by Dave Clough
How one sees the world around himself. This view measures clarity and understanding of people, tasks and systems. It could also be looked at in terms of feeling, doing and thinking from an external standpoint. They are:
Understanding Others
Practical Thinking
Systems Judgment
How one sees himself. This view measures clarity and understanding of himself, his roles in life and his direction for the future. The internal dimensions are a reflection of himself from both personal and professional viewpoints. They are:
Sense of Self
Role Awareness
Self-Direction
When a candidate scores low in these areas, it could indicate an issue being masked, or that he is already at the top end of his potential. Conversely, when someone scores high in these areas, they have the potential to become more than they are. These people could be your next leaders and the key to your succession planning.
Step 2: Determine Vital Responsibilities
The 3-6 stakeholders will determine what the unique requirements (Vital Responsibilities) are for this job. What is required for someone to succeed in this position? Brainstorm the reason, group the responses by similarity, and then prioritize the groups. This will help you determine what responsibilities are vital.
This step may be the most important because it gets all the stakeholders to agree on what is vital. I highly recommend that each stakeholder completes the Job Assessment to gather this information.
Note: I have facilitated groups larger than 6 because there was a desire for inclusion. The resulting Benchmark would have been virtually the same if the Benchmark was built with any 3 of the 6. Also, at least 3 are important because the third breaks the tie between the first 2. After the 4th Assessment, adding additional input rarely makes a significant difference in the Benchmark. The main reason is that those taking the job Assessment are referring to the Vital Responsibilities that the group agreed to in the facilitated session.
Step 3: Building the Benchmark
While it is possible to find a perfect hire without a Benchmark, I strongly recommend one. Steps 1 and 2 can enable some consensus, but it is hard to implement consistently.
The Benchmark is created with each stakeholder taking a Job Assessment – that is an Assessment on what is needed for the job. They refer to the Vital Responsibilities document that was created with the input from all the stakeholders. This ensures that everyone is on the same page for what is needed for the position.
The Assessment will take between 15-35 minutes depending on how many disciplines make up the Benchmark (it can assess between 2 and 4 disciplines).
After everyone completes the Assessment, the results are merged into the multi-user Talent Report, and the Benchmark uses the average score of the group to identify the desired behavior, drivers, and soft skills that are the most important for the Perfect Hire. If there are outliers that would skew the results, the specifics are inspected to see if the results should be included or excluded.
Now you have the Avatar for the position. This report not only describes what the ideal candidate looks like, but it also provides interview questions to extract the information needed to find the right person.
Why is a Benchmark necessary?
Without an online job Assessment and using a profile, the hiring process is less dependent on the interpretation of a personal Assessment, and more dependent on human interaction. This means many steps in the process will be more susceptible to human bias. It has been proven that we each have biases that we don’t know we have, and it is these biases that lead to Mis-fits. To get the perfect hire, objective data is needed, and Assessments provide that data.
What happens if you do not have a profile? Paraphrasing from Alice in Wonderland, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” Many people have a rough idea of what they want in a new hire, but without the profile, it is likely that the person hired will not be the right fit for the long term. A vague idea among the interviewers is a bad idea, since everyone will have their own interpretation.
One of my clients hired a candidate who had applied for a sales position. The owner of the company decided that since the candidate had recently finished his MBA, the person offered much more than was needed for the sales position. The owner thought that the candidate might be the right person to get on the bus, but there wasn’t an existing seat for him. (The book Good to Great tells you to “get the right people on the bus, and get them in the right seats.”) A new position needed to be created, and the owner had a rough idea what it might be.
The candidate (let’s call him Joe) was very confident in his abilities in virtually every job or subject matter (he referred to himself as a Renaissance man). Joe was hired, but his position was vague, so the other employees didn’t know how to interact with him.
Joe was clearly intelligent, and seemed to be given special projects to do. He would talk about high level business topics and wanting to be general manager one day. There was no clear communication and no clear expectations set. Within a year it was evident that Joe had managed to get under the skin of too many people, and the view of these people was that he just didn’t fit in.
