Buffs In Chucks

„Hire the best people, and then get out of their way.“ – William McKnight.

Recruiting is one of the fundamental components of the "Employee Lifecycle." Considering the severity of problems that a mis-hire can bring, it's surprising that the topic does not receive more attention. The impacts and associated costs can be enormous and are often underestimated.

Let's take a brief detour into personal life. Would you let someone move in with you after having a fifteen-minute small talk? Or even marry this person? For the vast majority of people, that would be out of the question. In professional life, it's actually not much different.

It is all the more surprising that recruiting is seen as an entry-level position in HR. It is also surprising that hiring managers, especially those with more professional experience, are often sent into interviews without training. "Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What are your 3 strengths and your 3 weaknesses? If you could be an animal, which animal would you be?" Therefore, it is not surprising that such nonsense is heard in interviews.

Every hiring is a PROJECT.

Headhunters, as well as recruiters in Talent Acquisition Teams, can tell you all about it. They are tasked with filling a new position, sometimes just via email, and ideally, it should have been done yesterday. This sets the stage for a mis-hire. No. Every hiring is a project. You don't have time, you make time, and this applies to recruiting as well. A meeting between the hiring manager and the recruiter, where the requirements for the position are precisely worked out, is the least that should be done. What professional skills should the person bring? What exactly needs to be done? What transferable skills or personal characteristics are needed? What is the current team composition? By when does the position need to be filled? How much training time will there be? What is the salary limit? ... and these are far from all the questions that need to be discussed before starting a new job posting.

Only when all of this is clarified do we get to the actual point of this post.

Target Non Toxic (TNT)

TNT stands for Target Non Toxic and is my golden rule of recruiting. If we look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs and transform it into a Buff-style recruiting cake, then TNT is the basic need. I can put it more directly: Don't hire assholes.

It might seem trivial, but in the end, it's what really matters. Who wants to spend their time with toxic people? How high are the collateral damages that a toxic person can cause in an existing team? How does it feel for a leader to manage such a person in the team? Yes, there are people who are specialized in that one specific thing and unfortunately, have to be hired regardless of their personality. But let's be honest: How often is that really the case?

Toxic personalities can be very successful in the short term and, moreover, quite charming when it suits them. This is true in both professional and private life. From the charming partner who turns out to be a toxic relationship nightmare to the serial killer (like Ted Bundy or Jack Unterweger).

What behavior is actually classified as toxic depends on the assessment of the environment or the interviewer. More on this later.

TNT alone is not enough for successful hiring. We need a bit more explosive power. And that's where C4 comes into play.

4 Characteristics of an A-Player

Let's add a layer of plastic explosive to our cake - C4.

 

C4 stands for:

• Curious
• Creative
• Committed
• Collaborative

Curiosity is of particular importance. I won't delve further into this here, as the topic deserves its own blog post, so more on this in the near future. Back to recruiting.

Actually, everyone can look for their own four Cs, or Ks, Bs, whatever. The four qualities I've mentioned are, in my opinion, a guarantee that a person will be an asset to the company, regardless of their field of work, especially if we have already established that the person is not toxic. More and more companies are defining in their recruiting strategy that they hire for "attitude" and not "skill." Companies are increasingly specializing, and for a long-term career, the right attitude is often worth more than the right education. With the right personality, the rest can be learned quickly. Unfortunately, in practice, the defined recruiting strategy is often not implemented.

To complete the cake, we add the professional skills as well as the personal wishes and preferences of the hiring manager on top.

The personal wishes and preferences of the hiring manager (YOU) are worthless if the other 3 levels are not met. Technical skills also lose significant value without C4 and TNT. In recruiting, we work from the bottom up, not the other way around.

How do we now recognize if a candidate truly meets these points?

The S(T)AR - Method

A very popular recruiting technique is the STAR method. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. The T is probably there just because SAR doesn't sell as well. However, SAR suffices for us today.

