FOR EMPLOYERS - Can you afford to make a bad decision? Are you unsure how to make the best hiring decision? Do your actual hiring results not live up to your expectations?
The clear and concise steps outline in Dan Erling's book, "Match", helps eliminate interviewer bias and increases the effectiveness of hiring decisions. Erling also considers the full hiring cycle from the laying of the foundation through a compelling and engaging mission statement to engaging the new hire through effective onboarding and ongoing training. Too many books pay lip service to the parts of the cycle that are not focused on conducting the interview. Erling believes that your interview won't yield the results you want without review and preparation before the interview with strong execution and follow up. Descriptive stories are used throughout the book to demonstrate different points and situations.
In "Phase I: Preparing the recruiting plan," what you set as the priorities will drive your decisions throughout the process. If you have set the wrong priorities, you won't make the best hiring decision. The preparation steps include drawing the organizational chart to indicate where the proposed position fits within the hierarchy, writing detailed job descriptions, assessing culture by using a company and department culture scorecard and prioritizing competencies through a series of questions.
In "Phase II: Implementing the recruiting plan," Erling outlines the phone screen, the face to face interview, reference checking and background checks. The first three are strongly focused on the competencies outlined during the previous phase. Because the assessment was done first, the guesswork has been eliminated.
"Phase III: Executing the hire" doesn't leave anything to chance. The focus on making the offer is on gaining acceptance and the focus in onboarding is raising long term retention and effectiveness. The checklists and descriptive examples help new and experienced managers see how they can improve their execution of the hire.
In "Phase IV: Following Up," the focus is on retention and fostering a culture of effective hiring. Erling provides tools to analyze the cost of the hire and ROI which help assess the impact of these steps. Retention can be improved through a clear mission, open communication, recognition of employee's impact and long-term training and mentoring.
FOR CANDIDATES - This book offers you insights into how companies are analyzing positions and setting up interview questions. You can use this information to deconstruct the interview process and prepare more effectively for your interviews
* Use the Cultural scorecard to explore what you are looking for in a company culture. Construct questions that explore those qualities that are important to you.
* Use the competency profile to assess which competencies you believe are most important to the organization. Anticipate the behavior-based interview questions that they are going to ask and outline stories that demonstrate these competencies
* Onboarding checklists can provide you an outline for onboarding yourself when the company doesn't.
To learn more about the Match process, order the book on Amazon.com or visit Dan Erling's website.
If you have used this process, we would love to hear about your experiences. Please submit your comments below.
