Performance-Based Hiring Guide 1

February 2007

Performance-based Hiring Guide 1. Overview of Performance-based Hiring and How to Use ..………………… Page 1 2. How to Prepare Performance Profiles ……………………………………….. Page 3 3. Performance Profile Samples …………………………………………………. Page 6 • Product Manager • Mid-level Software Developer 4. The Performance-based Structured Interview ………………………………. Page 10 5. 10-factor Candidate Assessment Template …………………………………. Page 12 6. Organizing the Interview and Debriefing …………………………………….. Page 14 7. Organizing the Interview Matrix ………………………………………………. Page 20 8. Conducting the Panel Interview ………………………………………………. Page 21

Important

To begin—Please save this guidebook to your desktop or in another location.

These PDFs are to be viewed from your computer or you can print them out.

To complete any exercises shown here you will need pen and paper, or start a journal and keep all the information you learn from these guides together. Performance-based Hiring Overview and Instructions ©2007. The Adler Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

A performance-based interview is an advanced form of behavioral interviewing. The objective of a performance- based interview is to dig deep into a candidate’s major accomplishments to better understand how collectively his or her skills, competencies, personality, and behaviors achieved success. By getting multiple examples of team, individual, and job-related accomplishments trend lines can be observed. By themselves these accomplishment reveal competency, self motivation to do the work described, span of control and relevancy to the open job requisition. Collectively these accomplishments reveal job growth, personal development and consistency over an extended period of time.

The key to an accurate assessment is to first understand actual job needs before interviewing candidates. This is referred to as a performance profile. This describes what successful people do in the job, not personal attributes of successful people or required skills and experiences. The assessment is made by comparing what a candidate has accomplished to what needs to be accomplished. This comparison is formally made using the 10-Factor Candidate Assessment template by ranking each candidate on a 1-5 ranking system for the ten core traits of success. This ranking is relevant to actual job needs. This is how a more accurate determination of job fit is made. Differences in ranking are due to personal attributes of success in combination with actual job needs.

Interview and Assessment Tools Included in this Guide

1. Performance Profile

A performance profile describes what superior performance is for the job. It describes what a strong person in the job needs to do to be considered successful, not what the person needs to have in terms of skills, personal attributes or experiences. Every job has 5-8 performance objectives that define strong performance. These need to be put into priority order and agreed upon by the hiring team. The interviewer will use these performance objectives as a benchmark to assess the candidate. Using a performance profile to determine competency and motivation generally results in more consensus and fewer hiring mistakes since motivation and competency to do the actual work are directly measured.

2. The Eight Step Performance-Based Interview

This interview form guides the interviewer through a series of structured questions designed to determine how well a candidate meets the standards set in the performance profile. The underlying premise is that past performance is the best predictor of future performance. However, the burden is put on the interviewer for getting the candidate to provide enough information about the candidate’s past performance/accomplishments in order to accurately assess his or her level of competency and motivation to do the work. By taking responsibility for getting the correct information, the interviewer is judging the candidate’s true performance not presentation or interviewing skills. The interview form itself contains tips and fact-finding hints to ensure that candidates give complete answers.

The interviewer can eliminate a candidate who does not meet the minimum qualifications. Interviewers are cautioned, however, not to eliminate a candidate prematurely who appears to be temporarily nervous, or who fails to give a good first impression. Additionally, the interviewer should not assume a candidate is competent simply because he/she appears friendly or is a good talker. For this reason, it is important to ask everyone the same questions, and to focus on assessing competency. After the interview is completed you’ll be able to rank each answer on a 1-5 scale with 5 being the best. The 10 Factor Candidate Assessment template clearly describes the 1-5 ranking scale.

3. Supporting Notes

It is important to always keep accurate and legally defensible notes. Notes should not be a list of feelings or emotional reactions. Specific details need to be described. Digging deep to obtain proof about a conclusion is The Adler Group, Inc. • Irvine, CA • 949.612.6300 • www.adlerconcepts.com • [email protected] Page 1 Performance-based Hiring Overview and Instructions ©2007. The Adler Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

the key to effective performance-based interviewing. For example, the candidate seemed personable and would fit with our culture, is NOT acceptable. However, something like, the candidate described four situations when she went out of her way to coach or train new co-workers, would be acceptable.

4. 10-Factor Candidate Assessment Template

After each interview the interviewer will use the 10-Factor Candidate Assessment template to summarize his or her evaluation of the candidate. This provides a convenient, at-a-glance summary and allows the interviewer to compare interview results vs. job requirements as outlined in the performance profile. To increase reliability, multiple questions have been asked throughout the interview to assess each of the 10-factors.

The 1-5 rankings are very important. A 1 means the person is totally incompetent or unwilling to do the work. A 2 means the person is either partially competent, or competent, but not motivated to do the work. A level 3 is a superior person who is both competent and motivated to do the work with normal supervision and training. Since the performance profile describes superior performance, all 3s should be hired unless a level 4 or 5 is available. It takes a lot of work to determine the difference between a level 2 and level 3. More mistakes are made hiring people who seem okay, but once on the job fall short either because they were only partially competent or unmotivated to do parts of the job. The performance-based interview conducted as described will virtually eliminate this problem. Separating 2s from 3s is a key aspect of successful performance-based interviewing.

A 4 means the person is likely to exceed expectations and a 5 means the person is likely to far exceed expectations. These levels will naturally reveal themselves if the interviewer digs deep enough to ensure the candidate is NOT a level 2, and at least a level 3 or better. This is really the key to successful hiring – not making any mistakes.

Additional Instructions

1. Prior to the interview, the interviewer should review the information in this guide along with the candidate’s resume and the performance profile.

2. Questions should be asked as described in the performance-based interview. In order for the guide to be used as an objective tool, the following five (5) conditions below must be met: a. Understanding of job needs. A complete understanding of the performance requirements, as described in the performance profile, is essential. b. Unbiased questioning. The interviewer needs to ask all candidates the same questions whether he/she likes or dislikes a candidate. This guide helps neutralize biases, emotions, and prejudices, and directs the interviewer to recognize the impact of first impressions at the beginning and the end of the interview. c. Good answers. Candidates need to give the interviewer enough information in order for the interviewer to make an accurate assessment. The fact-finding and assessment tips provided in the interview elicit the proper information from candidates to help the interviewer accurately assess competency. d. Balanced assessments. The 10-Factor Candidate Assessment template requires interviewers to assess competency across ten different factors. This results in a more balanced assessment since interviewers often mistakenly over and under value one or two strengths or weaknesses. e. Recruiting. It is important not to oversell the position. The best candidates consider the quality of the assessment an important aspect in determining the professionalism of a potential employer. Selling too soon minimizes the job and the company. If a job is more difficult to obtain, it is perceived as having more value. This can impact the compensation package and offer stage. This interview has some built in recruiting tools.

3. After each interview, the interviewer should complete the 10-Factor Assessment and include supporting notes to justify every ranking. The Adler Group, Inc. • Irvine, CA • 949.612.6300 • www.adlerconcepts.com • [email protected] Page 2 Performance Profile Preparation Guide © 2007. All Rights Reserved. The Adler Group, Inc. February 2007

Performance Profile Overview

A performance profile describes the 6-8 performance objectives a person taking the job needs to do to be successful. It differs from a job description in that it doesn’t describe skills or traits, but rather what the person needs to accomplish with his or her skills and traits. For example instead of saying the person must have five years of accounting experience and a CPA, it’s more clear to say “complete the implementation of the Sarbanes- Oxley reporting requirements by Q2.”

Once the list is developed the hiring team should review these performance objectives and put them in priority order. This way consensus is reached on job needs before the search process begins. Clarifying expectations up- front not only increases assessment accuracy, but if they’re compelling enough they’re also the major reason why top people select one job over another. Compensation also becomes less important if the job is a great fit.

