If the new key position holder turns out to be a flop, the company incurs high costs; then all of the personnel search and selection expenses were bad investments. However, the follow-up costs are even more serious. If a key position remains orphaned for a long time, decisions are usually made and implemented too late. So here are some tips on how to avoid flops when selecting personnel.
Photo: Piotr Marcinski – shutterstock.com
Often, the selection of new employees is based almost exclusively on their professional qualifications. Because this can be assessed relatively easily based on the (work) certificates and the challenges that the candidate has overcome so far. This is different for factors such as:
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Does the applicant find a link to the company’s customers, employees or suppliers?
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Does he have a “feel” for the necessities in the organization?
Determining this takes time and energy. But the effort is worth it if you think about the cost of a wrong appointment.
Invest as personnel manager enough time in the selection of personnel! This process begins with formulating the requirements for the “new”. For example, don’t say: “It’s clear what a sales manager has to do.” Rather, think about: What exactly does the sales manager have to do in our company? Because the sales manager of a group sometimes needs different skills than his colleague at a medium-sized company.
Determine in advance exactly what requirements the “new” must meet – for example, by interviewing the previous job holder. Also ask yourself: How does the ideal job holder differ from the candidate whom you do not want to hire in any way? For example, does the preferred candidate delegate many tasks while the other person does most of the work himself? Does the “dream cast” enjoy customer contact while its counterpart is avoiding customer discussions? In this way you can determine the social, communicative and personal characteristics that the “new” needs. Also take future requirements into account when formulating the requirement profile. Because your company wants to develop.
- IT decision-maker mistakes in the job interview
Jürgen Rohrmeier from the Pape Consulting Group observes which mistakes IT decision-makers make in the job interview. - Standardized questionnaires
“I was able to observe a case in which the supervisor worked through his catalog of questions without going into the candidate. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t recognize him afterwards in the hallway.” - Shop talk
“If applicants and line managers are both computer scientists, there is a risk that they will only talk about technological features or products for an hour.” - Intervention by the personnel decision maker
“The HR manager has to answer the question: What do we know about this person?” - Variable salary components
“Basically, I advise every company to be transparent. It is not a good thing to secretly pay ‘a little more’ to individual managers.” - Practice test
“Decision-makers can suggest to the applicant: ‘In this position, you will have to deal with dissatisfied customers who can get uncomfortable on the phone. I would like to play an RPG that one of our employees calls.'” - Strengths and weaknesses
“What should you do with the answers to this question? The applicant usually says that the weaknesses are impatient.” - Appearance of the applicants
“In general, computer scientists have become more communicative. That also corresponds to the development of IT.”
Derive an interview guide from the requirement profile – for all selection interviews. Such structuring and extensive standardization of the interviews ensures that you can compare the applicant profiles well at the end because all applicants answered the same key questions. In addition, you are less likely to fall into the trap of a rhetorically fit applicant leading the conversation and then finding: “Damn, I didn’t ask that.”
In addition, give applicants tasks that are typical of your company or the vacant position. For example: “Imagine an important trade fair next week, but your exhibit is not yet finished. What would you do?” Such questions tell you how applicants would solve such problems. Provide applicants with current tasks that the company faces. For example: “We would like to introduce a new CRM system. How would you approach this?” This usually makes it quickly clear whether the applicant is the right one.
Untrained executives often tell more about themselves and their company in interviews than they ask. They also ask applicants many questions that they can answer with “yes” or “no”, so that they themselves experience little. Therefore, inexperienced interviewers should train the conversation.
Invite at least one colleague to the interview. Because then the person who is not in the conversation can
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pay attention to the applicant’s non-verbal statements, which are often more meaningful than the verbal ones, and
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Write down keywords.
Otherwise, after the fifth interview, nobody knows what the first applicant said.
Careful follow-up is also important. Complete your notes after each interview. And after completing the selection interviews, compile the results so that you can compare the applicant profiles with the requirements profile. Before you make your selection, create a ranking of the best applicants. Then you have alternatives ready if your preferred candidate cancels.
When creating the ranking, also talk to your colleagues about why you have a “rather bad feeling” with applicant A, although he formally fulfills all the criteria; In addition, applicant B had the impression that he could be the better employee, although he did not fully meet individual requirements. Because in the selection interviews every applicant tries to sell himself as positively as possible. That is, it gives you “beautiful” answers.
Therefore, listen to your stomach when it says to you: “In spite of all the advantages, this applicant is not” – but never without asking yourself: Why do my neck hair balk at him? Otherwise there is a great risk that you will decide purely on the basis of sympathy – which leads to most incorrect appointments.