Scared of Hiring the Wrong People?

What to Do Before Hiring to Avoid a Nightmare

A bad hire can be worse than not hiring at all.  The US Department of Labor estimates the cost of a bad hire as 30% of the employee’s first-year earnings. Others estimate the true cost to be much higher, particularly when you factor in the loss in productivity from staff whose time gets sucked into things like documentation, remedial action plans, and working with the legal department to ensure everything is done correctly, not to mention the damage that can be done to morale within a team or department as a result.  The stakes for making a bad hire are high.

Luckily, there are things you can do ahead of time to help reduce the likelihood of making a bad hire in the first place.

Start with the Job Description

This critical step is often overlooked, or rushed through.  True, it’s easier to dig out an old job description or search for other job descriptions online for the same job title you are planning to hire for, but these will not do you any favors in the long run, since they will be general and not specific to the needs of your organization now and in the near future.

Instead, start by making a list of what you would like this person to do. Enlist the help of those who will be working closely with this person.  What are their expectation for how this person will make their job easier or better?  Consider the business goals and long-term strategy.  What will this person need to do to help the team meet these goals?

Once you have a list of ideal responsibilities, it’s time to take a step back and think about job design.  Initially, this list might be a bit of a Frankenstein.  There are responsibilities that make sense and go together, and others that are unrelated, and unlikely to be found in the same person.  For example, you might be hiring for a business development role.  Ideally, this person would know many people in the industry with buying power, and be able to get meetings with them.  You might also think, gee, while they are there in the meeting with you, it would be great if they could take notes. Oh, and wouldn’t it be nice if they could also design beautiful sales decks and brochures?  Actually, it would be wonderful if they also had a PhD in something related to Stem Cells so they could understand our technology. Oh, and I’d also like it if they could whip up a few financial models to help us forecast. And, we have this potted plant in the office that isn’t looking so great and the last business development person was so good about taking care of it, so if they also had a green thumb….

The list of responsibilities you design can quickly become a Frankenstein, containing too many disparate skills, resulting in a description that would rule out most candidates.  In the case above, someone who enjoys interacting with people for sales is unlikely to also love diving deep into spreadsheets and forecasting. You may discover after looking over the list, that what you have described is not 1 job, but 2 jobs. Perhaps one or both of those jobs only provide enough work to be part-time, contract, or fractional.  That’s ok.  Think about what would be best for the organization, one overstretched person working sometimes outside of their areas of strength, or two people, each specializing in what they are great at.

To avoid a Frankenstein job description, take a moment to think about this list of responsibilities from the perspective of a job seeker.  Is the role clearly defined so that responsibilities and reporting structure are clear?  Do the responsibilities fall into clear and related groups of tasks sharing one clear overarching goal?  Is there a good mix of challenging work that would excite someone and rote work that takes less brain power and allows for someone to recharge?  If a job consists only of the worst parts of everyone else’s job on the team, it’s likely whoever fills that role will be unhappy in their job.  If the person does a great job with this role, is there a clear path for them to move up, or laterally within the organization?

Questions to ask yourself about the list of job responsibilities/skills:

• Are these responsibilities related to a single clear goal?
• Is this one job, or are the skills required and seniority of responsibilities different enough to warrant 2 different jobs? 
• Is there a clear, uncomplicated reporting structure?
• Is there variety in the responsibilities that allow for both stimulation and recharging?
• Are the skills needed for these responsibilities commonly found in one person?
• Are any of the responsibilities added simply because the last person did them, rather than because this role requires them?
• Are there any responsibilities currently handled by someone else that would logically make more sense to be handled by this position?
• Do these responsibilities have the potential to grow over time into other roles, or provide enough training ground for possible transitions to other roles in the company?

Focus on Skills over Signals

Once you have clearly defined the responsibilities required, you can then develop a list of skills required for each job. (See this post for an example of how to break down skills from responsibilities). 

Often, we look to signals as evidence that a person has a certain skill.  These can include degrees from prestigious universities, prior job titles or employers, and # of years of experience.  All are indicators that a person might have the skills you are looking for but are certainly not a guarantee.