Using the two-question performance-based interview you’ll learn at the workshop you’ll be able to quickly determine how competent and motivated the person is to meet these performance objectives. Consensus will also be easier to reach since everyone is using the same benchmark to evaluate the candidate against.

To start preparing performance profiles first determine the top 2-3 major performance objectives

With the recruiter, hiring manager and members of the hiring team ask these questions. Collectively they’ll help you uncover the key challenges in the job.

1. What are the one or two major accomplishments a strong person in this role should achieve over the course of 6-12 months? (Use shorter time frame if appropriate.)

2. Are there any big challenges or problems that need to be addressed? What about any major changes, upgrades or improvements.

3. What are 2-3 other big things a top person in this job does on a regular basis?

1. 2. 3.

4. What do the best people do differently than the average person doing the same things noted in step 2 above?

5. From the above what are the most important performance objectives? Select the top two or three and put them in priority order.

Major Performance Objectives (use the following space to write your answers)

1. Example for a product marketing manager – lead the launch of the ___ product for introduction by (date).

Now break the major objectives into sub-tasks

Frequently achieving the major objectives requires a series of logical steps and sub-tasks. You can use the following questions to determine these. Examples are provided to help you prepare these. Here’s one, complete the evaluation of the ___ project and present the findings to the executive committee within 120 days. For most positions a combination of 6-8 major and sub-objectives like these are sufficient to accurately describe real job needs. Make the objectives reasonably specific describing the situation, the time frame and result. For example, “rebuild the engineering department over the first six months to be more timely with design deliveries.” The most important part of these performance objectives is the action verb (build, develop, lead, change, eliminate, complete) and the task.

1. Most positions require the person to first figure out the problem or task, so start with this idea to come up with a sub-objective. This is the assessment or problem-solving part of the job. Determine this for the most challenging major objective you’ve listed above. Example for the example above: within 30 days determine the feasibility of launching the product by (date).

2. Here are some other ideas you can use to determine other key sub-objectives. Consider some type of trade-off analysis, comparing the impact of different options, evaluating data determining the root cause of problem, or conducting some type of research. Example: During the first 45 days evaluate two different approaches to improving call center productivity involving improved equipment and/or better training.

3. Put a plan together once the task or the big problem is understood. All jobs require some level or planning and organization so use to develop a sub-objective. For example: prepare a step-by-step plan together for completing the testing and design of the A/P implementation project by August.

4. Determine any team issues involved in the job. Every task involves working with others so always include some time of realistic team related work effort. Determine what they are for this job. For example, work with a team consisting of (describe members) to complete the (describe project) by (date). As part of this consider the level of the members, the variety of functions involved, and the role the person will play (e.g., lead, participate, organize, influence, sell, coordinate)

5. Determine what the person needs to execute or deliver: The best people deliver results on time and on budget. This is self-management and organization. For this job figure out the key deliverables and the time schedule. During the interview you’ll ask how the person he or she handled similar situations. Break the process into big steps (analyze, design, pre-test, final test, launch) to determine the primary focus of the job. You might develop 2-3 key sub-tasks during this exercise. Example: complete and test design alternatives within six weeks from approval.

6. Find out if there is an attention to detail or documentation issue: Paying attention to details is a critical component of success in all jobs. Here’s an example performance objective: document daily results of all

sales activities using salesforce.com and review weekly with the sales team. Or, process all orders with 100% accuracy.

7. Figure out if there any strategy, business-level thinking and cross functional issues involved: People with upside potential have the ability to see the big picture as well as understand how their work impacts other departments and functions. Here’s an example that gets at this: work with the ____ (finance and operations) department to prepare the business plan and trade-off analysis for _____ (launching the q-box project). As part of this lead the analysis of ___ (the pricing analysis for the different sales and distribution channels.)

8. Convert HAVING to DOING: First determine what technical skill or experience is most important. For example, 5 years C/C++ with Verilog or a CPA with Sarbanes-Oxley. Then ask – what does person do with this level of experience. Example results: lead development of a new chip design for _____ or lead the 2006 audit for SO reporting.

Summarize Basic Skills and Experience Requirements.

The key is to have enough experience and skills to do the work described. Most candidates meet at least 75-90% of this requirement, plus they have the potential to pick up the balance very quickly. This is a great hire!

Note: not all of these performance objectives would be included in a typical performance profile. However, when completed the 6-8 most important objectives should be clearly defined and then put in priority order. All members of the interviewing team need to agree to this performance profile before beginning the interview process. Using the performance-based interview and the 10-Factor Candidate Assessment template candidates will be assessed on their competency and motivation to do the work described above.

Position Overview

The best product managers are multi-functional. They have the ability to work with all functions including engineering, manufacturing, accounting, marketing, IT, and sales in coordinating all aspects of the product throughout its lifecycle. This includes concept development and marketing research, product management through the manufacturing build and product launch phase, and through the sustaining and phase-out period. Their greatest skill is having the ability to understand the product/user/market dynamics and relate this to the team creating and launching the product. Project management and budgeting is a critical part of this. Mistakes are sometimes made in hiring a product manager who does not understand and respect the critical role of other departments.

Organization

A strong predictor of success for a product manager is the ability to coordinate the activities of other functional departments. In many cases the product manager has no direct staff. He/she must influence others through a strong understanding of product needs, and an ability to make tough budget/product decisions and trade-offs. It’s important to define the departments and people the product manager will interface with up-front. Look for similar relationships in past positions.

Performance Objectives

Every job has 6-8 performance objectives that determine job success. Once you develop the complete list pick the most important and then put them in priority order.

1. Conduct a comprehensive review of all new product programs: During the first 30 days prepare an analysis of all new product programs. Include status of product development effort, budget vs. forecast comparison, status of launch efforts, and major challenges and problems. Submit recommendations and plans to prioritize scarce resources to meet critical target dates, including resource needs (people, financial, capital).

2. Coordinate the development and launch of all the new product line for the current season: Work with engineering, manufacturing, and marketing to determine status of all products to be launched this season. Identify hurdles and constraints and develop work-arounds as necessary to meet plan dates.

3. Lead the development of the two-year product plan: Take the lead on preparing the two- year product program due within 120 days, coordinating with product development and engineering. This needs to consist of competitive analysis, assessment of technology trends, and market and consumer research. Include revenue and market share analysis by channel, including segmentation analysis. New products (introduced within 12 months) should represent 20% of total revenue within 18 months.

4. Conduct a process review of the product development process: New products typically miss initial projections from a time and budget standpoint. Assess the product development process from all aspects and prepare a plan-of-action to re-organize all aspects of this effort. The goal is to have a predictable new product introduction program within 12 months.

5. Coordinate the advertising and marketing program: Work with marketing in creating a new campaign for all existing lines: Review all advertising and promotional programs with marketing to determine adequacy, especially consider channel programs. From a product management standpoint this is related to timeliness and effectiveness with regard to new product offerings. For all legacy products determine adequacy of existing promotional efforts. Recommend changes for the upcoming executive committee review.

6. Develop sales tools for the direct and indirect channels: Work with the sales team to determine adequacy of existing pricing, promotional, and advertising tools. Include media support. Implement changes during the next quarter, but stay within budget constraints.

7. Upgrade the pricing model by channel: Review all pricing by customer and product line for all re-sellers and distribution channels. Update as necessary to reflect new features and to support new product offerings.

8. Prepare a competitive feature comparison analysis: As part of the re-pricing efforts complete a feature comparison against the top competitors for the ___ line. This should be available with ____ days.

9. Work with production in developing realistic build programs to support the nationwide launch of the ____ product line: The launch of the ______product line require adequate inventory levels at dealers to support major promotional program. Determine status of production and refocus efforts as necessary. Coordinate with distribution and IT to assess system support requirements.

