How to Pick the Right Candidate from a Pool?

Evaluating people and determining who is the right person for you and your job is a VERY difficult task. In fact, the best way to know is to have actual, real work experience from the person that you can evaluate them on. So, if you can afford internships or can afford a prolonged testing period, you are in a better position than many others and will make a better decision. However, if you are not, here are some tools to help you pick a more qualified candidate.

First, remember this statement, “Past experience is a good indicator of future performance.” Since we are all habitual people, there is no better way to determine what you would do in the future, especially as things start to get more normal and past the probationary periods, other than looking at the past.

Second, know what you want for the position posted. Know the skills and experiences that have to be in place at time of hire. By doing a little bit of pre-brainstorming, you can ask more directed questions and for more applicable information.

1. Ask for the candidates to show samples of work related to the job – project plans, requirements documentation, designs, flow-charts, etc. People who can’t produce these will take themselves out of the running and limit your evaluation to those that are more qualified. Also, these samples allow you to have a better understanding of what was and can be produced by the candidate rather than only relying on the resume.
2. Understandability – communication is key to any job. Is all the information presented (resume, samples, flow-charts, etc.) easily understandable/readable to any user or does the candidate have to spend a lot of time explaining it? Information should be as intuitive as possible.
3. Resume review – follow the timeline: (1) look at how many jobs the person had (how often did they switch), (2) look for any gaps in time and ask for an explanation, and (3) look for consistency in information presented on the resume and what they tell you.
4. Education IS important! Look for relevant education to the job. It is true that experience is also vital, but having the right educational background and experience is even more powerful and complete. You can’t easily mix an Associated Degree in Accounting with 20 years experience to a job in Graphical Design. I would prefer an Art Degree with 3 years web development experience.
5. Focus interview questions on one or two key projects, probing about various components rather than on 20 projects over their lifetime. Ask about how detailed the analysis was, how much stakeholder involvement there was, how communication was done and how the change management process (people issues) were handled.
6. Rely on your hunch and what your general feel is telling you about the person and the fit that you are getting out of the conversation. Maybe they can’t work with some team members or work with the hiring manager’s supervisory style, etc.
7. Ensure that you use the probationary period wisely to determine if what you thought is what you got. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by. It is much more costly over the long run to keep an employee that was not a good fit than to go out and find another one.

It is not easy to look at some papers and have one or two discussions and pick the best person; however, if you are willing, there are some ways to trim down to a select group or individual.

What is “Good” Customer Service?

When you see good customer service, you just know it, you can feel it. There doesn’t have to be explicit metrics that tells you how good your service has been; metrics help you to improve certain areas, but customers don’t care about your metrics.

Many times I have come across organizations, teams and leaders who want to improve on customer service. So they begin and do a whole bunch of things and you see some movement in the right direction, but it isn’t complete.

What are the dimensions of “Good” customer service?

1. First of all, you already know what “Good” customer service is but you may not practice it.
2. Good customer service is a behavior.
3. The desired effect is what the customer perceives as being good not what you as the provider of the service think is good.
4. Good service does not have gimmicks. You have to mean what you do, not just pretend based on some training you received. For example,
• Smile because you want to. People will know you are faking it; you are only fooling yourself.
• Solve problems because that’s what you know you are there to do.
5. The training is rigorous – organizations with consistent good service train their staff anywhere from 10-16 weeks. You can’t change behavior with a 2 hour or 1-day session!
6. Handoffs are seamless because they have been thought out and are well designed. You aren’t told to go find someone else to help you i.e., “We don’t do that here, go to xyz department…”
7. There is ownership! Own up to the fact that you are there to help someone else with their issues and that you have to carry the ball and coordinate with others if necessary. You can’t duck responsibility!
8. The employee sees himself/herself as a service provider and problem solver and understands that he/she has to step outside of his/her position description/role from time to time. People will sense and know that you are boxing yourself to a “Role”.

In summary, good customer service can be sensed, if you fake it, you are only fooling yourself. Don’t just talk the talk, be willing to walk the walk or go the extra mile because that’s what you are there to do and the issue/problem requires you to do so. If you do, customers will know what you are doing is “Good”.

What's Wrong with Creating Organization "Experts"?

In my experience, I have repeatedly come across managers in various organizations that rely on the knowledge of a few.  In fact they refer to these individuals as the "go to" people and as "experts" on a particular subject matter or process.  The entire organization depends on these people to get certain issues resolved.  The problem with creating these people in the first place is the dependence that starts to develop.  The knowledge that they possess is so valuable that when they leave/quit, are on vacation/sick or change positions/roles in the organization, all the knowledge goes with them.  These employees are commonly termed "Trusted Employees".

Creating "Experts" is a short-term and immature tactic/strategy in knowledge management; sometimes necessary due to pressures of the job and timing, but definitely not good for the long-run.

So, what can be done?  A number of key steps can be taken to deal with this problem:

1. Start by establishing a knowledge management program in your organization.
2. Some simpler tactics include:
• Put knowledge sharing in the person's Position Description and ensure they take time to teach others.
• Incorporate shadowing and cross-training so others learn from the "experts".
• Establish shared repositories that have key pieces of documentation available for everyone to use when needed.  Ensure that documentation is part of the job duties of the "expert".

By doing some of these simple and more long-term things, you institutionalize the knowledge in the organization and the dependence is more on the processes rather than on the people.

How Many Should I Interview before I Hire?

In order to select qualified candidates for a given position there is a Human Resource research rule of thumb to keep in mind: you need to at least interview about seven (7) people to make a good selection. Too few than seven will not give you enough of a representation on the qualities and skill sets that exist in your market place. This rule goes even further to suggest you DO NOT hire and do a repost of the position if you don’t get seven applicants! More than seven is fine and will give you a greater perspective on the types of people and skill sets available to you, but many, many more interviews just makes your life difficult because interviews take time – preparation, scheduling, interview, review and selection. In some circumstances and for very key positions, the pool should be wider, for instance, for a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) position; the pool should be in the double digits: 15 – 50.

Also, remember my other blog article, “Why a blog on "Growing Companies"?”, which mentioned…"...when hiring a consultant, ask for seven (7) references...you don't want your organization to be the teaching ground for your consultants; let them get their feet wet somewhere else and apply solid, tested concepts in your organization..."