The Process | Perfect Hire Blueprint

Don’t Settle for a Poor Hiring Process

A recent PNC survey reports that 71% of small business owners are optimistic about the economy, but only 22% expect to hire. The biggest reason for this delay in hiring is because the small business owner believes more work can be done by fewer people. This can lead to the most valuable employees (A-players) leaving the company. It may even mean that no one is available to do the hiring when the time comes.

A prudent way for a company to grow is only to hire when the current staff is overworked – but this can make hiring a challenge. Most small businesses are not continuously hiring, so the hiring process doesn’t tend to be reliably repeatable. This can lead to hiring people that are a bad fit (Mis-fitÔ) for the company.

Some causes for the hiring of Mis-fits are:

Lack of defined job profile
Lack of hiring experience
Rushed/poor process
Poor vetting
Not enough resources
Hiring by gut feel
Ignoring personal biases

In a word: Settling

Settling never helps a business long-term. I have yet to see a (non-venture backed) small business that does hiring well. That is why I developed the Perfect Hire Blueprint. But that was not enough –most companies will not follow the entire blueprint because of time constraints, or thinking all the steps aren’t necessary. They are. I couldn’t help my clients grow without good employees and leaders, so I found that a blueprint wasn’t enough – I had to help them hire or recruit and hire for them. So we started recruiting for our clients in a way that makes sense for them: on an hourly basis.

Fixed price recruiters (I call them headhunters) charge way too much – usually 20-30% of the hire’s first year’s salary and that is too much for most small businesses. We find that we can keep the cost around 5-10% by billing hourly. In addition, we make the process transparent and give the client all information on every candidate. We even guarantee results if we use the entire process; that is how confident we are with the Perfect Hire Blueprint.

This turns out to be very good for the client. They don’t try to recruit by using a poor hiring process, they can stay focused on growing their business, and they get A-players to join that fit their company culture.

Do you have hiring needs? Contact us today to get started with the Perfect Hire Blueprint, and find your company’s A-Players.

Case Study – Industrial Sales

We recently helped a company hire a Sales Person for a remote position in NY/Southern CT (Home office in MA). We followed every step of the Perfect Hire Blueprint process and hired an enthusiastic, experiences sales person near the budgeted compensation level just 43 days from posting the first ad.

We took most of the load off of the employer: We posted the ad, we collected the resumes, we screened the candidates, we did the initial phone screens, and we passed along those who were qualified to be interviewed. What may be surprising is the efficiency in which it was done.

We had 44 total candidates. We interviewed 3, and administered a behavioral assessment on the most qualified. A total of ~5 hours were used for interviewing by the employer. One applicant was a perfect fit. Unlike when a headhunter is used, we highlighted the candidates’ weaknesses rather than trying to sell “our candidate.” What might also be surprising is that the job postings cost less than $150 total.

Many companies hate the thought of the effort and expense of hiring. In this case, expense and time for the employer could be described as efficient. This is not atypical when using the complete process.

The Perfect Hire Blueprint process works! Find out how the process addresses these challenges. If you have a job that needs to be filled, contact us.

industrial-sales-infographic

Replacing a Departed Leader? Avoid the Pendulum Effect

When replacing a departed leader at or near the top of the pyramid, it is human nature to focus on the areas that the past leader lacked. While it seems to make sense that the company would grow by improving the leader’s weaknesses, I’ve experienced two cases where the focus on the weaknesses overshadowed the strengths required for the position.

In both cases the leader retired after a long stint from a very public position. One was a town manager, and the other was a senior minister. In both cases committees were formed and the members were intelligent, influential and knowledgeable of the requirements, yet in both cases the committees recommended and hired someone who was almost an extreme opposite of the former leader.

Dictionary.com provides the following definition of the pendulum effect:

1. Also called pendulum law. Physics. a law, discovered by Galileo in 1602, that describes the regular, swinging motion of a pendulum by the action of gravity and acquired momentum.
2. the theory holding that trends in culture, politics, etc., tend to swing back and forth between opposite extremes.

In definition one, gravity is responsible for the action. The bottom of the pendulum is the steady, stable state (equilibrium). The bottom is where the pendulum wants to go, but it overshoots its goal, then tries to return to it. Definition two is what we see in the political system: driven by a group of people who don’t like the current administration, the majority votes for the other party.

In the case of the town manager (politics, but not elected), the previous leader was a micromanager and controller. While the townspeople didn’t know the specifics of how the town operation functioned, it appeared to be well run and it was well regarded, desirable, and ranked at the top for towns in the state. What wasn’t apparent by many was that the managers under the top manager never had to make decisions because the town manager would approve them all. The committee that was formed to hire the next town manager decided they wanted more of a delegator for the next leader. The pendulum had swung to the other extreme. While I approve of more delegation, there was no transition plan put in place for the new manager. It was like the inmates ran the asylum: total chaos! Luckily, after a few years and much angst by all who worked there and those on the fringes, the 2nd level leaders adapted to the new management style.

In the case of the senior minister, the pendulum swung from an introverted intellectual to an extroverted multitasker. The search committee surveyed the congregation, looking for a scholar who was a good teacher, but they also wanted someone warmer with a higher emotional intelligence. While the new pastor received his PhD soon after starting in his new position, his sermons were not as intellectual as the previous minister, and many came to miss the old sermons.

Both of these positions are incredibly demanding, and there is a very long list of skills needed to succeed.