10. Prepare the product requirements document for the ______project: Within ___ days, work with product development and engineering to complete the products requirement document for this new line. This should include all design features, detail descriptions of new applications, technology requirements, and capital needs for development and production.

Experience

A product manager for a consumer products company needs to have at least ___ to ____ years background in a few of the various phases of marketing and product management. This includes market research, competitive analysis, pricing, distribution and channel programs, product development, and/or project management. Experience in consumer products sold through clubs, or mass merchandisers would be helpful. Solid knowledge of marketing communications and demand creation is very important. This includes advertising and promotional, point-of-sale display advertising, development of channel strategies, and internet marketing.

Job Overview

The primary effort of a software developer is too develop software programs to perform some process, function or to meet the need of a specific application. The key projects involved in this effort include: (describe)

While underlying knowledge of the specific application is not necessary, it is important for the software developer to be able to work with subject matter experts in order to determine the real needs of the project. This is why cross-functional cooperation with users and understanding of other developer roles is essential to ultimate success. Another part of any software effort is the ability to understand the architecture of the system design and where their specific contribution fits into the overall project scope. The best software developers have the ability to understand the whole system from both a technical perspective as well as from the users viewpoint. Unusual aspects of this position include:

Hiring Tip: a common mistake in hiring software developers is to focus too heavily on the technical knowledge and not enough on the team and project skills that make the best software developers.

For this project experience should include a combination of ____ years of experience, academic training in the areas of ______, and project experience like:

Specific software language and design skills include:

SMARTe Performance Objectives

The following performance objectives represent the broad variety of tasks a mid-level software developer is likely to encounter. Most positions do not involve all of the tasks listed. Each objective should be modified based on the specific needs of the position, and from this the actual priorities should be established.

1) Develop a Complete Understanding of the Project(s): During the first ___ week(s), meet with the project Team Leader, fellow developers, end-users, clients, and other key individu- als/departments associated with the project to determine the status of the project and where this position fits into the overall scope of the project. Learn everything necessary to complete the software module(s) assigned to this position and make a presentation to ______by ______(date) demonstrating this understanding.

2) Prepare a Software Development Plan: Within the first ___ week(s) develop a project plan for development of the module(s) assigned to this position, outlining key project milestones, time to completion and present for approval. This includes identifying user requirements, preparation of use cases, development of critical paths and dependency relationships, available resources (including equipment, time, and internal and external people), and project challenges. Incorporate these into the plan.

3) Complete Software Design: Meet with the design team, develop and submit a comprehensive design concept for formal review by ______(date) This includes: software models, layout, mod-

ules, objects, process map, and ______. This plan needs to meet these key functional requirements: ______(list). Some of the design challenges include ______(describe).

4) Assess Adequacy of Existing Code: Review existing code for the project and recommend modifi- cations for upgrading and improvement by ______. Develop a time-phased plan of action to complement the proposed changes.

5) Write Efficient Code to Meet Requirements of the Project: Using ______(list languages) complete the detailed coding within ____ week(s) to meet project deadlines. Completed code should be written using the minimal amount of code, be bug free and meet established project performance standards. This includes: unit testing, optimization of code and preparation of complete design documentation.

6) Utilize Configuration Management System. Get up to speed quickly on the use of the ______CMS system. This system is used to manage the design, changes, and understand/maintain dependencies with other components of the overall design effort.

7) Overcome Major Design or Technical Challenges: Some of the major technical issues and challenges in this position include: ______(list). Be in a position by ______(date) to present a series of alternative approaches. During this presentation address alternative approaches, methods used to assess these alternatives, the impact on the project schedules, and additional resource required, if any.

8) Conduct System Testing: During the design phase continually test code for functionality and op- timize for performance to insure the code meets project standards. Take the lead on coordinating this effort with the software quality assurance team and assist with all troubleshooting needs and de-bugging efforts. Ensure that all required design changes are completed in a timely manner to meet the overall project schedule. .

9) Lead On-going Project Reviews: Meet with the project team on a pre-determined basis to discuss project progress, obstacles and solutions. Identify any problems discovered and recommend solutions. Meet project milestone deadlines on or before scheduled completion dates.

10) Participate In Software Deployment: Participate in developing software deployment and contin- gency plans to ensure project meets established timelines and schedules. This includes considera- tion for computer infrastructure and equipment, phased roll-out strategy and end-user training.

11) Projects related to final test, quality acceptance and production launch. (add anything here not included in the above.)

Note: while not all of these may be necessary it’s important to understand the real demands of the job. Then tie these to a bigger company initiative. This is called job branding. It makes the job more compelling. Put the performance objectives in priority order to insure that candidates are aware of the real challenges in the job. During the interview you’ll assess candidates based on their competency and motivation to do the work actually required.

The Adler Group, Inc. • Irvine, CA • 888.878.1388 • adlerconcepts.com • [email protected] Page 9 Structured Performance-based Interview February 2007.

Note: This is a pre-scripted interview. It’s important to follow the directions and ask the questions as written as closely as possible in order to insure an accurate assessment and legally defensible interview. Do not end the interview too soon or assume competency too soon. You must get specific examples of job-related accomplishments to determine competency. Then measure first impressions, AFTER YOU DETERMINE COMPETENCY. These two steps alone will increase accuracy.

Step 1 Welcome and Review Job/Motivation Information & Hot Tips Thank you for coming today. Based on your discussions please give me a Find out what’s already been covered. This way you’ll be able to focus your Opening quick overview of your thoughts about the job, and what you’ve discussed questions and fact-finding. question to with others so far? determine Asking the “Why?” follow-up question motivation What are you looking for in a new job? (pause) Why is having ___ and gets at the true source of motivation. Determine if person wants any job, or if ___ important to you and why do you think this job meets that criteria? person wants this job.

Step 2 Measure Impact of First Impression Information & Hot Tips o Wait 30-minutes Action, be Write down your immediate emotional reaction to the candidate – relaxed, o Do opposite of normal reaction aware of uptight, or neutral. Write down cause. At the end of interview you’ll meas- o Like: prove incompetency, be tough your biases ure the candidate’s first impression again, when you’re less affected by it. o Dislike: prove competency, be easy

o Be cynical, get proof, examples, facts

Step 3 Review Work History and Background Fact-finding & Hot Tips Please tell me about your most recent job. What was your position, the com- For each job obtain o Overview, title, type of work Use this to pany, your duties, and any recognition you received? (do this for the past few develop o Quick org chart jobs) structure o Dates, why left, explain gaps behind ex- o Highlights, big projects, major focus perience and Tell me about your schooling and advanced training. o Recognition, raises, promotion accom- Education/Training plishments o Schools, degree, why, how well o What kind of training, why o How well did your do

Step 4a Assess 3-4 Major Accomplishments Fact-finding & Hot Tips Can you please tell me about a major one-time project or accomplishment? o Overview of job, company o Team and org structure Or, consider a project or event that your quite proud of. o Environment – pace, resources o When? How long? Results? One major project we’re now working on is (describe). Please tell me about o What results were expected? o How did you plan project? something comparable you’ve led. o Obtain 2-3 examples of initiative Question o What did you change/improve for a few o Big challenges or conflict faced projects to Note: spend 10-12 minutes on 2-3 major accomplishments in order to devel- o What did you learn about self determine o How did you grow as a result impact and op a trend line of accomplishments over time. Make note of the accom- o What would you do differently trend line plishments and type of work where the person excelled and/or was highly o What (technical) skills needed motivated to exceed expectations. o How were these enhanced o What (technical) skills learned

o Describe likes, dislikes o Where did you exceed expectations o How did you improve yourself o What would you do differently o What recognition did you receive

