In the workplace, leaders also experience their fair share of mistakes, especially when finding the right candidate for a role. Given another chance, they’d likely make adjustments and do things differently. If they could, they’d take a mulligan one of their in house training solutions.
While everyone would agree it’s important to recruit the best people for leadership or high-paying positions, filling roles at all levels with A-players will make all the difference. An effective organization also needs excellent managers, supervisors, and front-line employees, not just superstar chief executives.
With this in mind, this article provides organizations with surefire ways to refine their hiring practices. Tackle the hiring challenge head-on and usher in the newest members of their organization’s high-performing teams in no time.
Set High Expectations from the Start
Organizations should define the role expectations before they post the job. This way, they can write a job description that truly captures what they’re looking for in a candidate. It encouraged to get rid of the generic, uninspired list of expectations, such as “meet daily production goals,” “enforce team safety standards” or “effectively solve problems to minimize downtime.”
Focus on responsibilities and outcomes instead of tasks. For example, one can say “provide the safest possible workplace by creating an environment where team members feel a sense of responsibility for their safety and that of their teammates” – which sounds much more value-centered than “enforce team safety standards” during in house training solutions.
Hire for Attributes
This is not to undermine the importance of skills. Naturally, skills are an important factor to consider in any job. But, to illustrate an example, if one thinks about strong leadership and industry experience, the former requires a set of inherent attributes and the latter involves skills that can be taught.
It’s suggested that one can put together the applicable attributes required for a specific role. Then ask themselves: which of these can be taught during in house training solutions and which are inherent to the candidate? Without question, the inherent quality should jump to the top of the list.
Looking at inherent attributes goes beyond enumerating the duties of the job. It allows organizations to see if a person fits their culture and consider the new relationships they will have. If they’re hiring for a managerial or supervisory position, it also gives them the chance to separate the grain from the chaff and choose a proactive, inspirational leader any high-performance team deserves.
Conduct Detailed Reference Checks
A reference check involves contacting a candidate’s past employers to verify their term of employment, skills, and attributes in previous jobs. If an employer wants to make as few hiring decisions as possible, this is their key opportunity to learn about a person’s past performance, which usually is a good indicator of future performance. It’s advisable to put in the time and effort to reach out to a reference provided by a candidate.
Inform the reference about the business intention and find out some details about them before the talk – this way they’ll learn whether or not they are indeed credible. Be creative with the questions to ensure they can gather beyond-surface-level information.
Offer Fair Pay at All Levels
Employers don’t need to offer the highest salary at all levels. But a salary should be competitive and fair. When they offer industry-standard remuneration, they enable their employees to focus on other details of their job. At the same time, they’re establishing mutual respect and trust. These are exactly what they need to build a high-performing team.
Do Not Give Up
No organization is perfect. But if they’ve made some hiring blunders before, they don’t have to waste time and resources repeating them. Instead, strive to cultivate a culture that drives teams to perform at their best.
Based on the hiring advice shared above, a high performing team is characterized by:
- Sharing a common vision, mission, and purpose
- Having clear roles and responsibilities
- Setting high standards
- Establishing trust
Organizations will see these qualities exhibited in their teams if they take the right steps toward hiring the right people. It may take a lot of work, but it’s a worthy pursuit.
Further, the more companies refine their hiring practices, the better they will become in the process. Hiring high-performance team members eventually becomes the norm. When it’s time for hiring and their values are set in place, there’ll be no reason to take a mulligan.
