Techniques for hiring the right person
By Sheryl L. Kovach
Whether you are launching a startup company, you're a manager in charge of building a high performing team, or you're a seasoned executive in charge of leading a world renowned company, one of the biggest challenges faced is in hiring people. The challenge is not always in finding people, making an offer more attractive than the other firm competing for the same talent as you are, or in hiring the person that best matches the job criteria. Rather, the challenge is hiring the right person for the job. So how do you know if you are hiring the right person? The reality is, you don't know, and you won't know, at least until the person starts the job that is. What's a hiring manager to do if there isn't a way to know if the right person is being hired?
While there's no one technique for providing 100% assurance the person you hire is going to work out, there are techniques that can help you predict with confidence how a person will likely work out if hired. Hiring is (or should be) preceded by interviewing, and one of the most effective interviewing techniques is behavioral interviewing.
What is behavioral interviewing?
One of the best predictors of future performance on the job is past performance on the job. To gain insight into someone's past performance on the job, why not ask about it. That sounds logical, right? So, how do we ask about it?
Here's how...and how not...
How to ask:
"Describe a project you worked on where input from others was required?"How not to ask:
"Are you a team player?"
How to ask:
"Describe an error you made, what contributed towards the error, and what did you learn and do differently now to prevent the error from happening again?"
How not to ask:
"Do you make mistakes in your work?"
You get the idea. The common theme here is that behavior interviewing minimizes opportunity for candidates to provide canned Yes or No responses, and instead provide responses that tap into their ways of doing things on the job. There are hundreds upon hundreds of behavioral interviewing questions you can use during an interview with a candidate.
With so many behavioral interviewing questions that can be asked, asking the right questions is important in order to tap into the insight you need to identify and hire the right person for the job.
