Filling an opening the way it was, with an identical job, a similar person and similar duties, leaves you exactly where you were in the first place.
An open position is an opportunity to reassess the business needs and redefine the job. Business expectations change with the challenges the industry faces. Use the opening as an opportunity to re-imagine the job.
Make your lists. I suggest the following:
- Define the business needs.
- What are the specific goals facing the company today, in the near future and longer term?
- What are the economic conditions of your market/industry?
- What is the competitive landscape in which you are operating and what are the audience's expectations?
- What are the revenue responsibilities affecting this position?
- What are the budget limitations and new business implications?
- What key changes are needed in the way you do business that new employees will have to embrace?
- Define the changes in the current job opening and in the duties assigned to it.
- What has changed in the duties of this job within the last 12 months that made us need someone new in the position?
- What technology has changed that affects this position?
- What are the goals assigned to this job by which you will measure success?
- Define the 15 to 18 core competencies that a hire should have demonstrated in her past work history to be successful in your open position. Examples include: business savvy, interpersonal savvy, political savvy.
Now, list those
competencies relative to your opening.
Define: leadership
skills needed, teambuilding
required, interpersonal
management or project
management skills needed.
Define the experience
that helps folks learn these competencies.
How many years might someone have had to demonstrate successful
leadership skills, for example?
Here is a (PDF) form you
might use.
Now use
this scorecard.
Rate your candidate
against a score for the job.
First add up the
total number of points for the job competencies in the column "Level of
Importance." Do this by rating how
important each competency is to the success of the job. Once you
rate each competency, add the points. This gives you a score a candidate would
need to have to qualify.
Make multiple
copies of this form with your job ratings so that when you interview job
seekers, you can put their scores for each of these competencies in the "candidate's score" column. Rate the candidates immediately after the interview.
This means you will
have to ask questions to get at each of these competencies. Remember, the best indicator of future
performance is past performance. Ask
what they did in their last job to demonstrate these competencies.
Once you have rated
each competency for the candidate, add up the score. When you have finished interviewing and
scored all your applicants, their scores to lead you to the best qualified
candidate.
Call if you need
help: 727-456-2331. Or e-mail me.
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Look for the added insurance to hire the best.
