Behavioral interviews make it much harder for candidates to put their spin on their responses because they employ a totally different mindset from traditional interviews.  Behavioral interview questions demand facts rather than opinions.  And this allows you, as the hirer, to make your own opinions of your candidate’s work, which is where the power should be.

Traditional interviews are easy to distort

A traditional interview might involve a query such as: “How do you deal with conflicts in the workplace?”  It’s designed to answer a very reasonable concern that any interviewer might have, but that question doesn’t solicit as valuable of a response as a behavioral one because it relies on an implied hypothetical situation.

The interviewee has the opportunity to answer a question like that from the perspective of their ideal self.  They can (without lying) say how they think that they would handle such a situation in the future.  Or they might respond with how they generally think they’ve dealt with such a situation in the past.  But the very fact that they’re sitting in a job interview will prime them for giving an answer that is based on what they think they are capable of, rather than what experience has shown to be true.

Behavioral interviews let you be the judge

Think about the response that you would get from that candidate if you asked the same basic question in a different way.  If you said, “Give an example of a time in the past that you had a conflict with a coworker.  What, specifically, did you do to settle the conflict, and what was the result?”  Won’t this give you an entirely different answer from the one we mentioned before?

Your interviewee is forced to deal in reality from the get-go.  By making your questions fact-based, you now have to opportunity to learn about a real person, not a hypothetical one.  What they actually do in a given situation is far more valuable to learn in an interview than what they think they can or should do.

“Who are you?” vs. “Who do you think you can be?”

Behavioral interviewing gives you, the employer, a chance to paint a picture of your candidate, and then you get to make your own assessment of how attractive they are.  It’s your job to determine what their strengths and weaknesses are, based on what their past experiences tell you.

At HireBetter, we rely on behavioral interviews because our experience has shown us that they provide a superior snapshot of a candidate.  In our post next week, we’ll explain the specific behavioral interviewing methodology that we use: Topgrading®.

Your solution, more likely than not, is that you need to hire a head of operations.  Depending on your size and stage, it could be a VP of Ops, Director of Operations, or Chief Operations Officer (COO).  [For purposes of this blog, we’ll simply refer to this position as the “COO.”]

I can’t tell you how many times through the years I’ve counseled emerging market CEOs on this (while at Ernst & Young, Tatum, or through my experience as a YPO’er).  So often, it simply comes down to hiring an A-Player as your number two.

“But we’re too small for a COO…”

…you might say, and you may be right, but maybe not.  You’d be surprised how a COO can add significant value to small and medium sized, middle-market businesses, just like they do for large ones.  Indeed, a COO might just be the piece that you’re missing.

Is it time for you to hire your number two?

Like any business decision, you should hire a chief operation officer if they will add more value to your company than they will cost you (obviously).  But how can you predict how much value they can add?

You need to consider how your new COO will free up your time and allow you to make your company more profitable.  What will you do instead of managing operational issues?  What can your COO do better than you?

• Will you drive new sales or make new partnerships that will grow your top line?
• Will your COO save you money by making your operations more efficient?
• Will you use your time to explore new strategies and/or markets to expand your business?

If you can come up with a forecast of how your financial situation will improve through ways like those I outlined above…and that’s more than you expect to pay a COO, then it’s time to hire up!  Keep your company moving up to the next level!

Trust is your most important asset

Your chief operating officer will likely be the most important (and most difficult) hire that you will ever make.  That’s because, in order for them to be successful, you will have to trust them with a job that, until now, you’ve chosen to do yourself.  Not only will you have to make sure that they have the skills and experience to be ready for the role, you have to trust their judgment and character.

How to find your COO

Please, don’t hire the first pretty face or impressive resume that walks through the door.  And don’t just go for the big name.  Just because they’ve been at GE for 10 years doesn’t mean that they are the right fit for your $15 million business.  In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

If you’re looking at someone who successfully transitioned a company from $15M to $50M and that’s also your goal…then you might just have a solid candidate: someone who has successfully accomplished the main 3 or 4 goals you have for your company and this position.

I’ve found that a behavior-based interview processes, like the Topgrading methodology, is a great way to build confidence in such an important hire.  That’s why we use Topgrading for our clients and our team at HireBetter.

A COO can be your new secret weapon

You, as a CEO, are uniquely positioned to make big changes to your company.  But if you get bogged down in daily activities, your hands are tied.  If it looks like you can create real value by breaking free of your daily obligations, consider hiring a COO.  It might be the most liberating decision that you can make for your company, and yourself.

If you think it might be time for you to hire a COO, please contact HireBetter.  We can work with you to help you determine exactly what the COO needs to accomplish, and then we deliver A-Players to you.

In the clip above, HireBetter’s founder, Jonathan Davis, explains how difficult it is for a candidate with a small-business background to “make the jump” to a large company, and vice versa.

