Hiring for Success
Best Practices from the book
“Who: The A Method for Hiring”
1
"The goal is not to find people to hire;
it's to find A players.”
2
The A Method for hiring:
Source��Identify potential candidates through referrals, networks, and advertising
Select��Conduct interviews and reference checks to evaluate candidates
Sell
Make a compelling offer to the top candidate
Scorecard�
Define the outcomes and competencies needed for the role
Step-by-step process for hiring top performers
3
Finding the right people is the single biggest problem in business today
4
Scorecard
Helps to clarify the role and expectations
Create a Job Scorecard to:
5
How to create a SCORECARD
4
Competencies
Determine relevant role-based competencies for desired behaviors and outcomes. Then, select 5-8 competencies that reflect your culture and include them on all scorecards
Outcomes
Develop 3-8 specific, objective outcomes that a person must accomplish to achieve an A performance
2
1
Mission
Develop a short statement of 1-5 sentences that describe why a role exists
5
Ensure Alignment & Communication
Validate your scorecard by comparing it to the business plan and scorecards of those involved. Check for consistency and alignment. Share the scorecard with relevant parties, such as peers and recruiters
6
Sample Scorecard
7
The Scorecard is your compass; use it to stay on track during the hiring process.
8
Source
Strategies for sourcing candidates:
9
How to SOURCE
Add sourcing as an outcome on every scorecard for your team.
Encourage employees to ask their networks for talent recommendations.
Offer a referral bonus as an incentive.
Consider offering a referral bounty to select friends of the firm.
It can be a gift certificate or a cash bonus.
Create a list of top 10 talented people you know.
Commit to speaking with at least one person per week for 10 weeks.
Ask them to recommend other talented people.
Continuously build your list and maintain weekly conversations.
3. Deputizing friends of the firm
2. Referrals from your employees
10
4. Hiring recruiters
Establish a system to capture names and contact information of sourced individuals.
Schedule regular follow-ups using a spreadsheet or candidate tracking system integrated with your calendar.
6. Sourcing systems
Identify recruiting researchers for contract hiring.
Specify requirements using a scorecard.
Ensure researchers understand your business and culture.
5. Hiring researchers
Use the method described in this book to hire A Player recruiters.
Create a scorecard for your recruiting needs.
Hold recruiters accountable for the scorecard items.
Ensure recruiters understand your business and culture.
11
Don't assume that your network is diverse enough to attract the best talent.
12
Select
How to conduct effective interviews, including
13
The 4 interviews for spotting A players
The Screening Interview
Brief conversation by phone used to quickly assess candidates' basic qualifications, experience, and fit for the role.
The Who Interview
Comprehensive overview of a candidate's career history, experiences, successes, and failures. It involves chronological questioning to delve into specific roles and achievements, focusing on the candidate's strengths and areas for improvement.
The Focused Interview
Evaluating a candidate's fit for the specific role they are being considered for. It involves targeted questions to assess the candidate's skills, expertise, and ability to handle the challenges of the position.
The Reference Interview
Speaking with references provided by the candidate to gain insights into their past performance and validate the information shared during previous interviews. It helps in assessing the candidate's credibility and confirming their qualifications.
1
2
3
4
14
Screening Interview Guide
1
15
What to look out for in these questions?
Screening Interview
Allows you to hear about the candidates goals and passions.
Ideally, will share career goals that match your company’s needs.
Be cautious of clear misalignments between the candidate's aspirations and the position you're hiring for.
Push candidates to tell you eight to twelve positives so you can build a complete picture of their professional aptitude.
Ask them to give you examples that will put their strengths into context.
Remember, you are listening for strengths that match the job at hand.
16
What to look out for in these questions?
Screening Interview
3. What are you not good at or not interested in doing professionally?
Instead of asking for weaknesses outright, let candidates answer freely.
If you receive cookie-cutter answers, push candidates to provide a real weakness or area for development.
Identify at least five to eight areas where a candidate falls short, lacks interest, or doesn't want to operate. Screen out candidates if they fail to meet these criteria or if there are deal breakers.
4. Who were your last five bosses, and how will they each rate your performance on a 1-10 scale when we talk to them?
Use the language "when we talk to them" instead of "if we talk to them" to prompt candidates to be more honest about their performance ratings from references.
Ask candidates to list each boss and offer a rating for each. Follow up by pressing for details.
You are looking for lots of 8’s, 9’s, and 10’s in the ratings. Consider 7’s neutral; 6’s and below are actually bad.
17
Who Interview Guide
2
i. What was your boss’s name, and how do you spell that? What was it like working with him/her? What will he/she tell me were your biggest strengths and areas for improvement?
ii. How would you rate the team you inherited on an A, B, C scale? What changes did you make? Did you hire anybody? Fire anybody? How would you rate the team when you left it on A, B, C scale?
18
What to look out for in these questions?
Who Interview
Is a clear window into candidates’ goals and targets for a specific job.
You are trying to discover what their scorecard might have been if they had had one.
Coach them by asking how they thought their success was measured in the role.
Most candidates naturally focus on what really mattered to them at that time in their career rather than regurgitate what they put on their resume.
Ideally, candidates will tell you about accomplishments that match the job outcomes they just described to you. Even better, those accomplishments will match the scorecard for the position you are trying to fill.
