This week, I wanted to share some success numbers with you. I have a client, MEP Engineering, who I have worked with for some time. They have embraced A-list Interviews and the Response Analysis System™ wholeheartedly. In fact, in their latest newsletter, they highlighted their hiring process as one of the reasons their firm has been so successful this year. This graphic is their own, featuring their statistics from 2016:
In using A-list Interviews’ 3 Step Interview Process, they’ve been able to efficiently screen an average of 50 candidates for each offer they make. They’ve achieved a 21% growth rate in 2016; whereas this source reports the average employee growth rate for their industry is 3.5%. In addition, while the average staff turnover rate for their industry is 13.3%, their turnover rate is 1%.
Figures like that show a rapidly expanding organization whose hiring process not only keeps pace with increasing demand, but is finely tuned to identify quality candidates.
That’s what success looks like.
Congratulations to MEP Engineering on your tremendous growth! It’s been a pleasure to continue working with you. May 2017 be just as prosperous and successful!
You can’t have what you want unless you know what it is… and nowhere is this concept more important than in your hiring process. Here, I discuss just what that looks like, and the difference that makes:
When I founded A-list Interviews over a decade ago, one of the first books I read was Martin Yate’s “Hiring The Best”, which describes the interviewing process as a “dirty secret” in business. He observed that we promote people within our organizations, ask them to assemble and manage teams, and then hold them accountable to the performance of that team without actually giving them the proper skills to be successful. We invest in skills training for goal achievement and leadership, yet rarely do we invest in their ability to conduct effective interviews.
So why after 20+ years is this still a dirty secret? Why haven’t we had a global conversation about interviewing?
People mistakenly believe that conducting an interview is an easy process that comes naturally. “It is something that we feel we are expected to know, or that comes with experience. Couple that feeling with the average ego and you get ‘It’s easy enough to interview; I know a good one when I see one; It’s sort of a gut feel,’” states Martin Yate. Sadly, statistics do not support that assertion. According to Peter Drucker, 2/3 of all hiring decisions are found to be a mistake within the year. That is a 66% failure rate.
Here is the bottom line: successfully interviewing candidates is not a process based on intuition, instinct, gut feel or judgment. It is a skill set like any other, and it can be taught. How do I know this? Because of my dirty secret: I made an exceptionally bad hire who made national news in 2002. In dealing with the aftermath, I was forced to put my ego aside and admit that even though I thought I knew how to hire effectively, it was obvious that I needed a better process. I launched an enormous research project to figure out how to interview people effectively for the best hire, which was the beginning of A-list Interviews. Don’t continue to carry around your dirty secret. The only way to learn and grow is to admit what you don’t know and then ask for help. Let me teach you how to interview people, so that you and your company can be hugely successful!
Phyllis Francis represented the United States in the 400 meter race, and she completed her semi-final looking very relaxed. She won both her first round heat and her semifinal heat easily with a time of 50.58 seconds and 50.31 seconds, respectively. When the reporter asked her what she was thinking about during one of the races, she talked about listening to the advice of her coach who said, “Maintain your form and go for the win.”
That concept is deceptively simple, and yet so vitally important in sports… and in hiring as well.
Often, clients want to quit the hiring process before we have completed it. They are tired of interviewing and they just want to hire someone – anyone! The temptation to just stop and say “good enough” is overwhelming!
It is the final portion of the race that is the hardest to accomplish, and yet the most important: The last 5 pounds to lose; the last 10% of rehab on an injury; the last few inches to cross the finish line. “That last interview with yet another candidate when you are totally frustrated” falls into that category. Staying focused on your strategy and following through all the way to the end is the path to victory.
This past week I met with a client whose business is in a period of rapid growth. His business has grown so fast over the last 6 months that his brand new office space (occupied for only a year) is suddenly too small. At the same time, he came across an ideal employee that he just had to hire. While he had already renegotiated a deal with his landlord to add more square footage in the near future, he had a big problem for the present:
Where was the new employee going to work?
Every office was full. The main room had been reconfigured several times and there was no way to squeeze in another desk. Even the conference room had a contract employee using it.
When I asked the client where they ended up locating the new employee, he grinned.
“We put him at the table in the break room.”
Sound crazy? Actually, it may have been the best place possible to put a new employee.
Usually a new employee’s first day consists of filling out paperwork, reading an employee handbook filled with dos and don’ts, parking rules and termination policies, and then put at a desk with little or no agenda. Other employees are busy trying to complete their own work and they don’t normally have the time to approach a new person on their team. While the onboarding process is a necessary one, it is typically not a very friendly one for the new hire.
Locate that same new hire in the break room and the situation takes on an entirely different tone. While people are taking a break, they are generally more relaxed and more social. They have a moment to chat while the coffeemaker is brewing; more importantly, they don’t need to come up with a reason to seek out and approach the new employee – they’re right here!
In this case, the new employee was greeted with enthusiasm every time someone walked in to get a cup of coffee. He was included in “water cooler” talk several times a day, and he was incorporated into the company culture quickly and seamlessly.
“This is the best place I have ever worked!” the new employee exclaimed.
If you’re looking to break away from the traditional onboarding process while minimizing the time it takes to familiarize new hires with your company’s culture, perhaps the break room is the “break” you’re looking for!
This is the title of the latest book that I have read by Jen Sincero, and every time I read it, pick it up or look at it, I think of you.
I know that right now you are struggling to find the best employees that you can possibly find and it is hard work! Slogging through resumes, interviewing candidates and trying to find the time to do your own job on top of that… and pulling your hair out at the difficulty of the process. After a really bad day of interviewing (or more than one) you wonder, “Where are all of the good people?” You really want to give up and just hire someone already!
I want you to keep your chin up, because you are a badass. You deserve to have to best of the best, and those people are coming. Get out your Ideal Candidate List and read over it again. Get in touch with how AMAZING it is going to be when these people finally get here. When they do, hang onto your hat… you will be floored at the difference they make and you will be thankful that you held your ground and didn’t give in to the temptation to just fill an empty chair with whomever.
In the meantime, when you have a lousy day, look back at how far you have come! Look at the changes that you have already made and what a difference it has made on your organization and your life.
People mistakenly believe that conducting an interview is an easy process that comes naturally. “It is something that we feel we are expected to know, or that comes with experience. Couple that feeling with the average ego and you get ‘It’s easy enough to interview; I know a good one when I see one; It’s sort of a gut feel,’” states Martin Yate. Sadly, statistics do not support that assertion. According to 
Phyllis Francis represented the United States in the 400 meter race, and she completed her semi-final looking very relaxed. She won both her first round heat and her semifinal heat easily with a time of 50.58 seconds and 50.31 seconds, respectively. When the reporter asked her what she was thinking about during one of the races, she talked about listening to the advice of her coach who said, “Maintain your form and go for the win.”
“We put him at the table in the break room.”
You are a badass!