Volume 2 Issue 3

Hire to support your training efforts
A Primer

Most of us fail to think about screening for new employees in any depth. We don't understand the biases we bring into the process, and more than this we don't connect what's happening in the organization in terms of culture, training, and values, to what we're doing at the front end. I often hear the comment, "Oh I can tell if the applicant is going to work within the first five minutes of the interview." What happens then is the interviewer justifies his or her initial impression for the remainder of the interview. What's wrong with this? Experience has shown that it leaves the process far too vulnerable to personal bias.

Organizations are notorious for spending vast amounts of money on training but rarely consider how their hiring procedures might undermine or support their efforts. Screening for the candidates that best suit the organization needs to be better thought out. Screening systems should be developed only after a thorough analysis of the organization, its current culture, its needs, as well as its problems in such areas as supervision, production, and training.

The first stage in designing a screening process is to pull together a hiring committee representative of various departments. This committee's mandate is to figure out the organization's strengths and weaknesses against the goals set for the near future. By meeting regularly, the process is kept open and not in the hands of one individual who might not know what's happening elsewhere in the organization. But the principal task of this committee is to figure out who the organization needs. This means listing both "basic skills" and "competencies" which are behavioural and intellectual traits that the organization feels it requires to increase motivation and production. In this way, the hiring procedure becomes intimately connected to the reality of life in the organization rather than one individual making assumptions about what those needs might be.

Don't unwittingly hire people who aren't going to make it in the long run. If you want intrinsically motivated individuals ensure your culture, your management style and your organizational values will allow for that kind of person to flourish. Make sure the people involved in the screening process know the organization, and know how to recognize the right skills.

Every screening process should have a variety of stages. Just as production workers are tested for mechanical aptitude and dexterity, so too should management applicants be tested on the skills they'll need to perform well in their positions. References, and good talk are simply not adequate. Skills must be demonstrated. A good screening process will include a testing procedure, several interviews, and a tour of the organization.

But there's more. The probationary period is simply an extension of the selection process. It's a period in which the new hire can be closely monitored by supervisors who are testing in two areas. First, does this individual have the basic skills to do the job and, secondly, (although equally important), does this individual have the intellectual and emotional skills to enhance the organization.

Testing for intellectual and emotional intelligence is vital because these traits are stubbornly engrained. Trying to alter them or create them is time consuming and often not feasible. The whole point of the screening process is to eliminate the need to deal with these issues after a probationary period has ended.

Hire people who will augment your organization. People who will want to stay and add to your culture but don't expect superheros to hang around if you aren't practising what you've learned in all those training sessions.