Hiring the best candidate is critical because a single bad hire can be very costly and negatively impact productivity, morale, and customer service. The document outlines the importance of defining job requirements and developing a standardized screening and interview process to identify candidates that are a strong cultural fit and have the necessary skills, experience, and potential for the role. It recommends creating predictive profiles for top performers in a role and using valid assessment tools. Common pitfalls like relying on likability over qualifications are also discussed.

1. Hiring the Best Candidate for the
Job
Karen Dougher

2. Outline
• Background
• Importance of a good hire
• General skill requirements
• Basic steps to hiring process
• Predictive indicators
• How to attract the best candidates
• Common pitfalls in hiring
• Recommendations/ challenges in hiring process

3. Background
• People are the foundation of a good company
• Why this topic?
• Hiring practices and techniques not included in curriculum
• There is no once size fits all guide
• How to improve the odds of success
• Turn over is inevitable
• 80% of turnover starts with a bad hire

4. Why is it important?
• Cost of turnover
• Hiring & training costs 16-20% of annual salary
• Costs compounded for consecutive bad hires
• Direct costs
• High unemployment tax rates
• Severance pay
• Increased OT or temp labor costs
• Recruiting costs
• Relocation fees
• Training

5. Why is it important?
• Cost of turnover
• Indirect costs
• Decrease productivity exiting and existing employees
• Poor team morale
• Inefficiencies create by new employee
• Knowledge loss
• Poor customer service

6. General skill requirements
There are some basics that can indicate success
• Eager to learn
• Ambitious
• Intelligent
• Communicator
• Self-motivated
• Proactive
• Team player
• Honest/ethical
• Reliable
• Positive attitude
• Confident
• Detail oriented
• Passionate
• Professional

7. How to attract the best candidates
• Sourcing strategy
• Corporate branding
• Mission, vision, values
• Monitor reputation
• Career potential & opportunities
• Learning opportunities
• Career growth
• Ladder & lattice
• Corporate culture
• More than a paycheck

8. Basic hiring steps
• Define the position
• Model top performers
• Set expectations- performance and cultural fit
• Entice applicants
• Includes:
• Personal characteristics
• Values
• Competencies
• Responsibilities
• Skills

9. Basic hiring steps
• Recruitment considerations
• Type of employee
• Entry level vs experienced
• Type of position
• Strength of internal talent pipeline
• Immediacy of need
• Desired size of applicant pool
• Industry

10. Basic hiring steps
• Sources of talent
• Internal candidates
• Employee referral
• Traditional advertising
• Internet recruiting sites
• Professional organizations
• Internship/ co-op program
• Recruiting agencies
• Social Media
• Networking
• Measure effectiveness

11. Screening process
• Resume assessment
• Standard review process
• Minimum requirements
• Look for errors
• Does work experience fit the job description?
• Grading system
• Keep in mind…
• How close of a match
• Job hopping or speed of career progression
• Red flags
• Sense of achievement- results

12. Screening process
• Interviews:
• Behavioral based questions- results oriented
• Phone interview
• Get to know the candidate- are they a good fit?
• 15-40 minutes
• Address red flags
• In person interviews
• 1-2 rounds
• What makes them tick?
• What do they want?
• What have they done?
• How do they relate?

13. Predictive indicators
• Develop profile from top performers
• Tests need to be valid & reliable
• Personality tests
• Cognitive ability tests
• Specific skills tests
• Emotional intelligence tests
• Physical ability tests
• Integrity tests
• Situational judgement tests

14. Common hiring pitfalls
• Likeability
• Time constraints
• Lack of preparation & commitment
• Relying on gut
• Holding out for the perfect candidate
• Low response rate

15. Recommendations for hiring
• Develop a formal process for hiring
• Create effective job descriptions
• Set criteria/system for resume review
• Behavioral based interviewing
• Use predictive indicators specific to job
• Use grading system
• Involve multiple people

16. Recommendations for hiring
• Train management
• Importance
• Techniques
• Develop a talent pipeline
• Analytics to measure effectiveness

17. Challenges
• Resources
• Management support/ buy in
• Time constraints
• Job market
• Keeping up to date with practices
• Ineffective testing
• Lack of data
• Biases