How do you know if you’re hiring the employee you need today or the leader you need tomorrow?

02.18.2020

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could follow a set of signs or arrows to lead you to the perfect hire or new employee? Unfortunately, hiring is a little less straightforward than following a path of breadcrumbs or signage, and there can be things that happen in the interview process that cause even the most seasoned hiring manager to doubt that they’re choosing the right candidate. So how do you know if you’re hiring the employee you need right now, or if you’re choosing someone who will be the leader you’ll need tomorrow? 

 

Applicant Tracking Systems and Artificial Intelligence tell one side of the story

Did you know the average resume review takes a hiring manager or human resources employee six seconds? We would argue that someone needs to spend longer than that with a resume to get a true sense of a candidate’s background, skills and experience, but that’s if the resume is even read by a human. Bots, applicant tracking systems and artificial intelligence are all bells and whistles that are being employed by most organizations at some point in the resume collection process, and they are all programmed to help humans save time and identify the best candidates for the role based on pre-programmed criteria. So yes, technology can be helpful if all you’re looking for is a candidate to have listed certain software experience or specific skills, but even the best machine learning will miss out on the intangible things that a candidate can’t list on their resume. That’s where you, the hiring manager comes in, and need to ask the right behavioral questions to gauge a candidate’s potential beyond their resume. Here’s a list of some key behavioral questions that you should use the next time you’re hiring.

How do your employees get promoted into a leadership role?

This might not feel like the most logical question to know the answer to if you’re hiring for an entry level role that does not directly lead to a leadership position. However, if you don’t understand the path to become a leader in your organization, you’re not going to know what qualities a candidate might need to have as a foundation to build on and gain the experience and skills to compliment their natural or learned abilities to get there. If you’re not asking questions to uncover whether or not a candidate has certain traits you believe are needed in a future leader, then you’re just looking to hire the candidate you need today.  If you take it one step further and know that candidates who have a history of being lifelong learners are the people who are most valued at your organization, prioritizing questions that reveal those key qualities are going to be critical to include in your interview.

 

When a skill or trait is really important to a role’s success, don’t ask a candidate about it one time. Find a way to ask about it in multiple ways. It will give you a truer picture of how well a candidate knows a program, or how much he or she has relied on a personality trait in negotiations or tough situations. For instance, it might not seem like there would be any connection between asking a candidate to describe their perfect manager, then asking about the most difficult thing he or she has seen a colleague or friend go through. However, with the first question the candidate will tell you the kind of traits or personality they value most in a manager, which are traits they also likely have. With the second question they will tell you how they were able to support or not support their colleague or friend and give you insight into what kind of relationships they form with colleagues and gauge their level of empathy. You’re asking two very different questions that both seek to determine a candidate’s aptitude for emotional intelligence. 

 

Who are your best employees?

Are your best employees lifelong learners? Are they excellent negotiators? Are they perfectionists? Knowing who your best employees are and the skills or personalities that have served them well at your organization makes it easier to identify candidates that are just like your best employees. Of course we’re not asking for you to find their exact replicas, but if having a laid back personality or being able to “roll with the punches” is critical for a person’s success, you’re less likely to put the candidate with the “type A” personality at the top of your candidate list. 

 

Your interview process and questions are only one part of the equation. Don’t forget to check references and have meaningful conversations with the people a candidate is giving you to speak with about their experience. If you can approach your screening, interviewing and hiring with the mindset of wanting to hire a leader, not just the employee you need today, you’re more likely to end up with the candidate who possesses the qualities that will serve them beyond the role you’re hiring for today because you thought to ask those questions and assess their skills and personality for it. Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take,” and we’d say that if you’re not asking the questions to assess a candidate beyond the position you see them in today, you’re missing the chance to determine if they’ll be a leader at your organization.