Paul Falcone - Effective Hiring: Mastering the Interview, Offer, and Onboarding

2022 Paul Falcone

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Published by HarperCollins Leadership, an imprint of HarperCollins Focus LLC.

Published in association with Kevin Anderson & Associates: https://www.ka-writing.com/.

Topic 8: From The Emotionally Intelligent Interviewer: A Smarter Questioning Strategy. SHRM HR Daily Newsletter, March 23, 2021. Copyright 2021 by the Society for Human Resource Management. Topic 9: From Interviewing a Technical Candidate When Youre Not a Techie. SHRM HR Daily Newsletter, July 7, 2020. Copyright 2020 by the Society for Human Resource Management. Topic 10: From Interviewing Remote Employees: How to Measure and Manage the Unseen. SHRM HR Daily Newsletter, July 19, 2018. Copyright 2018 by the Society for Human Resource Management. Topic 11: From Interviewing and Evaluating Freelancers: The New Frontier of Hiring Just-in-Time and Virtual Talent. SHRM HR Daily Newsletter, July 18, 2018. Copyright 2018 by the Society for Human Resource Management. Topic 14: From Interviewing the Boss: 12 Intelligent Questions to Ask to Politely Assess Your Next Manager. SHRM HR Daily Newsletter, August 1, 2018. Copyright 2018 by the Society for Human Resource Management. All of the above used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.

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ISBN 978-1-4002-3009-9 (eBook)

ISBN 978-1-4002-3003-7 (TP)

Epub Edition December 2021 9781400230099

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021951208

Printed in the United States of America

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One of the most important responsibilities and opportunities that comes along with leadership lies in hiring the right people for the jobs in your company. Whether youre an executive vice president or a first-time supervisor, your individual performance directly reflects your teams productivity. If you hire the right people who are self-motivated, have a high level of self-awareness, and hold themselves accountable for bottom-line results, your career should sail happily along while building and growing the careers of those following in your footsteps. Conversely, if you hire the wrong people, youll spend considerable time counseling and disciplining workers who struggle just to meet minimum expectations. Often, you will be forced to do the work yourselfat the expense of your family time, your social life, and your sleep.

Self-motivated new hires find new ways of handling the workflow, assume broader responsibilities beyond their basic job description, and do their best work every daywith little need for your intervention. You recognize these workers when you see them: they typically stand out from their peers in terms of their willingness to assume additional responsibilities; take creative approaches to their work based on their natural, healthy sense of curiosity; appreciate the opportunity youve given them; and behave with gratitude. If you can find these kinds of hires for every job opening, youll be well ahead of your peers and develop a reputation as a team builder and people developer.

Unfortunately, many leaders in corporate America become jaded over the course of their careers. They reason that finding exceptional hires is more a matter of chance than planned strategy, and theyre so busy doing their day-to-day work that they often dont pay enough attention to the open positions theyre responsible for filling. Then again, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of downward spiraling because if you dont take the time to fill the open positions on your team, then you and the rest of your group become overburdened making up for the talent shortage and often plunge into a tailspin that will soon lead to burnout.

My goal is to change your perspective on the hiring and selection process. To achieve this, youll need to make a leap of faith with me on two critical fronts: First, with the tools in this book that youre about to access, you must believe that you can catapult your candidate-evaluation skills to new heights and become a magnet for top-notch talent. Second, no matter what exigencies lie before you at any given time, you have to commit to filling openings on your team as your top-most priority under all circumstances. To do anything less isnt fair to you or the other members of your team.

In short, youre only as good as the people you hire. Lets venture together now and determine what new approaches and tools for recruitment and hiring are available to you as you address this critical leadership responsibility head-on.

Note: Throughout this book, I interchange the use of his and her, and I provide examples of fictitious men and women. Obviously, all situations described in these pages can apply to anyone. Further, please bear in mind at all times that this book is not intended as a legal guide. Because the book does not purport to render legal advice, it should not be used in place of a licensed practicing attorney when proper legal counsel and guidance become necessary. You must rely on your attorney to render a legal opinion that is related to actual fact situations.

T his chapter covers what you need to know before you even begin recruiting or interviewing potential new hires. First, decide whats most important to you regarding the people you bring into your organization: What do you value most? Determine this before you even begin recruiting. Then, I offer some guidelines to how you can enhance your recruiting process by leveraging four different resources: contingency search firms, headhunters, firms to which you can outsource the entire recruiting process, and outplacement firms (which are helping downsized employees find new jobs). Ill also describe how you can recruit directly, using your own network. Finally, the chapter provides some preliminary questions you might ask job candidates as well as tips on how to screen potential interviewees over the phone before spending a longer time bringing in candidates for a full, in-person interview.

B efore you even begin your search for people to join your organization, its important to define your key criteria for evaluating resumes and selecting finalists to come in to interview. This section describes the four key attributes I look for and why; feel free to choose your own. Before you delve into isolating the core competencies for a particular position and generating behavior-based questions that highlight those competencies, you need to identify