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 Catching
a Star Performer - Part 1: The Phone ScreenBy Laurie Bonello, Certified Human Resource Professional You’ve made it. You’re a successful small business owner. And you need help to keep up with the success of your business. Frustrated by the time investment that goes into hiring? Find relief in using these essential tools and get great results in less time. For starters, don’t rush your way into interviews thinking that’s where you need to be to identify your star performer. Yes, that is part of it, but it should be a small part, where you don’t spend much time at all. Interviews are time consuming; you want to select the employees who best match the job requirements long before inviting them for an interview. Using the steps below, by the time you get to the interview stage, you should be spending that lengthy step with only two or three of your most qualified applicants, making your job much easier. But you must invest some time up front. This is where you’ll get the biggest bang for your buck. Time spent in steps before the interview will make the hiring process more efficient and give you much better results. 1) Identify Position Requirements - Effective hiring processes identify the top applicants through up front screening using position requirements, so you must know very specifically what those requirements are. As the saying goes, if you don’t know where you want to go, any road will take you there. And hiring the wrong person shows you very quickly what you don’t want, so start by defining what you do want. Define the skills and knowledge needed for the position. Start with these questions: What is the purpose of the position? What are the key tasks and responsibilities? What skills, knowledge and abilities are needed to be successful? This defines your core criteria. In a tight employee market like we are experiencing today, after identifying your core criteria, you may want to think of additional skills and knowledge that are transferable, to broaden the number of qualified applicants. Consider in which areas you might be willing to train. What else do you need for success in this position? These might be considered soft skills, or preferred skills; qualities that are harder to train, but really identify the star performers. Think of someone you know who worked in a similar role that was excellent in her job. What qualities did she have that made her “excellent”? Was it her professionalism, work ethic, initiative, or work management skills? Now that you’ve got your list of skills and knowledge needed for the position, use it to guide you the rest of the way. Use it for recruitment (networking for and advertising the position), reviewing resumes, creating interview questions and evaluating results. 2) Compare Applicant Resumes to Position Requirements - Identify applicant resumes that meet your requirements. If work quality is important in the position, screen out resumes that are poorly prepared or presented. How many resumes meet the requirements? If you have lots of time to spend with people, great. Call them all up and bring them in for a lengthy interview. But you don’t have to interview everyone who meets your requirements. 3) Pick Up the Phone and Say Hello - Save your time and theirs by doing a quick phone interview. This is an effective tool to identify the most qualified applicants before they even walk in your door. A phone interview can tell you a lot about an applicant in a short time. Call them up. Identify yourself and the reason for your call, to gather additional information from applicants. Ask if she has time to answer some questions. Ease into it. You want to be professional yet conversational. Start with an easy question such as, “Why did you apply?” Cover the essentials, your core criteria. They might be: computer skills, educational and experiential requirements. Ask clarifying questions about the resume. Why did she leave her last position? What did she like about her last job? What did she dislike? Provide the applicant with information on the position you are filling, its purpose and responsibilities. Confirm interest. It can be amazing what you find out! During a phone screen I was conducting for a previous employer, I provided the applicant with some position information, to which she responded, “Well, I don’t know who would want that job.” Did I save myself some time, or what? Ask for salary expectations. Don’t be shy here. Get that information out up front. What you are paying may not be for everyone, and think of the time you’ll save by collecting this information even before a candidate walks in the door. Finish off the conversation by allowing time for the applicant to ask questions and then explain the next steps in the process. 4) Evaluate Your Results - Applicants missing core criteria, transferable skills or those with unrealistic salary expectations are set aside. If communication is a required skill, how well did she do? How was her level of professionalism? Phone etiquette? Your list of qualified applicants should be manageable by now, providing only the top ones with whom you’ll spend most of your time in an interview. You are excited about your short list of applicants for interviews, but are you on the right track? You’ve been disappointed before; hiring who you thought would be the perfect employee, only to find yourself in management hell. What went wrong? How can you get a better result? A great start is to sharpen your interviewing skills. For additional information on Human Rights and employment, see Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship commission at www.albertahumanrights.ab.ca and the Canadian Human Rights Commission at www.chrc-ccdp.ca Watch for the second part of this series: “Catching a Star Performer - Interviewing Tips” in the upcoming Nov/Dec issue. Laurie Bonello is a Certified Human Resources Professional, Personal Development Coach & freelance writer. |