I don’t care what you know. I care about how you think. That’s been my guiding philosophy for hiring over the past 15 years. It didn’t come at first. But time has a way of showing how to adjust your methods. It’s easy to be impressed by the resume, the experience, the rapport or the way someone answers questions. But that’s all words. How about actions? When the heat’s on, what they’ve said may not match what they do. So how do you elicit some insights on their approaches to problem solving and decision making? Compare these steps to what you do now and see if you’re on the same page.
Make a list of the typical problems/decisions to be resolved in this position. Then choose two or three that can be replicated during the screening process. Examples include, answering in-bound customer calls, negotiating with a vendor, and organizing a stockroom.
Create a representative experience. This means immersing them in the actual environment. Put them on the phone, have them role play with a “vendor,” or put them in the stockroom. To use the examples above.
Test for the desired outcome. Ask a few people unfamiliar with these tasks to complete them and see what results you get. If you obtain the information/insights you’re seeking, then add these exercises to the selection process. If not, you’ll need to rethink the exercise until you get it right.
Allot the time and resources. This kind of selection takes more time. That said, you’re also making a substantial decision on a person you hope will perform well for years. Isn’t that worth the investment?
Inform the applicants before the process begins. The best ones will appreciate the care you’re taking. Most will simply accept it as a part of the process. A percentage will fail to show. That’s okay. You didn’t want to hire those people anyway.
Implement the process and tweak for improvement. As you observe applicants’ performances, you may discover that their approaches to solving problems and making decisions is different that yours. In many cases, this is something to be celebrated. More than one organization has been derailed by group-think. You may also find that some applicants have other strengths, but decision making is not one of them. That may be acceptable provided you have the time and resources to help them hone their approach.
Compare successful applicant performance with their performance on the job. Once this process has been in place for a while, circle back with supervisors to see how well these new hires solve the problems and make the decisions they were screened for. Make adjustments in the selection process based on these observations.
Assessing for problem solving and decision making should always trump the desire for credentials and experience. After all, if you don’t know how they think on the way in the door, what might happen when you have to live with them?