Step 4b Assess 1-2 Major Team Accomplishments Fact-finding & Hot Tips Can you please tell me about a major team accomplishment? Consider one o Draw an org chart w/titles o What was your role, why you where you led the team, and one where you were a key member of the team. o What was plan & were results met o What were biggest team problems Question o How did you influence results for few Note: spend 10-12 minutes on 1-2 team accomplishments. Observe trend o 3 examples of initiative helping others teams & line and changes in scope of team. Make note of the types of people on the o Examples of being influenced observe team, variety of functions worked with, and how influential the person was in o How could you have been better impact and o Describe biggest conflict & resolution trend line changing the direction of the team. o Examples coaching others o Examples of being coached o How did you improve, learn o What did you like/dislike o Did you receive any recognition

Step 5 Discuss 1-2 Major Job-related Problems Fact-finding & Hot Tips One major problem we’re now facing is ______. How would o What would you need to know Repeat o What would you do first, why question you go about addressing this? What would you need to know and how o Who else would you involve 1-2 times would you plan it out. o How would you prepare using real o How would you prioritize tasks, why o How would you find out critical issues problems (Note: this is an anchor to insure What have you done that’s most similar? o What resources needed Anchor with that the candidate doesn’t just talk a good game. This might have been cov- o How long would it take, why real project ered above.) o What would you do if ….. o How would you make this trade-off o How would you make business-case

Step 6 Allow Time for Candidate Questions Information & Hot Tips o What else should we know about you Get the What questions do you have for me? This could involve anything from the o What do you need to know about us candidate to scope of the job to long term career opportunities. o What did you find most interesting ask some o What didn’t you particularly like meaningful Note: push the candidate to ask some questions, especially if the person is o Have you heard about our career track questions someone you want to pursue. o Any big concerns

Step 7 Determine Interest and Recruit Information & Hot Tips While I’ve seen a few other very strong candidates, I’m also impressed with o State sincere interest o Make candidate earn job some of the work you’ve done. What are your thoughts now about this job? o Listen 4x more than talk, don’t sell Question & Is this something you’d like to consider further? Why? Why not? o Describe concerns to create gap Discussion o Mention other strong contenders o What other jobs are you considering Create Job Note: only the hiring manager and recruiter need to ask this. Others can ask a o How interested on 1-10 scale, why Stretch softer variation, e.g., “what are your thoughts about the job?” o What’s needed to know to get to 8-9 o Link job to big company projects

o How does job meets your needs o Compensation needs, availability

Step 8 Measure First Impression Again Information & Hot Tips Measure first impression again at the end of the interview. Consider the o Did candidate get better or worse Compare o Become more/less nervous candidate’s actual impact on you, the actual impact on others (customers, peers, supe- o Open-up more, talk more true perso- riors, staff), and the actual impact of personality and style on performance. o Did you observe true personality in nality to 1st accomplishments impression o Were your biases controlled at opening o Did this change your decision of interview o Is true personality consistent with job needs

Candidate: ______Position: ______Interviewer: ______Date: ______

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Factor Competencies Unqualified Less Qualified Fully Qualified Highly Qualified Super Star Rank General Technical Incompetent Needs extra training Meets high standards Does it better Sets standards Evaluation Motivation Unmotivated Needs extra pushing Self motivated Does more, faster 120% committed Cooperation Uncooperative Needs urging Fully cooperative Initiates helping Proactively coaches Summary Viewed by team Distraction Avoided A contributor Trains, sought-out Asked to lead Impact on team Demotivating Neutral An asset Influences others Motivates others Planning Reactive Passive On top of issues Anticipates issues Forward-looking Promotability No potential to grow Not promotable Promotable Quickly promotable Double promotable Technical Basic knowledge Can’t do the work. Can do the work, but Can perform all re- Does more than re- Achieves another Application Doesn’t meet mini- needs added training, quired work very quired, does it better, level. More creative, Skills & Creativity, vision mum standards. In- supervision. Strug- well. An asset. Re- does it faster. Self- more insightful. Sets 1 Abilities Learning ability competent. A distrac- gles. Slow learner. quires minimal supv, managed. Trains oth- standards. Leader in Professionalism tion. Avoided. Tolerated by others. can learn anything. ers. Learns fast. field. Sought out. Motivated to Energy, Focus Lazy, passive, Will do the work if Self-motivated to do Takes initiative to do Totally committed to Do the Work Commitment doesn’t want to do urged or pushed. Not this type work more, faster, & bet- do whatever it takes 2 Initiative the work. No interest a good fit for work. w/normal supervi- ter. Looks for prob- to get it done. Wants Required Work-ethic in position. Avoids issues, reac- sion. Proactively lems to solve. Self- to excel. Constant Self-development tive. Isn’t improving. handles key issues. improves skills. self-development. Team Skills Cooperate Uncooperative, bad Will cooperate if Fully cooperates Takes initiative to Persuades, inspires, (EQ) with Motivate attitude, negative. asked. Needs urging with others w/o urg- help others. Antici- motivates, coaches. Assertiveness Hides problems. Or to be involved with ing. Openly ad- pates problems. Per- Minimizes conflict. 3 Comparable Sociability too individual. Cause others. Avoids prob- dresses problems. suasive. Motivates Diplomatic. Proac- Groups Influence, of conflict. Antago- lems. Can’t handle Accepts conflict. others. Handles con- tively develops oth- Lead Others nistic. conflict. Passive. Pushes viewpoint. flict well. Takes lead. ers. Asked to lead. Appropriate Intelligence Didn’t understand Understood most is- Clearly understood Quickly understood Seeks out best solu- Problem Cause/Effect any key issues or de- sues and developed all key issues and all key issues. Works tions. Understood all Analysis velop any solutions. okay solutions. developed reasonable w/others. Developed issues, developed 4 Solving & Logic Doesn’t know how to Would need support. solutions. Logical multiple solutions. great solutions, & Thinking Insight start or collect in- Random approach. approach. Will in- Sees secondary is- new insights. Sees Process approach formation. Inconsistent. volve others. sues and impact. cause & effect. Achieved Decision-making Experience and ac- Has some compara- Accomplishments Has achieved better Super fit. An MVP! Comparable Execution complishments are a ble accomplish- are comparable. Has results handling Scope, span, size, 5 Achievement complete mismatch. ments. Requires ex- handled similar pro- similar projects in scale, complexity, Results Commitment tra training & sup- jects with solid and similar environ- culture match with Experience port to make it. comparable results. ments. exceptional results. Planning & Organization Unorganized. Weak Okay organizer, Solid planner, organ- Efficient planning, Coordinates, handles Executing Planning planner. Very reac- knows how to plan, izer. Can handle all organizing, execut- complex challenges Workflow tive. Wastes lots of will do it, but needs job needs. Antici- ing is strength. An- smoothly. Makes it 6 Comparable Decision-making time. Misses most is- help & pushing. Not pates issues. Gets it ticipates, minimizes happen. Anticipates Work Tough-minded sues. as efficient as could done. Efficient. Con- problems, overcomes everything. Sees big Vision be. Reactive. siders key issues. challenges. picture & all issues. Environment Decision-making Complete mismatch Reasonable match on Very close match on Track record indi- Thrives in this type & Personality on culture and/or en- culture and environ- culture and environ- cates excellent match of environment, cul- 7 Pace vironment. Oil vs. ment, but not perfect ment. Smooth trans- on culture and envi- ture. Pattern shows Cultural Fit Attitude water type. Has been fit. Needs polishing. fer. Has dealt well ronment. Has made extremely smooth Team Skills cause of problems. Limited track record. w/people, issues. similar transfers. transfer. Trend of Ambition No personal or busi- Some professional Job growth trend is Strong upward Great upward trend. Growth Over Goal-orientation ness growth noted. and personal growth slightly up or ex- growth trend. Con- Great progress sup- Commitment Makes excuses. Not noted. Capable, but panding role. Consis- sistently does more. ported by results. 8 Time Responsibility interested. Blames on needs to be pushed tent positive pattern. Takes pride in per- Goes extra mile for Dedication others. Job trend is to grow. Job trend is Takes initiative to sonal development. personal develop- Career Focus up and down. flat. improve self. Pushes to excel. ment. Wants more. Character & Honesty Questionable charac- Reasonable charac- Solid character. Job Highly principled Strongly committed Values Integrity ter. This job does not ter. Job somewhat is a strong fit with person. Job clearly person of great char- 9 Professionalism compare with any fits values and needs. values & motivating meets values and acter. Role model. Responsibility values. Will be a distraction. needs. Stabilizing motivating needs. In- Impacts group. Sets Commitment presence. fluences others. standards. Potential and Combo of ability, This job is over per- Can handle this job, Can handle all criti- Can handle all parts Will make quick im- Overall team skills, man- son’s head. Not a but it will require ex- cal aspects of the job of job, will make pact. Shows great 10 agement, capacity candidate. Multiple tra training, supervi- and meet most cur- quick impact, im- potential to move up Summary to grow, vision. problems that are not sion. Not likely to rent needs. Has good prove things, and has two levels. Potential correctable. grow beyond job. upside potential. near-term upside. super star. Total Score ____