A Players tend to talk about outcomes linked to expectations. B and C Players talk generally about events, people they met, or aspects of the job they linked without ever getting into results.
19
What to look out for in these questions?
Who Interview
3. What were some low points during that job?
People can be hesitant to share their lows at first, but everybody has work lows.
Try to reframe the question over and over until the candidate gets the message. “What went really wrong?” “What was your biggest mistake?” “What would you have done differently?” “What part of the job did you not like?” “In what ways were your peers stronger than you?”
4. Who were the people you worked with?
i. What was your boss’s name, and how do you spell that? What was it like working with him/her? What will he/she tell me were your biggest strengths and areas for improvement?
Threat of reference check concept (TORC): Involves asking candidates for their boss's name, spelling it out, and then inquiring about their experience working with their boss.
By asking what their boss would say about their strengths and areas for improvement, the interviewer signals that the information will be verified through reference calls, prompting candidates to be truthful.
20
What to look out for in these questions?
Who Interview
ii. How would you rate the team you inherited on an A, B, C scale? What changes did you make? Did you hire anybody? Fire anybody? How would you rate the team when you left it on A, B, C scale?
Applicable to managers - Their approach to building and improving teams, with additional TORC-based questions about the candidate's strengths and weaknesses as a manager according to their team members.
5. Why did you leave that job?
Understanding if candidates were promoted, recruited, or fired from previous jobs can reveal important clues about their performance and value to their bosses.
Vague answers should be further explored to uncover the true reasons behind job transitions.
Stories and revelations during the interview can shed light on a candidate's true identity and experiences.
21
Master Tactic # 1: Interrupt the candidate at least once every three or four minutes. Smile broadly, match their enthusiasm level, and use reflective listening to get them stop talking without demoralizing them.
Master Tactic # 2: The Three P’s are questions you can use to clarify how valuable an accomplishment was in any context.
Master Tactic # 3: Push vs Pull. People who perform well are generally pulled to greater opportunities. People who perform poorly are often pushed out of their jobs.
Master Tactic # 4: Painting a picture. Empathic imagination helps you move away from generic answers that don’t mean anything and toward specific details that give you real insight.
Master Tactic # 5: Stopping at the stops signs. Watch for shifts in body language and other inconsistencies.
22
Focused Interview Guide
3
23
What to look out for in these questions?
Focused Interview
GETTING TO KNOW MORE THE CANDIDATE
Focused interviews allow you to gather additional, specific information about your candidate.
Involve other team members to conduct this interview: Try assigning members of your team to perform focused interview based on the scorecard.
The focused interview is similar to the commonly used behavioral interview with one major difference: it is focused on the outcomes and competencies of the scorecard, not some vaguely defined job description or manager’s intuition.
Get curious after every answer by using the “What? How? Tell me more” framework and keep asking until you understand what the person did and how he or she did it.
24
Reference Interview Guide
4
25
What to look out for in these questions?
Reference Interview
TESTING WHAT YOU LEARNED FROM THE CANDIDATE
When the three interviews are over and the data you gathered about your candidate match up perfectly with the job and your culture, you may be tempted to skip reference checks and make an offer now, but don't skip the references!
There are three things you have to do to have a successful reference interviews:
26
Decide Who to Hire
The goal of the “Select” step of the A Method is to gather the facts you need to to decide if somebody’s skill (what they can do) and will (what they want to do) match your scorecard.
27
Red Flags
Candidate does not mention past failures.
Candidate speaks poorly of past bosses.
People most important to candidate are unsupportive of change.
Candidate seems more interested in compensation and benefits than in the job itself.
Candidate is self-absorbed.
Candidate exaggerates his or her answers.
Candidate takes credit for the work of others.
Candidate cannot explain job moves.
For managerial hires, candidate has never had to hire or fire anybody.
Candidate tries too hard to look like an expert.
28
Don't hire people who are good at interviewing.
Hire people who will be good at doing the job.
29
Sell
How to close the deal with top candidates, including
30
Candidates are more likely to accept an offer when they feel a personal connection with the company and its mission.
31
The TOP 5 ways to seal the deal
1
2
3
4
5
Fit
Family
Freedom
Fortune
Fun
32
How To Sell A Players
1
2
3
Identify which of the five F’s really matter to the candidate: fit, family, freedom, fortune, or fun.
Create and execute a plan to address the relevant F’s during the five waves of selling: during sourcing, during interviews, between offer and acceptance, between acceptance and the first day, and during the first one hundred days of the job.
Be persistent. Don’t give up until you have your A player on board
33
What Makes a Successful Business?
Management Talent
Strategy
Execution
External Factors
34
How to install the A Method for Hiring in your company
1
2
3
4
5
Make people a top priority.
Follow the A Method yourself.
Build support among your executive team or peers.
Train your team on best practices.
Cast a clear vision for the organization and reinforce it through every communication with the broader team.
6
7
8
9
Remove barriers that impede success.
Implement new policies that support the change.
Recognize and reward those who use the method and achieve results.
Remove managers who are not on board.
Celebrate wins and plan for more change.
10
35
Investing in the development of top talent can help organizations achieve long-term success.
36
37