you establish their genuine skills.

3. Conduct Brief screening interview

A brief telephone interview weeds out unsuitable candidates by using a structured methodology and four key questions
I. What are your career goals?
II. What are you good at professionally?
III. What are you not good at or not interested in doing?
IV. Who were your last five bosses and how will they each rate your performance on a 1-10 scale when we talk to them?

4. Conduct top grading interview

Candidates that pass the screening call are then invited to a face to face interview that is a longer exploration of their suitability for the role and their key ‘A’ qualities. It involves using a structured methodology that then moves into detailed discussion, breaking down jargon into practical examples and revealing gaps in qualifications or experience or evidence of character flaws or weak development. The questions should be as follows:

o School: high points and low points (5 minutes)

o College: high points and low points (5 minutes)

o For each job in the past 15 years (2 hour 40 minutes):
a) What were you hired to do?
b) What accomplishments were you most proud of?
c) What were some low points during that job?
d) Let’s talk about the people: What was your boss’s name? What was it like working with him/her? What will he/she say were your biggest strengths and areas for improvement? Please tell me about the team you inherited. Did you hire anybody? Fire anybody? What was your hiring success rate? How many As, Bs, and Cs did you have by the end?

o Why did you leave that job?

o What are your career goals for the future (10 minutes)?

In each case, probe “5 questions deep” to get data on each area: What? How? Tell me more … this really pushes the candidate to reveal either mastery or weakness in key areas.

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