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Some organizations are wise to hire B or even C players.They're cheaper and less likely to leave.
But other organizations, those that strive to be best-in-class, want A players. It's hard to get them but this article may help.
I must apologize: I recognize that few job seekers can prevail under such rigorous hiring standards and so this article could dispirit many. But I believe that greater net good will accrue from it. When employers employ the best candidates, not just the best-appearing ones, merit prevails, which in turn results in happier coworkers, better products and services and, in turn, a better society for all of us.
Generating your pool of applicants
First and perhaps foremost, draw your pool of candidates not from a job ad but from respected colleagues and friends. Today, too many job seekers apply deceptively. They may use a hired gun to write their resume and cover letter, making the candidate seem like a better writer, thinker, and employee than s/he is. They may be coached so they give perfect answers to interview questions. They may use their friends as references, claiming they were bosses. They may even apply using a phony name to avoid a bad background search. You're more likely to get quality applicants if referred by trusted friends and colleagues. And ask a sufficient number of trusted contacts so you get a good number of candidates to choose from.
Deciding whom to hire
There are four attributes in the A player: cognitive ability, drive, subject matter expertise, and being low-maintenance. Here's how to assess those:
Cognitive ability. Obviously, on many jobs, it's helpful if you can learn quickly, remember a lot, analyze and synthesize information in savvy ways to create wise strategies, tactics, and processes. Here are ways to assess cognitive ability:
- Simulations of difficult tasks the candidate would often have to do on the job.
- In interviews, candidates' descriptions of the most cognitively demanding problems they've faced at work. Does their description show rigorous reasoning? Do they describe them with relish or a sense it was overly taxing?
- Standardized tests of cognitive ability, for example, the SAT, LSAT, and GRE. Because these tests correlate significantly with job performance in jobs that require reasoning skills, their use is recommended, for example, by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and even by the federal government's Office of Personnel Management.
Some employers worry about using such measures with African-Americans. You may find reassurance in the research published this year in the Journal of Applied Psychology. It confirms previous studies that find these measures aren't biased against Blacks. On the contrary, African-Americans perform worse in the real world than their scores would predict. In other words, use of such tests benefits African-Americans. Nevertheless, HR-Guide points to legal risks and precautions that may need to be taken.
Drive. We all know brilliant people who fail for lack of drive. As President Calvin Coolidge wrote, "Nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent...Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." Here are ways to assess drive:
- Candidates' track record, for example, a work history of rising responsibility and work products that are substantial in length and quality. To that end, you may want to ask finalist candidates to submit a portfolio of their work.
- The tenor of their descriptions of projects they've worked on. Do they describe difficult tasks and do so with enthusiasm about the process of completing them?
- Responses to neutrally worded interview questions such as, "How do you tend to view people who work 50+ hours a week?"
Subject matter expertise. While some subject matter can quickly be learned on the job, for many positions, the employee needs to come in with subject-matter expertise, for example, in software engineering, law, and health care. It's probably wise to not rely heavily on a candidate's degrees nor on the college's prestige. Sometimes, the more prestigious the school, the more theoretical and less practical the learning. Indeed, Google gives just modest weight to applicants' alma mater. It's more important what they did at college than at which college they did it.
Low-maintenance. Especially in high-performing organizations, it's tough to deal with employees that always seem to have issues: frequent malaise, reacting poorly to changes in their job, excessive absence, and too frequent complaints. Of course, you want an employee that makes suggestions but when the quantity and quality of those are excessive, it can taint the entire workplace. The best way to assess if a candidate is low-maintenance is by savvily vetting their references. Here's how.
As the last step before hiring, ask the top candidate or two to provide ten professional references, including their work phone numbers. Call each after hours and, on voice mail, say something like, "I'm hiring for an important position requiring strong reasoning skills, good motivation, and a human being that a boss and co-workers would be glad to have on board. One candidate I'm considering is Jane Jones. If you think she'd be excellent in such a role, call me back. If not, don't." Of course, some won't call back because it's against company policy, because they're on vacation, etc. But if you don't get at least five of ten callbacks, beware.
I wouldn't use the following methods to ascertain whether a candidate is likely to be a low-maintenance employee:
- Personality tests. Their predictive validity is dubious enough to, in my judgment, mitigate against their use.They also generate antipathy from many applicants.
- Standard interview questions like, "What's your greatest weakness?". Candidates can too easily suss out the desired answer and accommodate..
- Even simulations won't sufficiently reveal whether a person is low-maintenance. Candidates will be on their best behavior in those simulations. And even if not, because those simulations are brief, they don't reveal what an employee would be like, month after month.
Perhaps the most influential business book of the past quarter century is From Good to Great. One of its key points is, "Get the right people on the bus before driving it." Hopefully the foregoing will help you do that.
Keeping A Players
Most A Players hate being micromanaged and being put on teams with lesser lights. In contrast, most of them love being told things like, "We hired you because you're an A player and we're going to treat you as such. My job as your boss is to create conditions that enable you to be you best self. So tell me what you need to flower and I'll do my best to make that happen."
18 months after I wrote this article, I created a brief YouTube video on hiring wisely. HERE is the link.
If you'd like coaching from Marty Nemko, email a brief description of your situation to him at mnemko@comcast.net.