Avoid Mummy Issues

For example, you might think a Harvard graduate who has many published articles would be a great addition to your team.  On paper, this person looks more appealing than the person who graduated from a community college and has worked in a series of biotechs for the last 10 years.  However, when you look at the technical skills of each, the second candidate might have worked on the specific equipment you already use and has had experience scaling up, while the Harvard grad has great skills in experimental design, but none in ramping those experiments up at scale.  If scale-up is the main responsibility in this job, you will be better off hiring the “less impressive” candidate from a community college because they have already demonstrated competency in the skills you require, whereas, the Harvard grad has only signaled that they are probably smart and might be able to learn the needed skills.  When someone has many accolades or signals of accomplishments but does not specifically have the required skills, this candidate is like a Mummy with attractive dressings on the outside, but nothing left inside to help them perform.

Don’t Create a Monstar

Another common pitfall is to find a candidate that is so impressive, that you feel like you just can’t possibly pass them up.  They don’t have the specific skills you need now, but you just know that with someone like her on the team, it would definitely help the business somehow.  Often these Monstars come highly recommended as referrals and come with time pressure.  You might think, “If we don’t snap her up now, someone else will and we will have lost our chance!”  Occasionally, these kinds of hires do work out, but most of the time, both the person hired and the organization flounder, looking for ways to use the person that may or may not align with the original business goals, pulling focus from daily operations and suggesting side-quests and projects that may not align.

Interview to Avoid Vampires

If a well-crafted job description is insurance against attracting people with the wrong skill set, then the interview is your defense against poor culture fit.  You can use the interview to help you understand how a person perceives challenges, the process they use for problem-solving, and how they view responsibility.  All of these are crucial to understanding if a person is a good fit for your organization.

Are there skeletons in your closet?

Some people will always go above and beyond.  Some never will.  How can you tell the difference?  If you want someone in your role who won’t just do the bare-bones minimum, start by digging deeper on some of the facts from the resume.  If they list that they shaved 2 days off of processing time, ask, “Who initiated that time savings?  Were you asked to look for optimization, or did you see something inefficient and bring it to the attention of your colleagues?  If you don’t see any examples from the resume that look like going above and beyond, ask “When was the last time you took the initiative to change something or suggest that something change at work that you saw as not working well?”  Use their answer to help you determine if this person lacks the interest in improvement, or lacks the confidence to suggest improvements.  If the person indicates contentment with just doing the necessary and nothing more, that doesn’t necessarily mean they would automatically be a bad hire. Depending on the role, you may need consistency over innovation.  But at least be aware before you hire of what you are getting and be sure it fits with the skills necessary for the role.

Innoculate Against a Zombie Infection

One of the worst possible hires is one that spreads discontent among existing employees. It can be difficult to spot a “Zombie” in an interview, but not impossible.  One of the biggest indicators is where they see their locust of control. In other words, when things go poorly, do they blame others?  When things go well, do they take all the credit?  Either extreme has the potential to infect a team with resentment.  In an interview ask, “Tell me about a time when something went wrong at work and tell me why?”  Listen for answers that are nuanced, that include both what the person did wrong, but also other external factors that may have contributed.  Then ask the opposite, “Tell me about one of the successes you are most proud of.”  Look for answers that highlight the support and help of others, even if the project was primarily individual.  Be wary of people who give all the credit to others and can’t acknowledge their own contributions.  Another telling interview question is “Tell me about a time when you disagreed with a management decision or company policy.”  If the answer is nothing, prod deeper, did they discuss it with colleagues?  Did those discussions lead to collective action or just collective discontent?  You aren’t looking for yes men who never disagree, you are looking for people who look for solutions over griping. 

Get Help Avoiding the Nightmare

If these tips are still leaving you afraid of what might go wrong with hiring, get help.  Scismic’s team has over 40 years of combined experience in hiring the right person for the right job at the right time.  We can help you think through all aspects of the hiring process from job design to interview.  Email Elizabeth@scismic.com for a free consultation.