If the starting point for the new leader is the position of the departed leader, then you will likely get someone who on the other side of the pendulum arc. The further away the previous leader was from the stable, steady state (amplitude), the further the next leader will be from equilibrium due to the kneejerk reaction to the prior’s weaknesses. That’s just how a pendulum works – if it’s pushed a large distance from the bottom, it will go the same distance up the other side. No matter the position to be filled, people tend to try to hire someone who was either successful in a position, or the opposite of someone who failed.

The pendulum effect can be disrupted by benchmarking the job. The benchmarking process that we use for hiring uncovers the requirements of the job, and doesn’t focus on the people who may have previously held the position.

It’s important to understand what is unique about one job versus other related jobs. The critical success factors (I prefer key accountabilities) are determined through a process of brainstorming, grouping and prioritizing. Then, a handful of stakeholders take an online assessment – not about themselves, but about the job. This creates the benchmark for the ideal candidate: the one that can stay in equilibrium due to possessing the behaviors, skills, motivation, and acumen needed to succeed.

Leadership positions can make or break a business. Companies need to stop guessing and start assessing the candidates, then compare them to a customized job benchmark to find the ideal leader.

Get the Perfect Hire Blueprint eBook on Amazon for detailed info on the entire hiring process, or contact us to get a personalized solution for your business!

Hiring Model – Do Only What YOU Need to Do

Are you a small company? Do you lack in-house HR with hiring expertise? You need to revamp your hiring model. Either you’re hiring on the cheap and getting mostly B-players, or you’re paying too much for a headhunter who cares more about his own commission than placing the right candidate in the position.

We’ve been successful helping companies hire A-Players quickly – not by taking shortcuts, but by doing the steps they don’t do well. It is at a low fixed price and the company remains in control.

Company does:	Company outsources:
1. Helps build the ideal candidate profile
	2. Job description and ad placement 3. Resume filtering 4. Phone screens
5. 1^st interview
	6. Assessment administration, interpretation and comparison to the ideal candidate profile 7. Deep dive questions for second interview
8. 2^nd Interview 9. Reference Checks 10. Offer
	11. Inform applicants that role is filled
12. Onboarding*

*Some may feel that onboarding doesn’t belong here, but you don’t have a good hire until he is integrated into the team.

The interviewers need to get some training before they interview, but they should do the interviewing. The hiring manager should do the reference checks, because she needs to know the good and the bad before the offer and needs insight into managing the new hire.

Whether you are hiring many quickly or just one periodically, this process will deliver better employees at a cheaper price than other means. We call this the Perfect Hire Blueprint.

Are Headhunters Like Scott Boras?

If you are as avid a Boston sports fan as I am, you may be aware of Scott Boras. He’s the guy who tends to get the highest priced contracts for star players. These players tend to become mercenaries – moving to the team who will pay the highest price and considering little else.

Boras has represented athletes who have left the Red Sox for the Yankees (Johnny Damon, Jacoby Ellsbury, Stephen Drew), teased the Red Sox with star players who signed with the Yankees (Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira), and pushed up the price on catcher Jason Varitek. He currently represents Red Sox Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley, Jr. I believe these two talented young players will leave the team or will want a huge salary. In a typical agreement, the agent gets 5%, so it is in his best interest to get the highest price. If you were a team owner, would you want Scott Boras to represent your players? I don’t think so.

My point is that headhunters (aka independent recruiters) are a lot like Scott Boras: they are incentivized to get the highest salary possible when placing a candidate, and poach that person soon after to place him in another company. If the employee doesn’t leave, he may ask for more money. This leads to a mercenary mentality rather than one of a loyal, long-term employee. Why would a company allow this? Why would a company want to pay 20-35% of a year’s salary for a mercenary unless it was a desperate situation?

There are three acceptable reasons to use headhunters:

You need the person immediately (zero schedule flexibility), your recruiting engine is not currently running, and you are OK potentially sacrificing long-term retention.
You’re looking for a needle-in-the-haystack skill set – truly rare to find.
Unemployment (i.e. available talent) is at historical lows. For example: 50 year lowest unemployment rate in the US was 3.4%.
(Any combination of these make hiring harder and are also are acceptable.)

Professional sports teams experience these reasons, but for a small business, using a headhunter rarely makes sense. Other than the reasons above, headhunters are used because of ignorance, laziness or very short term thinking. I’m sure that some people will disagree with me, but if you have a solid hiring process, you don’t need to use headhunters. Posting a job listing in the right places will find a talent pool. When a business hires from this pool, it negotiates directly with the candidate, and works to develop and retain the employee thereafter. I’d be hard pressed to invest heavily in a candidate that came through a headhunter.

If you can’t do it all in house, get help with the time consuming tasks, such as crafting an effective job posting, culling resumes, and filtering candidates. Once a candidate comes in for an interview, the company needs to own the process and have the direct relationship. This reduces the amount of leverage for the candidate, allowing the company to steer to a favorable result.

A successful hiring process such as the Perfect Hire Blueprint can be executed by a company of any size to find A-players. Yes, finding the right person takes time, energy, passion and coordination, but the ROI is worth it. Your work team can go from good to great by getting the right players on the bus.

While a Major League Baseball team will always have to worry about annual, seasonal turnover of top talent on a fixed 25-person team, companies do not live in such extreme conditions to warrant paying an agent for a mercenary with the desired skills.