I met with a potential client last week who is searching for a new Director of Sales. He reports making several “mis-hires” of this particularly key position in his company. He reached out to me to develop a better recruiting and hiring program as his current method did not appear to be working.
He said to me during our discussion, “I just don’t know what I am doing wrong, Beth.”
I said to him, “How much time do you take to prepare before you interview someone?”
He looked at me blankly and then replied, “Prepare? What do you mean?”
“Let me re-phrase the question,” I said. “When you are about to interview a sales person, what preparation do you do before you interview them?”
He said, “Well, I review their resume. Then I interview them.”
“How much time does that typically take you?” I asked.
“A few minutes to review the resume, then the actual interview,” he asserted.
“How much money does a good salesperson make for you in a year?” I asked.
He responded with, “A good salesperson will generate 3-4 million in revenue.”
“So, you spend a few minutes preparing for a multi-million dollar investment?” I observed.
I was met with silence after this last statement, followed by a deep sigh of revelation from this employer.
The lesson in this story? If you want your new employee to be successful in their new position, you must prepare BEFORE you hire them to set them up with great training, realistic expectations and a definition of desired job performance. To prepare, remember to create an ideal candidate list, a solid job description, and an established, consistent interview process before you talk to anyone!
Remember these 5 P’s of business: Prior preparation prevents poor performance. You want the best employee that money can buy. Prepare for them!
I have had several business owners and hiring managers ask me about why candidates are “ghosting” them for interviews. In case you are not familiar with the term, ghosting means “the practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly, and without explanation, withdrawing from all communication.”
Apparently, candidates are ghosting potential employers with increased frequency. The job seeker applies for a job and when the company calls them for an interview, the candidate either never responds or schedules the interview and then never shows up.
Several employers that I have discussed this issue with are really upset and rightly so, especially when the candidate schedules and does not show up for interviews.
If you are encountering this issue, here are a few suggestions:
Most importantly, take a big deep breath. If a candidate does not up for an interview, you now have 30 minutes to an hour to get something else done that you may not have had time to accomplish in your day.
The candidate did you a huge favor by not attending the interview. No call/so show behavior would have most likely appeared in their job performance if they had made it through the hiring process and began working for you. Be grateful – they just made your job easier by not having to fire them later.
I am seeing ghosting from ALL levels of candidates from entry level to senior level and in all industries. It is not just you and your organization this is happening to, so do not take it personally.
Remember: Employers are the ones that started ghosting when we quit responding to ALL candidate inquiries. A simple “thanks but no thanks” is all recruits want when they apply and are not chosen. As hiring professionals, it is hard to justify being too upset now that the tables have turned when non-responsiveness to candidates has become common place.
Turn the opportunity into a positive learning experience. Remember that candidates also deserve your best customer service. Return messages, calls and emails in a timely fashion. Be courteous and do what you say you are going to do when you set expectations with your potential hires.
You cannot eliminate ALL ghosting from candidates, but you can do your part to create a great place to work. That means be a great “host” and quit being a “ghost”.
I received a call last week from a potential client that said, “I need help recruiting. Do you do that?”
I told him that I did provide recruiting services, and then I asked him, “What makes you think that you need help recruiting?”
He said, “I can’t find the right people.”
I said, “Have you posted a job advertisement online?” Yes, he had.
I asked, “Are you getting applicants?” Yes, he was getting applicants.
“Then you do not need help recruiting,” I told him. “You need help interviewing.”
Most business leaders are confused about what recruiting does for their hiring process and what it does not do. Recruiting is asking people to apply for a job. Interviewing is the screening process to finding someone to work for you. Hiring is the yes or no question that you ask yourself before making a job offer. Recruiting is simply getting the applicants. That’s it. No more. No less.
So let us be clear on what recruiting does NOT do:
Recruiting doesn’t help you select the right candidate. Interviewing does that.
Recruiting doesn’t ensure that you will be successful in your hiring efforts. An effective hiring process does that.
The terminology around hiring employees is jargon-based, confusing and not very helpful. Educate yourself about the entire hiring process before beginning your search.
I regularly speak to groups of CEOs’ who are primarily concerned about hiring. Invariably, someone will tell me that they can’t find the right people because the unemployment rate is so low. They talk about how there are “no good employees” out there and because they don’t have good employees, they can’t expand the way they want.
Do you see the slippery slope they just went down? Irrational thinking like the one I describe above is way more impactful on our hiring processes then any unemployment rates, regardless of how low they may go.
Here are some tips to get you out of the trap of thinking no good employees are available for hire:
Create a great place to work. According to this recent article by Bloomberg News, people are leaving their jobs at a 17-year high. People are leaving jobs like they did right after 9/11, meaning they are looking for a place to work where their work matters. They want to contribute to something bigger than themselves. So very simply put, this is the perfect opportunity to sit down with your direct reports and have a vision conversation about the culture of the company and their roles within it. Ask them where they want to be, what they want to do and how they want to contribute. Then, make it happen for them.
Focus on retention. According to this recent article by HR Dive , employees are 4 times more likely to be looking for a job if they work for a jerk. So, don’t be a jerk. And, don’t let your managers be jerks either. If you want good employees to leave your company, keep a jerk on your payroll.
Have no fear. Don’t focus on the bad stuff. If you fear that you won’t find good employees, you won’t. Write your Ideal Candidate List for your best employee and read over it every day. Don’t settle. They ARE out there, probably just as frustrated as you are in trying to find you. Which leads me to my last tip…
Create a candidate – friendly interview process. What does this mean? It means, interview fast. Call the candidates quickly, get them scheduled soon, and make an efficient interview process. Have your basic screening processes in place but do not be ridiculous in your requirements for applying. Then, give the candidates a clear deadline as to when they will have answers, and stick to that deadline. Say no politely, but firmly, and don’t leave people hanging. Candidates have lots of choices these days. Be a place that they want to be.
Warren Buffet says that money flows from the impatient to the patient. I say that the same thing happens with candidates: be patient, be thorough and be polite.
Beth Smith of A-list Interviews discusses why using the term “millennial” when recruiting could be a discrimination in this one minute interview essential video.
I spoke at a conference in San Antonio for the Independent Bankers Association of the state of Texas (IBAT). I had the privilege of hearing the CEO, Chris Williston, speak about his 35 years of involvement with the organization as he prepared to exit. He had grown the IBAT into the largest association of independent bankers in the country. It was obvious that he had made great friends in the group and would completely be missed as a leader. His exact quote was, “I have never worked a day in my life.” He then shared how grateful he was for the organization, that he loved the people and the work, and that he wished for all people to have the happiness in their jobs like he did. He was passionate, articulate and humble.
I have thought about that speech on and off for the past week. I realize how rare it is that people feel this way about their job. Why is this so? How is it that Chris, who had “fallen into this job,” was so successful?
Here are a few observations to Chris’ satisfaction:
There were enough parts of his job that suited him perfectly. He was a natural relationship builder and spent a great deal of his time doing just that: getting to know independent bankers.
He had enough control in his job that when his constituents needed something done, and it was right for the organization, Chris had the power to get it done.
Chris had the resources to delegate the work that he disliked to someone else. He could focus on the parts that he loved and passed off the rest.
He oversaw his own growth and that of the association.
I have so much respect for someone who leaves an organization way better than they found it. Chris Williston is one of those people. Do you empower people in your organization to thrive, contribute and grow? It could be the difference between an unhappy workforce and an happy one.