The goal is to evaluate past behavior in order to predict future behavior. A classic mistake often made is to ask about theoretical future behavior: "If a colleague calls in sick in the morning and today is your day off, how would you react?" These and similar questions are labeled as 'worthless.' I am not asking about actual future behavior, but merely if the person knows what I want to hear. Encountering hypothetical questions in the subjunctive in interviews is worthless.

Instead, we use the SAR method. As soon as someone tells me they are flexible, I immediately ask for a concrete example (Situation) of when this person last demonstrated their flexibility at work (Action) and what the result was (Result). It's not about uncovering a lie, but understanding what the other person means by "flexibility" and whether it matches my definition. From the example, I can judge whether this form of flexibility meets the company's expectations. The same can be done with any other personal characteristic, whether it's commitment, teamwork, or creativity. The SAR method helps us put words into real context and thereby make a better assessment.

In the previous paragraph, I noted that the goal is not primarily to expose liars. However, it is indeed a good method for uncovering lies. The human brain can remember details very well when a moment was remarkable. Everyday things are hardly remembered, but in a special moment, one can recall surprisingly many small details. Someone who claims to be a very good salesperson can be tested using the SAR method by asking, for example, about their last major sale (Situation), what they specifically did to achieve it (Action), and what the outcome was (Result). If the example is too superficial and seems made up, simply ask for more details. How large was the amount, what product/quantity was sold? How was the deal concluded? What was the customer wearing at the meeting? If the sales closure was indeed remarkable, the person will be able to remember all these details. Try it out for yourself.

Everything FIT in the GRID?

The second technique that I recommend to hiring managers and recruiters is the "FIT-GRID". With the help of the FIT-GRID, we can determine whether there is a FIT or not on various topics. Let's illustrate this with an example:

I ask my counterpart which employer has been the best in their career so far. Then, I have them describe what was commendable about this employer and what areas had room for improvement. As a recruiter or hiring manager, I know very well what is good about our company and what has potential for improvement. With the help of the FIT-GRID, I now check whether there are more positive or negative overlaps.

If I am aware that our company is often disorganized and lacks clear processes, and the applicant highly values well-structured processes at their previous employer, then we have a negative overlap. The applicant on the Y-axis likes something (+), but unfortunately, it is not present in our company on the X-axis (-). The result is (+/-). If the applicant liked taking on responsibility early at their previous employer, and this is also common in our company, then that is a positive overlap (+/+).

The candidate's dislike of something that is not present in our company also represents a positive overlap. The candidate does not like large company events (-), and our company does not offer them (-). The result (-/-) is also a positive overlap and is another indication that there could be a FIT.

The Y-axis of the FIT-GRID is always focused on the applicant. However, various things can be placed on the X-axis. The tasks of a job or the behavior of the supervisor, you name it. The FIT-GRID visualizes the candidate's FIT and is easy to implement during an interview without distracting too much from the conversation. After the interview, we simply count the points of positive or negative overlaps and thus get an overall picture that can help us make a decision.

Recruiting KPI

Success in recruiting can be measured. The metric used for this is called the Integration Success Rate (ISR). The ISR indicates how many new employees remain in the company after their hiring. This can be applied over various time periods.

Typically, if there is an exit within the first three months (or six months, depending on the industry and position), it can be assumed to be a mis-hire. It doesn't matter whether the person resigned themselves or if we had to cut ties shortly after hiring them. If the interview was conducted properly, many information asymmetries can be eliminated, significantly increasing the chance that it's not a mis-hire.

There is no 100% guarantee. A realistic value for a good Integration Success Rate is 85%. If, after six months, 85% of all newly hired employees are still with the company, the recruiting team has done a good job.

In summary, it can be said that sufficient attention and time must be devoted to the hiring process. Preparation is crucial, and during the interview, it is important to be able to infer future behavior or a candidate's FIT using techniques (SAR and FIT-GRID). Furthermore, if we establish as a basic rule that we do not hire toxic people, then we meet the criteria for TNT recruiting.