The Hire Sense » 2007 » March » 21

Archive for March 21st, 2007

Reference Checks

I came across an article on Monster this morning that identifies fives mistakes you want to avoid for reference checks. The article is a quick read, but here are the five mistakes to avoid:

  1. Not Checking at All
  2. Lack of Consistency
  3. Making the Job Offer Contingent on a Reference Check
  4. Not Requiring References Who Have Worked Directly with the Candidate
  5. Asking Leading questions and Failing to Ask Follow-Up Questions

In point 3 the author has this to say:

References should be checked much earlier in the process than many employers actually perform them. Once the top two or three candidates have been identified through resume screenings and initial interviews, references should be checked before any consideration is given to making a job offer. If the references confirm a candidate’s skills, experience and ability, then conduct a follow-up interview armed with that knowledge. More importantly, making an offer contingent on a positive reference check creates a legal relationship between the employer and candidate. Why would you want to do that?

I would like to add – use the follow-up interview to drill down into those skills, experiences and abilities to help you determine if they can apply them into this position and strengthen your company. Give them sample scenarios to react to, handle and resolve so you can see how they think in the heat of the battle.

Finally, I would like to add that the last step in your hiring process should be to run your top candidate through a background verification process. I hate to keep speaking to this, but you would be surprised how many companies still fail to use this step in their process.

Just Getting Started

The decision has been made. The offer has been extended. The offer has been accepted, and the start date is just around the corner.

The “newbie” is joining the sales team. Now what? That can be a bit of a scary question for the sales manager responsible for the success of a new hire. Hiring a candidate that has been and properly assessed, profiled, interviewed and evaluated is an excellent foundation for success. But hold on. It’s just the start to the process.

As you might guess, an industry term to address these situations has already been crafted . “Onboarding” is the most commonly used term to reference the plan for success of your new hire. I prefer Onramping – using a freeway analogy to describe the plan to bring a new sales person up to speed. With a specific development plan in place, the onramping of the newest member of the sales team will be a smooth merge at highway speed. Without a plan, well, recall the last time you witnessed a bad onramp merge (this morning?) – and the ripple effect it had for multiple lanes of traffic. Perhaps affecting traffic for miles behind you.

And the new hire. You are confident you’ve made the correct hire. How does the new hire know they made the correct career choice? Retention is at stake. A well defined onramping plan will increase the confidence and success of all the parties involved – and we will back that statement up with a guarantee!

The development plan available for every candidate assessed by Select Metrix is an excellent place to start. These plans are specific, customized and supported by our sales management track. The “Dev Plan” along with the unique, specific and customized facets of your organization will increase the likelihood of success. In fact, why not have this valuable tool in place and agreed to before that looming start date?

Online Employment Stats

Interesting statistics from Selling Power’s The Fast Trend: Online Recruiting Services which references a Monster.com survey regarding online ads. Obviously Monster.com has a horse in the race on this topic, but their stats are somewhat surprising.

“According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2003, 62 percent of households had at least one computer, up from 56 percent two years before, and that number is growing every day. The workforce is online. More than 80 percent of those aged 18 to 49 and 67 percent of those aged 50 to 64 are online. Online employment sites captured 22 percent of the employment recruiting market in 2004, up from just 1 percent in 1996. The newspaper share of the market declined by 3 percent in the same period. Nearly two-thirds of the 13,000-plus small business owners responding to a recent poll said they use online hiring sites when looking for qualified employees.”

The stats are from 2004 which are a bit dated, but even then I would have thought the online boards would have had more employment recruiting market share. I suspect today’s share is well north of 22 percent.

Changing Bait

Here is an article from Selling Power that is spot on – Fishing for Recruits?

The first step, says Silverman, is to get creative with your titles. “You can write a great job description, but if it’s buried under a boring title such as ‘Account Manager,’ no one is going to click on it. A good title [like a good headline] is going to create a call to action.

He’s right. The days of counting words, employment ad shorthand and simple position titles are gone. I still see companies using this approach as I stated in a previous post. Stop now and make the adjustments. The only part of an ad the candidate will see is the title so it best be strong and distinctive.

Finally, some excellent questions from the article to help focus your ad towards the right candidate. Remember, the strongest candidates should see themselves in the ad.

“What is the job’s primary purpose or contribution to the department or organization?
What are the essential duties and responsibilities?
What are the all important aspects of the job?
Are they performed daily, weekly, monthly, or annually?
Think about what is necessary to the job €“ is it really a bachelor’s degree?
How will the candidate be challenged on the job?
What does the company want them to accomplish? Is it realistic? Has it been done?
Most important, what’s in it for the candidates?”