Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Hiring: Reading

Pre-reading Questions to be discussed with your partner(s) before reading:

  1. What do you think is imporant in hiring a person for the job?
  2. What things would you need to do to prepare for interviewing someone for a job in your company?

Comprehension Questions (read over the questions before reading then answer the questions on your personal page):

  1. What do you need to have ready for every part of the hiring process?
  2. Why is it so important to have a job description ready beforehand?
  3. What helps you find out if someone will work well with the company and is telling the truth on their resume?
  4. What can you do to help you compare the people you are hiring?
  5. What is something that all hiring managers should stop doing?
  6. What is something that people are looking for in a job other than money?

How to find the right person for your job opening
By Mike Bruno, special for USATODAY.com

A business is only as successful as its employees. The best business plan in the world doesn't have a prayer without a solid team in place working to make it happen.

Although it's easier to find an adequate candidate in today's job market, selecting the best person from that huge pile of resumes takes careful planning, rigorous screening and strategic evaluation.

Preparation

For starters, you need to know exactly who you're looking for. Every step in the hiring process is dependent on the job description. Once you have a carefully-constructed profile of the job and the qualifications required, you can identify the skills, knowledge, personality traits and past work experiences the potential employee will need.

Building this essential set of requirements against which all candidates will be evaluated not only saves you time later, but provides applicants with important information as well.

"Give applicants an opportunity to screen themselves out, and it's a mutual win/win situation," says Scott Burton, vice president of selection solutions for Development Dimensions International.

Interviewing

Meeting face-to-face with candidates helps you determine whether they will work well within your company and provides an opportunity to verify claims made on their resumes.

Kelly Brookhouse, director of leadership talent management for Motorola, describes her company's interview process as the "structured interview approach." All candidates are asked the same questions, so they can easily be measured against each other, and all questions come directly from the job profile.

"Instead of just asking what they've done, ask them to tell you when and where," Brookhouse says. "Ask them to tell you about a particular experience they had resolving a certain problem."

Measuring candidates

Balancing between objectivity and gut instinct can be tricky. While a candidate's ability can easily be quantified with a test, evaluating a person's personality and values isn't as straight forward.
Some managers think instinct is the best way to select the right people.

"Because so much is dependent on our consultants' ability to communicate ideas to senior managers, we do straight qualitative analysis," says Lori Rutter, vice president of Telluride, a system analysis firm. "We may have them take a personality test, but I'm trying to do mind proofs to see what motivates the person. I'm looking to see how they behave, how they interact with others, and whether it seems that they're interested in what we do."

Other managers and consultants believe hiring managers should remove all subjectivity, even quantifying factors such as personality and values.

"Going from the gut is nothing more than saying 'I know what works,'" Burton says. "Some call that intuition, but it's really just saying 'I've done it enough and seen it enough, so I just know it.'"

Selling your company

Don't let the large pool of qualified candidates overshadow the importance of selling your company to applicants. When you spot a strong candidate, be sure to emphasize how he or she can benefit from the position.

"Talking about pay packages and stock options is part of it," Brookhouse says, "but it won't win the hearts and minds of the Gen Xers and Gen Yers out there who are looking for experiential value in addition to monetary value."

Taken from http://www.usatoday.com/money/jobcenter/workplace/recruiting/2002-11-21-hirin...