The Adler Group, Inc. • Irvine, CA • www.adlerconcepts.com • 888.878.1388 Page 12 Guide to Organizing the Interview and the Formal Debriefing February 2007

Key Topics

1. Organizing the Interview 2. Assigning Roles 3. Conducting the Actual Interview Session 4. Completing the 10-Factor Candidate Evaluation Template 5. Conducting the Formal Debriefing Session 6. Additional Debriefing Guidelines 7. Background on Decision-making from the Harvard Business Review

Organizing the Interview

Although all interviewers will use the same style of questioning and complete the 10-Factor assessment, this doesn’t mean that everyone asks the same questions. For one thing, even if an interviewer asked about the same accomplishment, the fact-finding would take the person down a different path, uncovering different issues. However, to get the most out of the performance-based interviewing process it’s best to organize it ahead of time. The “Organizing the Performance-based Interview” form at- tached needs to be filled out before the interview to organize roles and assign tasks to each of the interviewers on the hiring team. Here’s a short version of the form.

Hiring Interviewer Interviewer Interview Step Manager 1 2 Work History 10-Factor Assessment 1. Overall Technical Competency 2. Motivation for Required Work 3. Overall Team Skills 4. Problem Solving 5. Achieve Comparable Results 6. Planning & organization 7. Environment/Culture 8. Trend of Growth 9. Character & Values 10. Potential Team Projects, Tasks

Tech Projects, Key Tasks

Problem Questions:

Recruit/Close Interest Level

As you can see this form describes the ten core factors of success and has space to write down the major performance objectives and the problems to be discussed. This form should be filled out and handed to everyone on the team with the candidate’s resume with a copy of the performance profile for the position.

Assigning Roles

In general the hiring manager should conduct an in-depth work history review, ask 2-3 major accomplishment questions and at least one problem-solving question. This should be sufficient to gain a strong understanding of the first five core traits of success. These are: technical competency, motivation to do the work, team leadership skills, job-related problem solving and achievement of comparable results.

The other interviewers on the team should each be assigned a few of the other traits so that all are covered. Some overlap is appropriate. Everyone should also review the candidate’s resume before the interview and ask a few questions about work history. This provides all interviewers some sense of the candidate’s general background. This approach naturally overcomes the problem of giving each interviewer complete yes/no voting rights. When assigning roles suggest that the person collect information to determine the person’s competency on just the areas assigned using the performance-based interviewing methodology. By narrowing the focus this way, overall interviewing accuracy is improved since each interviewer has more time to assess fewer traits. This information should then be shared with the whole interviewing team in a formal debriefing session. This is explained in detail below on using the 10-Factor assessment template.

Conducting the Interview

Here the steps each interviewer should use when conducting the interview. It is suggested that interviews should be at least 45-60 minutes. The first 30 minutes of the interview while important should be used to ensure the candidate is comfortable, conduct a solid work history review and get some sense of the candidate’s interest. Here are some other guidelines to follow:

1. Tell the candidate that you are conducting a formal structured interview and that there will be time at the end to ask questions. Mention that you want the candidate to give in depth answers with specific details and examples. 2. Don’t hesitate to interrupt the candidate if he/she is going off on a tangent. Just say that you’re sorry to interrupt but you want to cover a number of points with limited time. 3. All interviewers will be using the same accomplishment and fact-finding methodology as taught in the performance-based hiring training program. The focus however, will be on different areas of competency. 4. It’s best to assign roles ahead of time, but if everyone uses the performance-based interviewing approach subsequent interviewers can just ask the candidate what accomplishments were discussed in previous interviews. Then they can either ask for more information about this or ask the candidate to select a different accomplishment. Knowing what ten factors will be covered allows each interviewer to focus on just two or three of these. 5. It’s best to conduct the problem-solving question towards the end of the interview. This type of question offers a good change-of-pace for both the interviewer and the candidate.

6. At the end of each interview ask the candidate what his or her thoughts are about the job based on their current understanding. Answer any obvious questions that result from this.

Completing the 10-Factor Candidate Assessment Template

A version of the 10-Factor Candidate Assessment template is shown below. You’ll be able to download the complete form from the Manager’s Café. The objective of the performance-based interviewing process is to accurately assess each of these factors on a 1-5 scale.

Level 1: doesn’t want to do the work and/or can’t do the work. This is easy to figure out. Level 2: competent to do the work, says he/she will do the work, but won’t do it. This is the most common hiring mistake. It’s caused by judging people on their skills, technical and/or presentation, but not their motivation to do the work. Level 3: competent and motivated to do most, if not all, of the work described in the Perform- ance Profile. This is a top employee and should be hired unless a stronger person is available. The person is clearly promotable in a normal time frame. Level 4: a great hire. Look for an upward trend line and examples of exceeding expectations in comparable types of work. This person is quickly promotable in a short period of time. Level 5: a super hire. This person has a track record of doing excellent work in comparable situations and has a pattern of consistently receiving recognition for doing remarkable work. This person is double promotable in a short period of time.

Most hiring mistakes occur in determining the difference between a 2, 3 and a 4 ranking. 1s and 5s are easy to assess using just about any interviewing methodology. One of the primary goals of the Per- formance-based Hiring interviewing process is to prevent 2s from being hired. These are people who seem pretty good during the interview, they might even make a great presentation, but once on the job they fall short. Some of these 2s are the people you hire who aren’t motivated to do the work, even though they might be competent. Some of those are those who say they’ll do the work, but once they’re on the job their attitude change. Regardless, 2s are those that need too much urging or coaching or training or supervision just to become average. These are the people who we shouldn’t have been hired in the first place. As long as you don’t hire 2s, and only hire 3s, 4s and 5s your hiring performance will soar.

A level 3 is a fully-qualified candidate. This is the person that will meet most of the performance objectives of the position very quickly. This is also a person who is promotable, or one who can take on a bigger job in a normal period of time. Be ready to move fast when you meet a 3. They are not that common. Move immediately if you meet a 4 or 5. The real objective of interviewing is to not hire 2s. This ensures you hire 3s, or better. In the long run this means you’ll have built a team of high performers with few if any laggards. And every now and then you’ll hire a few future leaders who will eventually be playing a significant role in managing the company.

The 10-Factor Candidate Assessment Template

You’ll be able to download a version of this form from the Manager’s Café. The form includes instructions on how to complete the evaluation, insert your scores and save the document. Save the document with your name, the candidate’s name and the position.