After paying his salary for a year and getting very little ROI, the owner decided that there wasn’t need for Joe’s skills. Even Einstein wouldn’t be a good hire if he doesn’t fit the company’s culture and was not given clear direction. The Perfect Hire Profile specifies the values of the company, and motivators for the position. If these are in alignment, the probability of the perfect hire increases.
Summary & Action Items
Why is a Benchmark necessary?
To take away the human bias and get the perfect hire based on objective data gathered by Assessments
3-6 people are involved
Vital Responsibilities are created
Job Assessments are taken by stakeholders
Multi-Respondent Benchmark is created
Interview questions included in the Benchmark
Full Benchmark binder is created
A Job Benchmark will be the litmus test as to whether a candidate has the desired qualities necessary to be successful in the position.
Why is the position needed?
Step 1: Perfect Hire Profile
Step 2: Determine Vital Responsibilities
Step 3: Building the Benchmark
Chapter 5: Job Description
The job description is an important step. It is critical that all involved understand what the role of the candidate will be. While this should be covered under Benchmarking, this process fleshes out the SOAR Model of HR problem solving:
Situation or problem to solve
Obstacles to success
Actions needed
Results expected
Not only should the job description outline the skills and competencies necessary for the role, but it also defines where a position fits within an organization. It can be used to manage employee performance, as well.
What will this new employee do? Make sure you are very clear about the function of the job – this will help you write the ad, reduce the number of bad applicants and ensure that the right applicants are submitting their resumes for the job.
A good job description includes:
The job title
Department and Manager (who the person reports to)
Responsibilities
Qualifications, skills and experience required
Keep the job description concise, clear and conversational.
To see some examples of effective job descriptions, visit PerfectHireBlueprint.com/Resources
Summary & Action Items
A good job description includes:
The job title
Department and Manager (who the person reports to)
Responsibilities
Qualifications, skills and experience required
Keep the job description concise, clear and conversational.
Chapter 6: Creation of Ad
How to post a great job ad
The job ad is NOT the same as a job description. Think about a soap commercial on TV. Soap is not easy to differentiate, but companies try to appeal to their target audience. Here are some examples:
Ivory
No perfume, and it floats
Dove
Women, moisturizing
Zest
Clean, no filmy feeling
Irish Spring
Men, fresh scent
After all, it is just soap – it would clean anyone. But soap companies know that if you try to appeal to everyone, you will target no one and will not stand out from the crowd. Your job ad needs to stand out, so don’t make it generic.
How do I reach the ideal person? How do I get enough candidates? Tell them exactly what the job is, and speak directly to the perfect fit. Fish in the right pond to get the right people for the job.
In order to make a good hire, you first need to attract great candidates. Writing a highly targeted ad using the right keywords and phrases will attract more qualified candidates and make the hiring process much smoother.
What separates good ads from average ads is how they are written: the ad should be written to “speak to” your ideal candidate. When the right person reads the ad, he should think, “That is my ideal job.” If he thinks that, he is more likely to apply, and also more likely to do any prequalification activities that you require.
You Talkin’ to Me?
Your ad should start with WHY. Why should the person work for your company in this position? The Why is the motivator. The Why is the reason your company is in business – not the thing your company does.
The job ad needs to speak to the ideal target candidate, and if this person isn’t actively seeking a job change, you may have only one chance to catch her attention. Studies have shown that what the company stands for is as important as the job itself, and this has never been truer than for a company trying to hire Millennials.
As mentioned previously, the Job Profile will tell you what kind of person you are looking for to fill a certain position. Would the person be better suited to the position if he were task oriented or people oriented? Does he love the details, or is he faster paced? Does he value a high return of investment, or does the job require more social awareness?
Even within a company culture, each role will have specific requirements, and the person in the role may need to be motivated differently than the others. What motivates a salesperson might not be what motivates a customer service representative.
For instance, if you are hiring a bookkeeper or controller, you need to attract someone who is detail oriented and who likes to deal with financial matters. The ad might use words like Careful, Cautious, Quality, and a phrase like “I get it right.” The ideal candidate will be able to relate to these words and phrases easily, as they will be inherent to his personality. In contrast, how many successful sales people do you think would answer an ad like that?
