A good recruiter knows that the best candidates are neither those who can best present themselves, nor those with the best education, skills and long experience. Candidates should be judged on their achievements. If you want the best talent, learn to evaluate candidates based on their past performance. This at least is the advice of Lou Adler, American expert on recruiting top talent and publicist, in a recent article on Inc.com. At the same time, however, Adler notes that it is really challenging to win hiring managers over to such a method of recruitment. How can it be done?
1. Teach them to forget about traditional job descriptions
Next time you are seeking a new team member for one of your managers, skip the stage of defining required skills, responsibilities, experience, education, etc. Instead, ask the manager to specify what the newly hired employee needs in order to pass the first performance evaluation. Then ask what the best people in the team do differently from others. Another important question is why the best candidate should want to work for you. Finally, discuss whether the manager could interview someone who meets all these requirements but lacks experience or the skills mentioned in the traditional job description.
2. Show them how to focus job interviews on performance
Before the interview, ask candidates to summarise two of their achievements relevant to the job in question - one individual, the other team-based. Give these summaries to the hiring manager who will participate in the interview so that s/he can discuss them with the candidates at the start of the interview. Most mistakes resulting from a poor first impression occur within the first 30 minutes of an interview; this can be avoided by focusing on performance. At the end of the interview, you can evaluate more objectively how the first impression corresponds to the candidate"s actual performance. Do not let hiring managers conduct first interviews alone until they have learnt not to judge by first impressions.
3. Verify individual achievements in detail
Ask candidates to describe some of their greatest achievements in as much detail as possible. This will help you discover whether a candidate is lying. Use questions such as: In what position and with what team were you working on the task? What results did you achieve? Where and for how long did the project take place? Why were you chosen to perform the task? What challenges did you face? What was your plan for solving the task and measuring success? What resources did you use? What style of leadership did your manager choose and how did you like it? What skills were most important? What mistakes did you made? What did you enjoy the most? What have you learned? What would you do differently if you had the chance? Can you give examples of how you lead others?
Apart from the interview, the overall assessment of a candidate's quality based on their performance can be measured using a second tool created by Lou Adler called Quality of Hire Talent Scorecard. The template of the scorecard can be downloaded on this page (in English after completing a contact form).
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