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Factor Competencies Unqualified Less Qualified Fully Qualified Highly Qualified Super Star Technical Incompetent Needs extra training Meets high standards Does it better Sets standards General Motivation Unmotivated Needs extra pushing Self motivated Does more, faster 120% committed Evaluation Cooperation Uncooperative Needs urging Fully cooperative Initiates helping Proactively coaches Viewed by team Distraction Avoided A contributor Trains, sought-out Asked to lead Summary Impact on team Demotivating Neutral An asset Influences others Motivates others Planning Reactive Passive On top of issues Anticipates issues Forward-looking Promotability No potential to grow Not promotable Promotable Quickly promotable Double promotable Basic knowledge Can’t do the work. . Can do the work, but Can perform all re- Does more than re- Leader in field. Sets 1 Technical Use of knowledge Incompetent. Below needs added training, quired work very quired, does it better, the bar. More crea- Creativity, ability. minimum standards. supervision. well. An asset. does it faster. tive & insightful. Motivated to Commitment Lazy, passive, Will do the work if Self-motivated to do Takes initiative to do Totally committed to 2 Work-ethic doesn’t want to do urged or pushed. Not this type work with more, faster, & bet- do whatever it takes Do the Work Self-motivation the work. a good fit for work. little supervision. ter. Looks for work. to get it done. Team Skills in Cooperate Uncooperative, bad Will cooperate if Fully cooperates Takes initiative to Inspires, coaches. 3 Motivate, Lead attitude, negative. asked. Needs urging with others w/o urg- help others. Per- Minimizes conflict. Similar Groups Influence Hides problems. to be involved. ing. Deals w/conflict. suades, motivates. Asked to lead. Problem Solv- Intelligence Didn’t understand Needs support. Un- Clearly understood Quickly understood Understood all is- 4 Analytical any key issues or de- derstood basic issues. all key issues, devel- all issues. Developed sues. Optimizes re- ing, Thinking Insight velop any solutions. Weak solutions. oped good solutions. multiple solutions. sults. Sees impact. Achieved Results oriented Experience and ac- Some comparable Has handled similar Environment and Scope, span, scale, 5 Success focus complishments are accomplishments. projects with very projects match with culture match & ex- Similar Results Commitment total mismatch. Needs extra training. good results. better results. ceptional results. Planning & Organization Unorganized. Weak Reactive. Misses Consistent planner. Always plans, antici- Superb. Anticipates 6 Planning planner. Very reac- deadlines. Plans Meets deadlines. Or- pates, prioritizes, and everything. Sees big Executing Vision tive. Wastes time. when pushed. ganizes, prioritizes. beats deadlines. picture & all issues. Environment Decision-making Complete mismatch Reasonable match on Close match on peo- Has been successful Thrives in this type 7 Style, Pace on culture and/or en- culture and environ- ple, pace, approach, in this type of culture of environment, cul- & Cultural Fit Attitude, Team vironment. ment, not perfect fit. org structure. & environment. ture. Great success. Trend of Consistency No personal or busi- Flat trend. Capable, Job growth trend Strong upward Great upward trend. 8 Goal-orientation ness growth noted. but needs to be shows consistent growth trend. Con- Great progress sup- Growth Commitment Makes excuses. pushed to grow. positive pattern. sistently does more. ported by results. Character & Honesty, Integrity Questionable charac- Job somewhat fits Job is a strong fit Job clearly meets Strongly committed 9 Professionalism ter. Job does not fit values and needs. with values & moti- values & motivating person of great char- Values Responsibility with values. Will be a distraction. vating needs. needs. Principled. acter. Role model. Potential and Leadership This job is over per- Can handle this job, Can handle all key Will make quick Will make great im- 10 Capacity to grow son’s head. Not a but not likely to aspects of job plus positive impact and pact with potential to Summary Vision candidate. grow beyond job. has upside potential. has near-term upside. move up two levels.

Conducting the Formal Debriefing Session

All members of the hiring should meet either in person or on a conference call to debrief. This is better than writing and submitting comments. Often these comments are changed when information is shared in a formal and deliberative manner. One person, typically the hiring manager or the primary recruiter, should formally lead this session. You can either do this for each candidate or for multiple candidates. Here’s a checklist to follow when conducting the debriefing process:

1. Each member of the hiring team should bring their completed 10-Factor Candidate Assessment template for each candidate being discussed. Their evaluation notes are a part of this. Each in-

terviewer must rank their assigned factors, although they should provide their input on any factors they have some insight. 2. A matrix should be drawn on a whiteboard or flipchart to keep track of everyone’s ranking. You can also keep compare rankings of multiple candidates this way. 3. Begin the debriefing process by going around the room first only seeking positive information. This is important. Also, start this initial discussion with the lowest ranking member of the hiring team. (See the “Guidelines” section below for more details on this.) Delay any negative discussion until each factor is discussed. 4. Go through each factor one by one, going around the room and writing down each person’s ranking. As you do this, have each person share their rationale for the ranking. As described in the Guidelines, details, examples and facts must be used to justify any ranking. Generalities and gut feelings are not permitted. These superficial rankings MUST be ignored and not included in the overall scoring. If there are too many of these the candidate should be interviewed again. This process increases the probability that the interviewer will conduct a more thorough fact- finding the next time. So enforcing this rule is an important part of the evidence-based assessment process. 5. Exclude the easy no. The difference between 2s, 3s and 4s is very subtle. Hiring a 2 is a mistake, while a three or better is a great decision. In each of the 10 factors the difference is usually motivation to excel or the depth of personal commitment. The primary purpose of this debriefing process is to share information. Sometimes this is by challenging each other. It’s easier to say no, but this is often the incorrect decision. While you want to stop hiring 2s, you don’t want to incorrectly eliminate a good person because someone conducted a superficial interview. 6. Allow people to justify an alternative point of view, both positive and negative. Seek this out. This ensures that all information is heard. This is an important part of the debriefing and clarification process and will often will alter someone’s initial evaluation. 7. As you debrief on each factor read the 10-Factor guidance (these are the notes in each box) for each of the 1-5 scores. These notes offers clues on how to rank the person on each of the factors. Reading these out loud helps the interviewers focus their justification for their score. 8. Prohibit those who have conducted just a personality or cultural fit interview from participating in the discussion, unless the person has factual information to share. These interviews, often conducted by senior level executives, are always useless. Worse, they can poison the work of the hiring team, by overriding everyone else’s hard work. If someone is on the hiring team they must conduct a performance-based interview. 9. The 10th factor – potential – is a combination of all of the other nine factors plus some intuition and gut feelings. Use this as a summary of how to proceed. After all of the information is shared ask each person for their overall ranking and if the person should be moved on to the next step in the process, put in the parking lot, or not hired.

Additional Debriefing Guidelines

To maximize interviewing accuracy it’s important that you follow these guidelines during the interview and debriefing session:

1. Don’t make a yes/no decision during the interview. Instead, use the interview to collect information on your assigned areas. By staying objective you’ll be able to collect unbiased and objective information. We want all of the information you collect to have equal value. If you

think the person is good at the beginning of the interview you’ll collect information during the balance to confirm this. If you don’t like the person to start, you’ll then unconsciously collect information to support this viewpoint. That’s why you must ask the same type of questions to all candidates. A “no” is okay if the person is a complete mismatch, but we want to make this requirement unanimous. Otherwise, put the person into a “further evaluation required” pool.

2. No one really has full voting rights. We’ve discovered that most hiring errors are cause by making yes/no hiring decisions to quickly based on a narrow range of factors. To obtain a balanced viewpoint the collective advice of the hiring team will be solicited before a decision is made. But this advice will not be in the form of a yes/no vote. If will be based on your 1-5 ranking of the factors that have been assigned to you at the beginning of the interviewing process.

3. Begin the debriefing with the positive information. When conducting a formal debriefing quickly go around the room and have everyone share the most positive information they have about the candidate. Also start this sharing with the lowest-ranking members of the hiring team. Here’s why this is important. First off, negatives are contagious. Just a few raised early can doom a person as everyone follows the crowd. Also, since few subordinates will directly challenge the judgment of a superior, it’s better if they’re allowed to speak openly first. This method insures that the most talented person is not inadvertently excluded due to systemic biases.

