Hiring
“If we didn’t spend four hours on placing a man and placing him right, we’d spend four hundred hours on cleaning up our mistake and that time I wouldn’t have.†— Alfred Sloan to Peter Drucker
Ok, so you need to hire someone. Maybe several someones. In the broader perspective, this is a good problem to have. On the other hand, hiring is typically the beginning of a medium to long term relationship between an organization and an individual. In many countries, it is much, much easier to bring someone on than to let them go. And the difference in effectiveness between a poor hire, a mediocre hire and a strong hire is non-linear; that is, the strong hire will be orders of magnitude more effective than the poor hire. Putting this all together (and adding emphasis to make sure you know that I’m being serious for a moment) hiring decisions are some of the most important you’ll ever make.
Ok. So if the goal is to hire excellent people and only excellent people, because non-excellent people are significantly less productive, how can you achieve that goal? I don’t pretend to have all of the answers as hiring is something that I’ve agonized over many times. And honestly, when you end up with a strong hire, it’s hard to tell whether it is because of a diligent hiring process or just dumb luck. But here are a few things you can do in order to increase the probability of successful hires.
- Hire people you know are good. Worked with someone fantastic in a previous job? Have an open position that fits their skills? Target people that fit in this category first. The interview will be a rubber stamp because you’re certain will be strong hires. The tough part will be convincing them to join you, especially if they are comfortable where they are.
- Work your connections. Get the word out that you have an open position to your business network. Some of the best referrals come from people you trust. But make sure that it is clear to both the recommender and the recommnedee that the usual interview procedures will still take place.
- Phone screen candidates first. Most people look great on paper…that’s the point of resumes, right? You’ll find that the majority of candidates with strong resumes don’t prove out after a round of questioning on the phone.
- Interview rigorously. Spend at least half a day, perhaps a whole day or even more for top positions, interviewing. Get a good cross-section of your organization to sit with the candidate. Technical people should come prepared with technical questions, while non-technical people will provide valuable insight into character. Make sure you get a chance to evaluate the candidate both on-the-spot in a traditional interview environment, as well as in a more casual setting, perhaps over dinner and drinks.
- Have your technical people start with basic questions. You’ll be surprised how many applicants will not be able to answer these appropriately. For example, hiring a programmer you might ask them to sketch out an algorithm to reverse a string array of arbitrary length. Assuming they get it right, which some won’t, determine the efficiency of their algorithm. For example, if the string is a billion bytes long, does their algorithm require two billion bytes of memory?
- Sniff out their honesty. Ask them for an example of something they have screwed up or done wrong, and what they did the rectify the situation. If they don’t give you at least one example, then they either (1) don’t realize they’ve made mistakes, (2) are afraid to acknowledge their mistakes, or (3) lying. Any of the above preclude making an offer.
- Call their references. Sure, references will almost always give nothing but positive remarks about the candidate, but talking to a reference gives you a chance gather some between-the-lines information. Several years ago I was sitting on the fence as to whether or not to extend an offer to a candidate and decided to call his reference. While the reference gave the expected glowing evaluation of the candidate he also mentioned, “…and Sammy can be a real hothead!” I had gotten a gut feeling that Sammy was on the aggressive side but wasn’t sure if it was my imagination or not. Needless to say, I didn’t extend an offer to Sammy.
If your candidate passes all of these tests, congratulations. Talk to everyone who interviewed the candidate. Most of the staff should like him or her at this point but some may not. Find out why. Are their concerns issues that could be overcome or potential show-stoppers?
Finally, check your gut. If you have a good gut feeling about the candidate and everything else about them looks good, start working on an offer. If there is something about the person that made you uncomfortable, even if you couldn’t put your finger on it, think twice about taking the next step. Maybe think three times. Usually, this is your subconscious mind sending you a signal. Listen to it.
Hiring ain’t easy but it is so worth doing right.