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By Kirk Averett
By Kirk Averett
I joined a young startup company when it was about to expand. Our CEO, Pat Matthews, and the other founders were determined to build a great company and culture. They knew it would begin with hiring and they wanted to do it better. I learned a lot from those discussions and the experiments we tried. My personal experience agrees with the saying, "hire hard, manage easy." The list below focuses on the interviewing & decision stages in the hiring process.
Accept that hiring the wrong person is worse than passing on a good one.
Accept that hiring the wrong person is worse than passing on a good one.
It doesn't feel that way, though. When we rush with fear or urgency there will be mistakes with preparation and interviews. Then we pay a high cost in time and frustration if someone can't succeed in the role. The pain is so high that it is better to "fire" a lot of candidates than fire a teammate farther down the road.
Accept ahead of time that you may miss out on some great candidates. And don't accept a candidate who won't get the job done well.
Get the best possible hiring team together.
Get the best possible hiring team together.
People have different strengths that must factor into putting the hiring team together. There may be a teammate who always votes with a "hard no" or an "enthusiastic yes" without solid reasoning. Coaching and training may improve things. If necessary, thank them for their help and bring in a replacement before the next candidate.
Rely on the people who consistently identify great candidates. These folks know what "great" looks like and are usually very good in their own roles. "A players hire other A players" as Steve Jobs famously said.
Think outside of immediate coworkers.
Think outside of immediate coworkers.
Cross-functional teams are an excellent way to select a better candidate. For example, marketing and customer service can be on the hiring team for a new sales person. Marketing needs reliable feedback from the sales team about what is working. Customer service needs the sales team to set proper expectations with new customers and create the right experience.
Involving other teams in hiring will result in well-rounded candidates getting job offers. It also builds the culture and improves business results.
Involving other teams in hiring will result in well-rounded candidates getting job offers. It also builds the culture and improves business results.
Managers don't always know best. Most jobs need a team of people working together. Yet most hiring decisions seem to come down to the feeling of a single individual, the manager. In many jobs today the manager may see a bit of each person's work while the coworkers see the rest of the iceberg.
Hire someone that the manager AND most coworkers enthusiastically support.
Hire someone that the manager AND most coworkers enthusiastically support.
Final thought: make it repeatable. Create a simple system that perpetuates the hiring best practices that you develop. We defined the process for preparation, interviews, round tables, and decisions. Interview teams usually have only 1 or 2 new participants so that they can learn from others. Making the process consistently repeatable takes some of the "hard" out of "hiring hard".
Great employees create great products and happy customers. Hiring smart, like hiring hard, is always worth it.
Great employees create great products and happy customers. Hiring smart, like hiring hard, is always worth it.
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