4. Gut feelings are not allowed. In order to obtain unbiased information, you must justify your 1- 5 ranking with facts, examples and details, good or bad. “I don’t think the person would fit,” is inappropriate. On the other hand, a comment like “the environment, pace, available resource and the lack of a formal decision-making process at the person’s last two companies is a clear indication that the person would not survive here,” is certainly sufficient. After you’ve shared all available information, then it’s okay for gut feelings and intuition to support the evidence.

5. Encourage alternative points of view. During the debriefing session force controversy and disagreement. Don’t force consensus. Go out of your way to support people who have evidence that is contrary to most people’s assessments. Make this a formal part of the process. Good or bad, this will allow all viewpoints to be heard.

Make a “no” harder to justify than a “yes.” A “no” is safe and easy. It encourages laziness, and it rewards interviewers who are weak or those who were unprepared. To eliminate this potential problem, demand more detailed information and evidence from those invoking the “no.” A “no” is okay as long as it’s based on factual information. Too often, it’s based on weak interviewing.

Background Information on Decision Making from the Harvard Business Review

Some background will help you better understand why we are implementing this type of formal debriefing process. The January 2006 edition of the Harvard Business Review is devoted entirely to the decision-making process. It’s a great edition and provides a wealth of information for revamping the hiring decision-making process. Here are just a few key points HBR makes about the causes of bad decision-making:

1. Most decisions are made with little evidence. Managers tend to have preconceived biases, be- liefs and perceptions. Facts are then collected to support these preconceived ideas and contrary information is avoided, ignored or dismissed as irrelevant. 2. Consensus is good – unless it’s reached too easily. In other words, it’s okay to argue and disagree about a point of view: this way, more information is considered analytically. Subordi- nates should be encouraged to disagree, not be chastised for it. 3. The only time you should make a gut decision is when you don’t have any. Time, that is. “Gut decisions are made in moments of crisis when there is no time to weigh arguments and calculate the probability of every outcome,” HBR points out.

These errors translate into the following common hiring mistakes:

1. Too many managers overvalue presentation skills and/or their intuition or gut when judging candidates. Anybody can determine in 30 minutes if a person is a complete dud or a superstar. It takes a lot more time, insight and skills to figure out the ability of those in between. 2. Most managers overvalue a narrow range of tech skills or related experiences, and then assume global competence or incompetence. This approach ignores critical traits like organizational and planning skills, true leadership, teamwork and collaborative skills, self-management and motivation, and cultural fit, among others. 3. The up-down voting process precludes a balanced assessment across those job factors that best predict job success. For one thing, a “no” vote is more highly valued than a “yes,” and little substantive information is used to determine either. The real critical issue is that it’s too easy to reach consensus when no one is allowed to present a contrary point of view. As a result, good people get excluded for the wrong reasons.

The reason we have decided to use a formal debriefing based on the 10-Factor Candidate Assessment template is to eliminate these common hiring mistakes.

1. Bad hire – these are people who can’t or won’t do the work, don’t fit our culture, or can’t get along with others. This problem is caused by overvaluing presentation skills and making a hasty decision. 2. Mismatched hire – these are people who are competent to do the work, but don’t want to do it. This problem is caused by lack of understanding of real job needs and overvaluing the depth of technical competency during the interview. 3. Incomplete hire – these are people who can do parts of the work well, but not everything. This problem will be eliminated by using the interview to collect information and then sharing deciding whether to hire or not hire a candidate. This problem is caused by interviewers who overvalue a few traits and assume competency in the balance of the traits. 4. Non-hire – these are the great people we didn’t hire. Sometimes good people get nervous during the interview and give dumb or short answers. Some great people, even top sales people, don’t make good first impressions. Sometimes, great people are unimpressed by an unprofessional interviewing process. The formal debriefing process will minimize the chance that we don’t hire a good person for bad reasons and hopefully preclude good people from opting out too soon.

Position: ______Candidate: ______Date: ______

Hiring Interviewer Interviewer Interviewer Interviewer Interview Step Manager 1 2 3 4 Introduction Emotional Control Motivation for Looking Work History 10-Factor Assessment 1. Overall Technical Competency 2. Motivation for Required Work 3. Overall Team Skills 4. Problem Solving 5. Achieve Comparable Results 6. Planning & organization 7. Environment/Culture 8. Trend of Growth 9. Character & Values 10. Potential Team Projects, Tasks

Tech Projects, Key Tasks

Problem Questions: Thinking

Recruit/Close Interest Level

Summary and Evaluation:

The Adler Group, Inc. • Irvine, CA • 888.878.1388 • adlerconcepts.com • [email protected] Page 20 The Performance-based Hiring Panel Interview Guide February 2007

Topics

• Overview and Assigning Roles • Checklist and Preparation • Conducting the Basic Panel Interview • Using the Panel Interview as Part of a Take-home Exercise • Using the Panel Interview as Part of a Second Round of Interviews • Roles and Switching Primary and Secondary Interviewer Roles • What Not to do

Overview and Assigning Roles

When conducted properly a panel interview is a useful interview method. The key is to make sure that each of the interviewers involved knows his or her role. To ensure a panel interview is conducted properly it’s important to assign one person as the primary interviewer with the others involved considered secondary interviewers. Ninety minutes (90) is a good length for a panel interview.

The primary interviewer leads the basic questioning. The secondary interviewers are actively involved asking for clarification and getting examples. Panel interviews are not particularly useful if each of the interviewers competes asking his or her “favorite questions” or interrupts a candidate while answering. For example if the lead interviewer asks the candidate to describe a major team accomplishment and then gets into specific details about the team, it would be okay for the support interviewers to ask for more details and facts to better understand this answer. It would not be okay for the support interviewers to change the subject to something like project management of the team. Support interviewers in panel interviews play a critical role in better understanding the candidate’s responses. As part of this they need to get involved early asking these follow-up questions. These lead and support roles are explained in more depth in a following section.

A panel interview is best conducted with 3-4 interviewers seated in a comfortable setting. It’s important to put the candidate at ease. Candidates should be told ahead of time about the panel interview and what to expect.

The panel interview approach described here is more accurate for a number of reasons. For one thing it naturally reduces interviewer bias since first impressions don’t have the same impact when there are to get too personally involved with the candidate. Better: by obtaining and sharing information in a structured way it’s easier to collect valid evidence to assess candidate competency and motivation.

Checklist and Preparation

1. Tell the candidate that a panel interview will be conducted and describe the process. This helps reduce nervousness. Keep the panel to 3-4 interviewers. Tell the candidate that you will be asking in-depth questions about the person’s team and individual accomplishments. Suggest that writing up a few major accomplishments including the dates, the candidate’s role, the results and some details about the accomplishment would be useful. 2. Have a copy of the candidate’s resume and make sure each interviewer reviews it ahead of time. Circle areas that look significant including areas of concern.

3. Review the Performance-based Hiring structured interview. The panel will be following this process closely if this is the first time the panel members will be interviewing the candidate. If it’s a part of second interview the focus will be on the two core questions (accomplishments and problem-solving). 4. Review the 10-Factor Candidate Assessment template and have one available for each interviewer and for each candidate. The rating grid provides guidance on what type of examples and information would be useful to justify the 1-5 rankings. 5. Assign primary and secondary interviewing roles. Typically the hiring manager is the primary interviewer. These roles can change during the interview depending on the topic. (See below)

How to Conduct a Panel Interview

Use the complete version of the Performance-based Hiring structured interview as a basic outline to conduct a panel interview. In this case the assumption is made that this is the first time most of the interviewers will have met the candidate.