The skills and attitudes which may have led to success in one kind of company may set someone up to fail in another.  Even though it may seem like a good idea hire someone from a big company for a small company (or the other way around) some time, it’s a very risky move.  Here’s what our statistics show:

• Hires moving from big companies to small companies fail two thirds of the time.
• Hires moving from small companies to big companies fail four out of five times!

That’s more of a risk than you want to take, especially considering how expensive bad hires are.  Bear this in mind when you’re looking to make your next hire.

For more insights that we’ve learned from years of hiring experience, keep reading the HireBetter Blog and subscribe to our YouTube page.

Have you applied that same principal to planning your workforce?  Purposeful workforce planning provides an assessment and a decisive action plan.  And considering how the right team is the most critical attribute of a successful company, don’t you think you should do it right?

A HireBetter shortcut

We can help, and we’ve developed a simple tool to assist you.  This download will make it easier for you to visualize your goals and plan the steps you need to take to achieve them.

Our complimentary Workforce Planning Tool will help you:

• Keep track of high performers inside of your company
• Make note of who needs additional coaching
• Be sure that your Team lives up to your Core Values
• Pinpoint who you need to hire each quarter
• And much more!

Click here to download your very own Workforce Planning Tool, compliments of HireBetter.

Planning is the first step, but not the last 

Our tool will help you get started, but it takes a real expert to truly know what (and who) you need.  If you really want to make a meaningful plan and start building a team that will lead your company to future success, contact HireBetter.

Image used under Creative Commons from adesigna.

So what does this mean for you and your company?  As the economy continues to improve, the hunt for great talent will get tougher and tougher.  So you’ll have to be at your best if you want to recruit and retain the best talent that the market has to offer.

A shifting marketplace

Now’s not the time to fall into the old hiring traps and come up short in the hunt for top employees.  Competition for A-players is increasing, as employees who may have just taken a job to ride out the Great Recession are more and more ready to move to better opportunities.

Opportunities and dangers

This is the perfect opportunity for you to supercharge your hiring process.  The market is full of great talent, but it most of those workers won’t be accessible for long.  Start hiring, sooner than later if you want to take advantage of this unique opportunity.

HireBetter, your partner in the hiring game

How can you improve the hiring process?  How can you improve your chances of making a solid hiring decision?  Contact HireBetter and we can help you take advantage of the unique opportunity that the marketplace has, right now.

HireBetter is unique — a significant portion of HireBetter’s fee structure (or compensation) is success-based and is only payable at the one year anniversary of the new hire because, at that point, the company will have achieved an ROI (return on investment) for the new hire and they will have had adequate time to assess whether the employee was going to work out or not. 

HireBetter also encourages you to utilize all resources available to make the right hire…whether its your network, LinkedIn, even other recruiters — we feel passionately about helping you make the RIGHT hire.  Its why our clients are raving fans.

Image used via Creative Commons from sir_watkyn.

A business is a well-oiled machine, relying on the seamless execution of a number of processes to drive it forward. Disruptions and delays (bottlenecks) will occur unless you keep these processes in ship shape. In the hiring process, bottlenecks are more than just an inconvenience. They can damage company culture and tarnish your brand – making it more difficult to attract and hire top talent. Smoothing out bumps in the road before they turn into more serious issues is essential to the ongoing success of your recruiting and hiring efforts.

That said, here are a couple leading causes of bottlenecks in the hiring process – and ways to avoid each one:

Sequential hiring style

You post the same ad you used last time, find three candidates to interview, and hope one of them has what you’re looking for. If not, you go back to square one–you post the ad, find three candidates, and the cycle repeats. But relying on the same old iterated process to meet myriad staffing needs is more than shortsighted, it’s inefficient.

The greatest value lies in having a working process. By designing a hiring process that works in tandem with talent management and supports your business strategy, your recruiting efforts will be much easier to manage. You don’t have to read every book ever written on hiring strategies, but you do need a uniform process that meets your organization’s culture, values and needs.

Living in the Dark Ages

Without the proper technology, the sheer volume of applications a single online job posting attracts can be nearly impossible to manage. As such, many organizations experience delays at the onset recruiting–which is frustrating for candidates and hiring managers alike. Accepting resumes and screening for experience and qualifications are a part of the process, but applicants perceive that nothing is happening until an interview takes place.

Online application and screening tools help companies maintain momentum by reducing time spent in this initial stage. If you don’t have an applicant tracking system, you need to get one. The first step toward minimizing bottlenecks in hiring is automating the most menial aspects of hiring so you can focus on engagement.

Best Practices are the Cure for Hiccups

Strategic staffing requires the cooperation and shared effort of multiple parties, and as with any business process, hiccups and delays in hiring will happen. With a sound process in place that keeps stakeholders informed and engaged, however, bottlenecks will be fewer and further between. By incorporating the best practices that make the most sense to your organization–and by leveraging solid technology–you’ll be better prepared to deal with any other flaws that emerge.