Our experience is that when you write a highly targeted ad, fewer people apply – but more of them are a better fit. This not only saves you time in culling resumes, but also provides a qualified candidate pool.
We recently helped a company hire an inside salesperson. You might think that this would be a typical sales profile, but the Job Profile indicated that we should be hiring a more introverted, process oriented person who will keep making calls and follow a script. The role required that the person not take shortcuts, and also enter the details of all interactions into a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
This role was atypical from an outside salesperson because of the attention to detail and strict adherence to the required process. This is why the Job Profile is crucial to the hiring process.
How do I write the ad?
The Job Ad is a marketing piece. Do not confuse the Ad with the job description. The Ad title does not have to be the title of the position – it should contain the words that your target candidate would search for.
Using the information from the Multi-Respondent Job Report and notes from meeting with owners, management, and employees currently in the position, write an ad for the open position. Make sure to reference qualities and skills from Job Report.
Remember that candidates are searching for ads on the job boards – keywords in the title may bring you to the top of their search list. For example, if you are hiring a salesperson and your internal job title is “Customer Advocate,” I would include the word “Sales” in the title of the ad because that is likely what is being searched.
The ad is meant to attract the candidates that you want and exclude those who do not meet your requirements. Don’t set out the minimum criteria that anyone can meet. The ad should be clear about what a successful candidate looks like.
For instance, the phrases fast-paced, risk taker, customer facing, and relationship building would not attract someone who wants to be behind the scenes in support, but a true salesperson may identify with these qualifiers and be attracted to the position.
A successful ad:
Has a simple, clear, compelling headline:
Accounts Payable Specialist – flexible hours & career advancement
Health Coach – help our members make positive changes
Inside Sales – great work/life balance
Starts with WHY – paints an exciting vision:
Why is your company in business?
Why should the candidate want to work for your company?
Use phrases such as: “You’ll help people…” and “We’ll enable...because you…”
Shares the vital requirements and key performance indicators of the Job Profile:
Job description and qualifications
Great candidates should be drawn to the job because it just feels right
Includes WIIFM (what’s in it for me)
What are the compensation and benefits?
How would this enhance their career?
Is it an “all in” job or does it appeal to those seeking work/life balance?
Challenges the candidate:
Gets at the underlying motivations
Come right out and say, “if this job does not speak to your soul, don’t apply.” Use the information from the Job Report to attract the right personality. Write TO the person you are looking to attract for the position. Tell them exactly what the job is, and speak directly to the perfect fit. You’ll attract quality candidates, and heighten your chances of making the perfect hire.
For examples of effective ads, visit PerfectHireBlueprint.com/Resources
Summary & Action Items
Your ad should start with WHY. Use the information from the Multi-Respondent Job Report about what a successful candidate looks like.
A successful ad:
Has a simple, clear, compelling headline
Starts with WHY
Shares the vital requirements and key performance indicators of the Job Profile
Challenges the candidate
Tells them WIIFM
Chapter 7: Placement of Ad (Sourcing)
As the competition for great talent and the need to fill positions gets more frantic, the placement of ads is all the more important. You want to carefully consider WHERE your ideal candidate is looking.
Large companies have many openings, so their goal is to get great people to apply for any open position. Even if a candidate is not a perfect fit for a specific job posting, the company wants to keep them engaged until the time when there is a good fit. This includes having their own recruiting events, pushing info out to candidates in a nurturing sequence of information to keep them excited about the company, and engaging in social media.
For the small company that is not hiring constantly, all of these tasks add up to too much overhead. I’ve compiled this list of what I’ve found to be the most effective, best “bang-for-your-buck” websites:
Company website:
Job seekers often
have an idea of a certain company to work for, and may have already formed a relationship – either as a customer or with a personal relationship with an employee. The candidate already knows the company, and is interested in applying for a job to work there. By posting directly on your company website, this is the easiest way for interested candidates to see all available openings that may suit them.
