How do you hire great people?
February 20, 2008 by Phil Gerbyshak
Filed under Business
Last night I facilitated a discussion at the Brew City HDI chapter around this question:
How do you hire great people?
With no exception, the answer was “I hire for soft skills and teach the technical skills.” These were the “soft skills” the managers I talked with said were most important:
- Attention to detail
- Written communication
- Verbal communication
- Attitude
- Willingness to learn new things
- Ability to play nice with others
Do you agree that soft skills are the best predictor of success?
What would you add to this soft skills list?
How do YOU hire great people?
I agree and do practice this kind of hiring. I’m glad you mentioned what those soft skills are because those particular soft skills are what make learning technical skill possible.
Another important aspect of those skills is the ability to have normal and productive social interactions with supervisors and co-workers.
Those soft skills mentioned about are also ideal skills or traits to look for in clients. I don’t expect a client to know the technicalities of the products up front but it’s a real joy to work with people be they clients or employees who communicate well, love to learn and have a great attitude. It’s a nightmare when it’s the opposite.
I have been spending some time lately talking with hiring managers, and most of them tell me that they usually hire people because they “like” them. If a job candidate can’t carry on a decent conversation, shows up late, badmouths past bosses and co-workers…then they move on to the next person. I don’t think enough job candidates understand this, because if they did, they would spend as much time investing in having great soft skills as they do their technical learning.
Anita Bruzzese
http://www.45things.com
Being able to gauge whether or not someone has potential or is great the way they are is probably one of the most difficult parts of hiring a candidate, especially in the technology industry. Obviously, like the poster above me, there are times when you say “I just really like them” and you take a leap. Self promoting here, but we use Auto-Quiz, which is an in-house creation that helps us get some of the soft with the hard. It is available to anyone who wants to use it.
Candidates are screened with pro-active technical questions that measure how they think and what their style is, not whether or not they are right or wrong.
Clearly, any application or automated system will not be able to check the pulse of the candidate, but there is a lot you can derive from their results.
I would add ability to cope with stressful situation. It is crucial for the job of consultant. To gauge this I do role play pretending I am unsatisfied customer, demanding boss, or arrogant co-worker. If the candidate behaves peacefully, sees the opportunity in each situation vs. failure, tries to solve it then it is HIRE.
Frankly Phil, my gut level take of your short list is that it is kind of ho-hum and ordinary, and not what I’d look for to hire “great.” For me a great candidate is applying for a job they know is their calling and they are so intensely passionate about it, not hiring them to fulfill that role is unthinkable — hire them, and you’ll get breakthru energy and a sense of urgency, predilection toward quick action, and the learner’s desire to excel, not just “learn new things” that may be random and unimportant. When you hire someone like that, you’ll get the rest and then some.
Managers and HT people have to like the candidate, and often this is based on pure social aesthetics of the candidate. Unless, the position to be filled requires someone with niche skills or is not too fussy to do a task others don’t want, ie, computer coding or cleaning the toilets, in which case, who can do it, will get it.
Thanks to everyone for contributing to the conversation and offering some excellent insights.
One additional thought directed to Rosa – I especially like your passion thought. I would agree, if something is burning deep down, you’d be a darn fool not to hire them. That is truly GREAT, and unfortunately, I don’t find too many of them in my interviewing, though when I do, I snap them up as quick as I can. I’m hiring 2 folks right now, and I want the passion to serve.
I really should have included this, and I appreciate you reminding me of this important item that I missed!
Phil, gotta tell you: Your passion is why I continue to read what you write here and at your own blog, for your energy normally jumps off the screen and challenges me to charge up whatever I am doing with more spark and enthusiasm. You’ve struck somewhat of a nerve with me within this posting, because while I’m realistic about not expecting people to be completely turned on high at work all the time, we settle for way too much mediocrity in life. As far as the working world goes, hiring with better – and yes, shoot for the stars expectations, is such a crucial start. We get what we expect to get, and so much, from working conditions to customer service will not improve until we improve in demanding better of ourselves.
I think there’s two keys:
1. hire for the culture
2. hire based on past behavior
Finding a fit with the culture is key to setting them up for success. The culture is essentially “what are the key values/principles.”
Past behavior is a good predictor of future behavior. While people and situations change, and traits are relatively stable, most people have a set of behaviors they tend to rely on. It’s more reliable to ask somebody, “in a situation where you needed to blah, what did you do?”
what is teh posible question during the interview?