August 2nd: Principles for Raising the Bar
We all know the significance of an outstanding hire – they drive business forward, raise the bar for other employees, and enrich your culture. Great hires can elevate an entire organization, and it all starts with the interview process.
Over the past two decades, I’ve led hundreds of radical transformations for huge enterprises and revolutionary startups. I’m also a CEO, and in my tenure I’ve seen the tremendous return of a good hire. These experiences have provided me with a clear view of the attributes that set great interviewing apart from average interviewing.
For many organizations, the Interview process is not planned nor strategic – but it needs to be. Consider this: If you’re bringing someone into your family, you spend so much time making you sure they’re compatible in terms of values, long term goals, and how they will bring positivity into your life.
We spend more time with the people we work with than we do our own families, and interviewing is the one tool the corporate world has to figure out if someone is a fit. When considering a new hire, focus on three key factors: personality traits, skills and background.
The interview process is also a way to provide an experience for interviewers, so if it doesn’t work out, much like dating, it’s should be considered a learning opportunity. The good news is, it’s never too late to realign and improve your process to ensure you are hiring the right talent for your organization. My experience as a consultant and CEO has provided me with a ton of insight to a variety of hiring processes, from which I’ve developed some key principles for raising the hiring bar.
1. Hiring the right people should be a part of everyone’s job.
Yes, everyone. Hiring well is an organization-wide effort. All your employees are the face of your organization to potential talent.
2. Define your success
How do you know if you’re hiring the right people if your definition of “right” isn’t clear?
3. Do your homework
The best interviewing requires prep. You need to prepare for every interview, every time.
4. Value culture fit above skills fit
Clear out the noise in your recruiting process: emphasize the characteristics and criteria that really matter to your organization.
5. Improve your team with every hire
Every new hire should be a huge improvement over your existing people. Every person you bring in affects your culture, for better or worse. Which direction do you want your company to go?
6. Empowered recruiting: your hiring council
While everyone should be a stakeholder, it’s important to empower the individuals in your organization with the skills to take you (and your hiring) to new heights.
7. Constantly raise the bar
Everything you do as part of this process should aim to exceed, not meet, previous expectations.
My next few newsletters will dive deeper into these principles. Each will cover a separate area of the process, but also depend on each other for success. As always, please share your thoughts and experiences with hiring or interviewing with @GetInRhythm or on the InRhythmU blog.
Thanks and Keep Growing,
Gunjan Doshi
CEO, InRhythm
What We’re Reading Around the Web
9 CEOs Share Their Favorite Interview Questions
Fast Company
“How many degrees separate the hour and minute hands of a clock at 3:15? If this seems like a surprising question, well, that’s sort of the point. “I want to understand how somebody thinks about a very new problem in a difficult situation, and how they respond to that under pressure.”C
Job Etiquette Isn’t Just for the Applicants
Wall Street Journal
“If you treat candidates poorly during the recruiting process, they’re going to tell their friends. You could get away with that in 2009, but you can’t get away with it in 2019.””
The Traditional Job Interview is Dead
Inc.
“You’ve heard the definition of insanity, right? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Yet here we are in 2019, still interviewing like it was 1989.”i
How to Hire the Right Person
The New York Times
“These chief executives have developed through trial and error to help you go beyond the polished résumés, pre-screened references and scripted answers, to hire more creative and effective members for your team.”
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