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Hiring set for a quick right turn
“There can be no bad hires, only bad hiring managers,” goes an old HR principle. It’s not just that the wrong answers have edged out the wrong candidates; it’s those right questions that are not asked that have seen the right candidate out of the door.
Primarily, hiring managers need to combine tact along with knowledge of the positions they are hiring for. But as organisations are walking the economic tightrope, hiring of the extremely fit talent becomes paramount.
Hiring in droves at the campuses was a good option when freshers were considered. The process was set to grab the bright ones based on college performance. A small test to see if the hire would be a good team player helped make the selection easy. At the middle levels too the hiring was not difficult. Experience was the main criteria and if the candidate had earlier gone through two project cycles, he was good to be hired. But with companies going through the bend and talent at the upper tiers leaving for a better and stable future, hiring managers have to be retrained to think of getting hires that fit the current and future needs of the organisation. Roles may have to be redesigned in the organisation to meet new and unforeseen challenges. The job descriptions of the redefined roles will have to be redrawn. Unless precise job descriptions are framed, the hiring process will not yield desired results.
Hiring managers will have to have a deep insight into the organisation’s plans on how it wants to move forward. Without this vital business information, hiring right will be an uphill task. Candidates may have experience but that may not be good enough to tackle problems in the future.
Asking probing questions to get the best applicants remains the first task for any manager while selecting candidates for the job. First impressions will just not help in judging a candidate.
Experience of the candidate will have to be dealt with deeply. The entire career history needs to be gone through with questions that can bring out the stated and unstated abilities of the aspirant.
Questions that can bring out the true working style and career ambitions need to be carefully framed to know if the candidate is progressing on his desired career goals.
Challenges faced by the candidate on a situation basis must be elicited to clearly know if he is ready to pick up new challenges and work on them with dedication.
Candidates with a failed project elsewhere may not be now looked down upon. The reason for failure, the lessons learnt from those situations and the ability to turn failure into success under conditions of stress may prove an advantage to the candidate. Organisations are looking for talent that will not give up easily even in failure. People with hard earned organisational skills are the need of the hour.
The hiring manager has to be highly skilled and tactical to get this information out of the candidate and match it to the job requirements and determine if he can fit into the organisation.
Organisations are spreading out their hiring time. Interview rounds can stretch to six and more. Managers from different departments who don multiple roles interview the candidate on different aspects of his experience and skills.
Executives and managers are given the responsibility to build the team they feel will work for them at all given times, not just when the going is good. Managements trust their managers to pick the best talent and get them on board. Hiring managers are ultimately responsible for picking the right members to go with the organisation’s objectives and deliver the expected results. The writing on the wall stands clearer than ever before – you recruit on your own peril. You last as long your team delivers.
Finding people with future ready skills and knowledge for times ahead will be the foremost objective of organisations. Hiring as a function is set for a 360-degree turn.
