3 Ways to Improve Talent Selection for Your Team Today and Decrease Hiring Mistakes and Hard-Bounce Turnover

Before I share with you the 3-ways I should probably share a little of my experience. I left active-duty Army in 1998 and joined a recruiting company and helped them build a Healthcare service line for hospital leaders. 

I have literally interviewed between 20,000 and 30,000 people. I wished I knew the number. If I had the foresight to know I would be doing what I do today back then, I would have kept count. 

Why does the above matter? Because I have helped 100s of companies improve their hiring practices. When doing something that many times you can get really good at the skill. Sort of like the 10,000 hours rule Malcolm Gladwell wrote about in Tipping Point. 

Since 2010 I have helped companies and leaders improve their skills in this as well. But let’s be honest most leaders only interview a handful of people in their career to make a handful of hiring decisions. But this is one of the, if not the most important decisions you make as a leader. WHO you say yes to join your team can make or break your leadership and your team culture? 

Let’s take a look at the 3-Ways and I’ll share a little more detail. 

1.  Create a WHO sCOREcard.

What in the heck is this? Think of it like this, the WHO sCOREcard is your blueprint to find the right who (person) for the position you are trying to fill. I recommend to every one of my clients and their leaders to create this tool for every department/position. It takes some front-end work and some forethought and planning, but once it’s created once it can be reproduced for all positions in your department with some minor tweaks for each new role. This tool is like prepping your garden spot for all the seeds you will plant. 

The WHO sCOREcard is everything you want to know about the person, who will be a good fit, and what skills would make them a good fit. With my clients I share templates to help them create this tool, but as you notice CORE is the key. What is the core of the person, the inside thinking, and behaviors not the outside visible skills or education? None of that matters if the person’s core would sour your culture. 

2.  Follow an outlined interview agenda

One of the biggest mistakes I have seen hiring managers make is going into an interview unprepared. The WHO sCOREcard is a first step of preparation and is a tool to guide the interview, but the agenda helps control the pace and direction of the interview and prevents you from making decisions too quickly. I have seen countless hiring managers decide to hire based on whether they like someone in the first 5 minutes because of some common interest and never dig deeper into the CORE only to find out they made a mistake a few weeks into the employment of the new candidate. I help interviewers create an interview agenda to fit the needs and style of the leader and team, but do not leave this to chance. 

Pick up our Master of Hiring pack to help get you started.

3.  Prepare your team to be part of the interview

If you are a great leader your team should be an asset during the interview process. For one, they can help you see things you might not see without their perspective, both good and bad. And number two, they can share with the candidate how you lead. 

The number one reason people make job changes today is because of their direct supervisor. If you are a great leader your team can share how you lead and how you make them better and help them grow. 

If they can’t say good things about you, you have work to do as a leader. Your team should be able to share why they love working for you as their leader, but also share why you could be tough to work for, but they have grown from your tough expectations. This will help good candidates say yes to you and weak candidates opt out themselves or help the team make a no decision if they can’t get comfortable with the candidates. 

This takes time to develop as a leader. You must train your employees well, teach them how to interview, and teach them how to talk about the culture of the team with candidates. 

Everything rises and falls on leadership. If you want to improve your talent selection these 3 ways are a good place to start. 

I wrote a book titled Quit Losing Talent. I share more ideas in that book, but you can learn more about the tools above by emailing connie@harbourresources to schedule a time for us to connect.   

Also, visit my website www.harbourresources.com and www.quitlosingtalent.com