MARCH
2000
Why
Not Change the Hiring Process Before It’s Too Late?
Subj:
Controller Position
Date:
02/23/00 2:30.07 PM EST
From:
Rjones@acmewidgets.com
To: Tfreeman@acmewidgets.com
Ted,
three turndowns for the controller job in the past four months.
What’s going on?
_______
Subj:
Controller Position
Date:
02/23/00 2:48.33 PM EST
From:
Tfreeman@acmewidgets.com
To: Rjones@acmewidgets.com
Hi, boss:
The next time you’re in town, let me discuss this with
you face-to-face. I’m as frustrated as you are!!!
THE 21ST
CENTURY BUSINESS EXECUTIVE rockets along at warp speed –
meeting with customers, visiting foreign subsidiaries, dashing
off e-mail in airport lounges, working late in hotel rooms
and actually hoping to spend two days in the office next week.
Meanwhile,
back at the ranch, it’s chaos time. Everybody is waiting
for the boss to return. Ted Freeman, for example, who is trying
to hire a division controller, would just as soon not use
e-mail to let Bob Jones know that all the rescheduled interviews,
delayed hiring decisions and postponed job offers have caused
major contenders to remove themselves from consideration or
accept offers from other companies.
Currently,
one search consultant who works with Internet companies tells
his clients that any employer who fails to extend an offer
within 48 hours of the final interview is likely to be "dead
meat." While dot.coms may be the extreme example, it’s
a jungle out there as companies of all kinds compete for qualified
candidates.
Sadly,
both high-tech and low-tech companies alike plan almost everything
about their business except for hiring and replacing people.
In too
many cases, the hiring process proceeds with no clear understanding
by the participants of where it’s going or how to get
there ("Someone’s just quit, what we do next?").
Hiring is often the thing that people get around to when they
have completed all the chores that pay their salaries. And
procedures established in the mid-20th century, such as the
interview panel, continue to be used – despite the fact
that no two members are ever in town at the same time.
Could
there, perhaps, be a better way?
No One Size Fits All
The first
step toward taking charge of the hiring process is to recognize
that selecting the next CEO requires a different series of
events than choosing a process engineer or assistant product
manager. The degree of decision-making authority, the impact
on the bottom line of decisions made, the relative importance
or unimportance of specific skill sets, the need to lead or
influence other people . . . these and similar job-related
factors should lead to a rational judgment as to how the search
and selection process will proceed – from initial screening
through final offer.
Employers
typically turn to executive search consultants for assistance
when qualitative factors are highly important in selecting
the right candidate and/or when candidates are in tight supply.
Sound
advice is to let the search consultant do his or her job –
so that the entire process of identifying truly qualified
people, interesting them in the position and arriving at a
short list of the "best of the best" is indeed outsourced
and left to those experts who are trained in how to do it.
Employers who get involved too early needlessly replicate
what they are paying someone else to do.
At the
very beginning, discuss with the consultant the kind of selection
process that makes sense for the position at hand. For example,
does one person need to conduct face-to-face interviews, or
do eight (and, if the latter, for what purpose?). Will "telephone
screens" be required in advance of on-site interviews?
Will finalists be required to return for second or third rounds
of interviews? Who is authorized to step in if a member of
the interviewing panel is out of town or otherwise indisposed?
Etc.
Also,
don’t forget that time is of the essence. In the current
full-employment economy, the best candidates have their choice
of jobs and often are being courted by more than one employer.
The company that habitually delays conducting interviews and
extending job offers increasingly will be left out in the
cold.
Accordingly,
a good search consultant will want to work with you to establish
a reasonable timeline from candidate presentation to phone
screen, from phone screen to on-site visit, from first visit
to any final interview, and from final interview to offer
– and will want to share that information with each
candidate (thus creating realistic expectations). In many
cases, candidates will be less anxious and more forgiving
of small delays when they understand the employer’s
process.
Knowing When to Quit
"I
always find something the last place I look." That time-honored
saying applies to all those elderly grandmothers in search
of misplaced thimbles and trifocals. It, however, does a grave
injustice to all those employers who want to see "one
last candidate" – and another after that –
before reaching a decision.
Client
companies should expect their search firms to present between
three and five highly qualified candidates, any one of whom
could perform at least ninety percent of the job with great
distinction. (Don’t waste time looking for that nonexistent
person who can walk on water and do somersaults at the same
time.) The choice essentially should be a matter of simple
ranking – i.e., "Who is the best fit for us?"
If you
see three candidates, none of whom are right, stop the process.
Discuss with your search consultant where the misunderstanding
lies.
Avoiding Last-Minute Gridlock
Martha
Smith believes she’s the candidate of choice. She has
hit it off with everyone she’s met, received good feedback
from the headhunter and communicated her enthusiasm about
the job. It’s a good move, presumably for good pay.
She expects an offer within 48 hours, but the hours pass –
as does a week, and then another. The ultimate decision-maker
is out of town, of course, and not returning e-mail. Martha
takes another job.
Have
a contingency plan to forestall such disasters. You know the
parameters of the total compensation package the company can
offer. The search consultant knows what Martha is prepared
to accept. Both of you know that good old Bob Jones leaves
town on a moment’s notice (why call or write when a
simple trip will do?). So obtain his advance approval of the
offer, just in case Martha proves to be the one. While nothing
is perfect in business life, hiring can usually be made a
little smoother and swifter.
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