About the Author: Kyle Lagunas is the HR Analyst at Software Advice – a company that reviews human resources systems. For further reading on ways to avoid bottlenecks in the hiring process, this article can be found on Kyle’s HR blog in full: http://blog.softwareadvice.com/articles/hr/four-ways-to-avoid-bottlenecks-in-the-hiring-process-1120911/

Jonathan Davis, HireBetter’s founder, considers himself a recovering job description writer.  And in this video, he explains why and how you can become one too.

Traditionally, to write a job description, you probably piece together attributes that you’d like in a new hire.  You start from the beginning and work forward.

Start at the end to know where you should be

But what we do, and what we encourage our clients to do, is start at the end.  Determine what this person should accomplish in their first 90 days, six months, or year on the job.  Now, when you look at your candidates, ask yourself whether they’ll deliver the success that you’ve just described.

This lets you be able to look at their background and determine if they have the skills to be able to do that, rather than them trying to convince you that they have the attributes that you asked for.

What kind of employee do you really want to hire?

No one really wants to just hire a “go-getter” or a “real closer,” you want someone who can successfully achieve specific results for your company.  So find out what “success” means in your role, and your accuracy will go way up.

For more, take a look at HireBetter’s YouTube Channel, and stay tuned to the HireBetter Blog for more information on how to attract, recruit, manage, and retain top talent. 

In this video, HireBetter’s founder, Jonathan Davis, explains why so many hires don’t work out.  He boiled it all down to three simple reasons:

Reason 1:  You failed to clearly articulate what you need someone to do

Reason 2:  You failed to tell that new person what you needed them to do

Reason 3:  They failed to agree that that’s what they need to do

If you want to start making better hiring decisions, you’ll have to avoid these three pitfalls.  And even though there are three reasons, remember, if you don’t get the first one right, the whole process falls apart.  So make sure you always properly define the role.

For more, take a look at HireBetter’s YouTube Channel, and stay tuned to the HireBetter Blog for more information on how to attract, recruit, manage, and retain top talent. 

We’d like to take a brief moment to thank our clients.  It is, has been, and continues to be our pleasure to serve you.  Hearing our partners turn from simple customers into raving fans is what we are all about.  So from the HireBetter team: Thank you!

Here is a quick clip of Sam Marshall from Tocquigny, one of our repeat customers, saying a few kind words about HireBetter.  Client testimonies like this are music to our ears.  If you want to start hiring A-Players too, drop us a line and we can talk about how HireBetter can help your company today!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Caught in “No Man’s Land”

Successful entrepreneurs are great at building new ventures and growing them into viable companies.  But that doesn’t always mean that they are the right people to lead their companies into that next phase of growth.  Many entrepreneurs get into real trouble when they reach the stage where their company is “too big to be small but too small to be big.” 

That’s what Doug Tatum, a former colleague of mine and founder of Tatum, calls “No Man’s Land.”  In his book of the same name, he explains how many companies in No Man’s Land (which for most companies is when they have between 20-100 employees and $5-$50 million in revenues) fail because they don’t have the right team to make the leap to a “big” company.  He goes on to say that you either need to sell your business to a larger company with the resources to get to the next level, or you need to build out your team with leaders who have the experience to drive the business forward.

Know when it’s time to let go

No man’s land, as the name suggests, is no good place to be.  The issue is, most entrepreneurs will have to give up some or all of the control of the companies they’ve worked so hard to build.  I’ve had to do it myself (when I sold my baby to Doug’s company, Tatum, just as he was ceding control to a new CEO), and I can tell you, it’s not easy to do.  But if you want your company to grow out of that phase, then you’ll most likely have to empower someone else to help take the reins.

To hire, or to be acquired?

The idea of “selling out” to a larger, more experienced company is nothing new in the entrepreneur community.  It’s tried and true and it often does work.  Your new parent company already knows how to be big, and they’ll have great resources to help you grow…and you can take some money off the table and enjoy some of the fruits of your labor .  The downside is, you usually lose the individuality and freedoms that you enjoy as a smaller venture, controlled by you.

But that’s not the only way.  If you still want your business to remain independent while it grows, then upgrade your senior management team.  Hire a new CEO, bring in a strong COO, or acquire other key VP and C-level talent…and give them a real say in your strategy (or its execution).  Properly vetted and hired, they’ll have the skills you need to scale your business that you, and your core team who got you to this level, usually lack.  Many of your new hires will have been in similar situations before, and they’ll know what needs to happen for your company to make “the jump.”  Hiring leadership is both an art and a science and you’ll probably want to enlist external assistance.  Again, properly done, it’s a great way to grow your company without losing its character.

Giving up control is hard, but it’s the best move for your company

You’ve done a great job getting your company this far, but now it’s time to let it grow.  Give up a little control, hire up, and watch your baby grow up to the next stage in its life.