When you need to hire someone: 9 actions to make a good decision

Some of us have had to deliver bad news this past year where we’ve had to let someone go; while others have had the fortune of hiring new people into the organization and onto our teams. If nothing else, these ever-changing times have led many of us to examine the work we do, where we do it, how we do it and who we need to help achieve success.

Whether we have shuffled the org chart as a result or we have determined we need to add new roles or people, I have seen a lot of recruiting, hiring and mobility efforts happening across a lot companies. It is a very positive sign to see so much movement happening. At the same time, we need to pay attention and keep our people engaged and growing. Talented people always have options.

If we are fortunate enough to hire someone on our team, we should prepare for this event thoroughly to ensure we make a good hiring decision. I know most of us have heard that a bad hiring decision can cost us a lot in terms of time and money. The Department of Labor estimates it costs about 30% of the new hire’s first-year salary if we make a bad decision. This is due to lost time, recruiting costs, lost productivity, etc.

When hiring someone, there are a number of actions you should take as a manager. Human Resources can help you with some of these but I would take responsibility for most of the actions below. While HR is there to help you, this is a search for your future team member! You are the most invested person in this entire activity. Here are 9 actions to take when looking to bring someone on board.

1. Make sure the job description includes more than the traditional information.

Nothing makes me more nuts than job descriptions. These descriptions more than likely have been written years before the role came open or got used as a template for a new role that shares maybe 50% of the same requirements. They tend to include job tasks and educational and experience requirements, which may or may not be relevant in today’s environment. The first step is to work with HR to make sure the job description and the subsequent recruiting description is modern, relevant and attracts the right candidates. Consider....do you really need a college degree? Is 3-5 years’ experience truly enough (you may be excluding professionals with lots of good experience)? Is 10 years’ experience too much (you may be excluding bright, young up and comers)? Does your description list skills and experiences? Do you list company values or team values and mindsets that are critical to be successful? Do you describe the culture beyond “a fast-paced environment”. I see this phrase A LOT. Of course, it is fast-paced. Everyone is moving at light speed nowadays to keep up let alone try and pull ahead of competitors. To find the right candidate, words matter.

2. Spend time crafting interview questions and choosing interviewers.

Now that you have a good description of what you are looking for, craft good interview questions to really get to skills, experience, mindset, and other characteristics. Spending time to write out questions does a few things. 1) It shows the candidate you came prepared and cared enough to prepare. 2) It shows you are trying to evaluate people fairly in the process. 3) It prevents just having the interview be a waste of time. More on that in the next point. Also, identify others to help you assess the candidate. Don’t just pick your manager or a peer of this person but select an internal client or someone who will partner with this person closely as well. As the manager, you and the recruiter can whittle down the candidate list to the top 2-3 and then ask others to help conduct the top interviews to get to the best candidate.

3. Put the interviewee into real situations.

I am always surprised when I have been in interviews and there are no situational questions asked. It is good to have a nice conversation. When that happens, you feel good how easy it is to talk to the candidate. Rapport matters but it is not the only factor. Anyone can be a good conversationalist. I always write down and have in front of me situational questions to understand how they think, how they have approached a problem in the past, what they are most proud of, what they felt did not go their way and what they did about it. Sometimes these questions can be phrased like “Tell me about a time when...”. Sometimes you can paint a picture about a real project or situation at work and ask how they would begin, how they would approach it, how they would measure success. I have also given a real project and asked them to create and deliver a presentation on their approach to a panel of my peers. Because of the cost of a hire, spend the time to prepare questions and ask in-depth ones. You can ask people to tell you about themselves and why they are qualified for the job. However, this should already have been answered in the resume and cover letter or targeted recruiting questions in the application. The interview is your chance to really understand how they work and how they can help achieve the organization’s goals.

4. Decide on non-negotiables.

So, no one is perfect. It is rare to find someone that checks all of the boxes in terms of fit, skills, attitude, experience while meeting your compensation requirements. This can be tough. It is good to know what you consider critical vs nice-to-have in a candidate. Spend time thinking about this up front so you can tailor your interview time to focus on what is most critical and, if you have time, ask questions that align to the nice-to-haves. For example, is formal education or certification a must have? It might be for certain roles. For other general professional roles, it may not be. Do you consider being flexible and adaptable more important than having deep expertise? Then, tailor your questions to try and uncover this. If you want someone who has done exactly what you want in a previous role, then prioritize that as a question to walk you through that project specifically.

5. Ask yourself about cultural fit. 

For years, I have been thinking about cultural fit and its importance. I think there are two schools of thought on this. 1) You want to hire someone who will “fit” into the culture meaning they won’t become frustrated by bureaucracy, or they are comfortable with ambiguity, if your culture is more team-based and roles are more fluid, as examples. However, I sometimes think we discount talent people if they don’t fit our mold. 2) As a second point, maybe the culture needs to be nudged. Maybe you need new thinking and new attitudes to prepare for the future. I think the question of cultural fit should be considered deeply. I don’t believe we should hire the same person over and over (more on this in the next point) but we should focus our hiring on values, critical skills, aptitude and attitude.

6. Watch your blind spots.

Related to the above, it is easy to get limited by our own biases especially what is referred to as Affinity Bias — where we tend to hire people who are a lot like us. This doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. This is human nature. The key is to be aware of this and consciously think about your biases. Catch yourself and have others push on your thinking. Awareness and being mindful about this is a good way to ensure you can overcome this blind spot.

7. Have a scorecard.

After you determine your critical vs. nice-to-have atttiudes, skills, experiences, create a mini scorecard to help track after each interview. Ask your fellow interviewers to use the same. It can be difficult to remember a single interview especially if you are very busy. Use a little scorecard and complete it right after interview. Right down the critical areas and give an easy 1-2-3 rating with some comments for each area. This can help you and the interviewers objectively compare notes to see who should either be moved forward or even offered the job. If you’re not comfortable with numeric ratings, then just have a post-interview questionnaire that everyone completes to list areas of alignment and areas of concern, if there are any.

8. Don’t forget internal candidates.

When we are hiring someone, we tend to think about finding someone outside the organization. There could be someone really great within your organization. There could be someone in the larger department who wants to shift to your team or it could be someone from an entirely different business unit who wants to make a career pivot. Internal candidates have organizational knowledge that should make ramping up quicker. The same questions should apply, however. Don’t shortcut the interview process because someone is internal. You deserve to ask the same questions and evaluate the internal candidate the same as someone from the outside.

9. Don’t settle.

This last point can be difficult. I have spoken to a few colleagues who say it has been hard to find people for their roles so they hire based on some potential only to realize it wasn’t a good fit. The thinking is someone is better than no one. I would actually disagree. The wrong someone is definitely worse than no one. I realize this may create more work for you, as the manager, or your other team members, but this is where you can get creative. Ask someone to take on a short-term assignment from another group. Find a consultant or temporary worker. Don’t settle on a wrong candidate because they may be the only candidate at this time.

Hiring someone is a very involved process. I have laid out a lot here. This is one of the most important decisions a manager can make. Spend the time to prepare and thoughtfully interview and evaluate candidates. Check your biases and don’t settle. The right person can come along from many different sources. Good luck!

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