1. Welcome the candidate and put the person at ease. 2. Have the lead interviewer describe the panel interviewing approach. Essentially give the candidate an overview of the performance-based interview. Tell the candidate there will be formal and informal opportunities for the person to ask questions. 3. Start by having the lead interviewer give a two-minute overview of the position and why it’s important to the company. 4. Begin the interview by asking the candidate to give you their quick reaction to the job as described and then ask for some highlights of their background as it pertains to the job. 5. Go step-by-step through the structured interview. Spend about 20 minutes on the work history review section. The key here is to have the candidate provide a quick review of the resume. Make sure you get the month and year the person started and left the few previous jobs. Ask the person to explain any gaps in employment and why she/he left one job to take another. 6. For a 90-minute interview the panel should be able to ask in-depth questions for 2-3 projects and conduct one additional problem-solving question. The primary interviewer needs to ask the basic questions with the secondary interviewers asking for clarification, more details and getting examples. Plan on spending 12-15 minutes on each accomplishment to truly understand the candidate’s role and the impact made. Don’t get impatient. The interview guides offer plenty of follow-up and fact-finding questions to ask. Remember to peel the onion until the accomplishment is understood. 7. For the problem-solving question you might want to select a real problem that someone in the same job recently encountered. The key to this question is to get the person to discuss how he/she would solve it, rather than getting a specific answer. This is a very interactive question so expect everyone on the panel and the candidate to be asking and answering questions. It’s okay to push the candidate to ask questions, e.g., “What kind of questions would you want to ask us to get more insight into this problem?” 8. As the interview wraps-up give the candidate an opportunity to ask questions about the job. 9. Once all questions are answered the lead interviewer should end the interview by stating that you’re impressed with the candidate, but are also seeing other strong candidates. Then ask the person to give you’re their general thoughts about their interest in proceeding. It’s important to be both positive, but also clearly state that there are other candidates. Candidates generally give honest feedback under these conditions.

Tips on Using a Panel Interview When It’s Part of a Second Round or a Take-home Project

A useful variation of the panel interview is to ask final candidates to come back for a final panel interview, while giving them a specific mini-project assignment to present at this interview. This could involve organizing a project or solve a complex problem that would be consistent with something the candidate would have to deal with if the person were to get the position. For example, you could ask a sales manager candidate how he or she would rebuild and develop the team to ensure revenue targets were consistently met. For an IT person you could ask the candidate to present a flow chart on how to implement a new application on top of an existing ERP platform.

Here are the key points to consider in this type of take home project combined with a panel interview.

1. Give the candidate 15-20 minutes to present an overview of the approach the person would take to address the issue including the rationale. Suggest ahead-of-time that the person prepare a list of questions and additional information that would be needed to complete the project or solve the problem if the person were to get the job. 2. As part of the prep instructions give the candidate a written statement of the problem and what you expect the candidate to present during the panel session. Assume the candidate will spend 1-2 hours on preparing the presentation, so adjust the project scope to be meaningful given this amount of pre-work. 3. During the session ask the person to justify their approach and ask questions in a give-and-take manner. 4. It’s best if the presentation is interactive with the interviewers asking clarifying questions along the way. This way the candidate and the panel interviewers get a chance to understand how they would work together if the person were to get the job. 5. In many ways this type of session should be similar to how any new project or approach to solving would be discussed in a team session if the person were actually hired. 6. Challenging the candidate’s approach is appropriate. This is a good way to add a bit of stress to the session. 7. With this type of take-home problem you’ll obtain insight into these traits – job-specific problem solving, analytical thinking, judgment, creativity, attitude, motivation for the job, intelligence, self-confidence and communication skills.

Using the Panel Interview as Part of a Second Round of Interviews

If the panel interview is conducted after most of the panel participants have already interviewed the candidate, but doesn’t involve a take-home project, then the interview should just involve the accomplishment and problem-solving questions. This is described above in the basic panel interview instructions. Following are some additional ideas to consider.

1. Ask the candidate about earlier interviews and the accomplishments that were discussed. 2. Offer the candidate an opportunity to clarify or expand upon any of the previous discussions that might help the new interview team members better understand some of the candidates accomplishments. 3. Ask the candidate where he/she stands with respect to understanding real job needs and the person’s interest level based on what is now known.

4. Ask if the person has any questions with respect to understanding the real job needs. 5. Describe how the panel interview will be conducted. This should basically be describing how the team will ask a few questions about the candidates major team and individual accomplishments. Mention that you’ll be looking for detailed information included dates, facts and changes made. Then begin the panel interview organized as described above. 6. For a 90-minute interview second round panel interview the focus should be more on job related accomplishments. So in this case describe one of the major performance objectives for the position and ask the candidate to describe one or two major accomplishments that are most comparable. Then follow-up with fact-finding. Do this for two or three different performance objectives. 10. For the problem-solving question select the most important performance objective and ask how the how candidate how he/she would accomplish the task. Ask what the person would do first, how the person would figure out the problem and how the person would organize a solution. You might want to anchor this question when completed by asking the candidate to describe some major accomplishment that’s most comparable to what you need done. This combination of an anchor question with a problem-solving scenario is a good way to assess planning, problem solving and execution ability around one similar issue. 7. As the interview wraps-up give the candidate an opportunity to ask further questions about the job or next steps.

The Primary and Secondary Interviewing Roles and Switching Them During the Interviewer

Primary Interviewer: this is the person that leads the panel session, acting as the host and describing to the candidate how the interview will be conducted. During the actual panel interview the primary interviewer will ask the basic questions and follow-up with some fact-finding. Only the primary interviewer can change the topic or the focus of the question.

Secondary Interviewers: every other member of the interviewing team is in a support role, however they should be active during the interviewing asking for examples and clarifying information. These people help the primary interviewer peel the onion by following up the main questions with questions like, “can you give me an example of what you mean,” “when did that happen,” and “what were the results.” Organized properly this type of panel interview follows a very natural flow with a great deal of useful information revealed.

It’s okay if one of the secondary interviewers becomes a primary interviewer for a different question or for a different section of the interview. For example, someone can take on the primary responsibility for a question addressing a job-related technical accomplishment while someone else can be the primary interviewer for a different accomplishment, like team or management focus. If this type of shift is made it’s important to plan it ahead of time to minimize any confusion during the interview. In this case make sure that everyone else takes a support role asking for clarifying information.

What Not to Do

Here are the big “no-nos” when conducting a panel interview. Advice: don’t do them!

1. Not telling the candidate that he/she will be involved in a panel interview. A surprise like this can get a candidate a bit nervous, and invalidate the interview.

2. Each of the interviewers conducting their own interview, competing for questioning time and not letting the candidate finish his/her answers. This is a waste of time. From the candidate’s perspective it demonstrates that the company isn’t very professional. 3. Having too many people (over six) on the interview panel. This is intimidating. 4. Ask a bunch of superficial questions. It’s much better to dig deep into a candidate’s major accomplishment. If you’re jumping about asking a bunch of questions that only take a minute or two to answer, you won’t be able to make an accurate evaluation. 5. Not organizing the roles of each panel interview ahead-of-time. Preparation is the key. 6. Not understanding how the assessment will be conducted. A panel interview is a great way to implement an evidence-based assessment process when conducted using in-depth fact-finding questions.

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All available from Nightingale-Conant at 1-800-525-9000 www.nightingale.com Performance-based Hiringsm HOT TIPS Performance-based Hiring System Performance-based Performance Profiles: create compelling jobs describing the top 6-8 performance objectives. Hiringsm Talent-centric Sourcing: use advanced marketing and networking concepts to find top people. The Evidence-based Interviewing: conduct deep job matching based on two core questions. Right Integrated Recruiting: start early recruiting and closing focusing on opportunity, not compensation. People. Recruiters and Hiring Managers Must be Partners in the Process Every Time.

Preparing Performance Profiles The Performance-based Hiring Interview A Performance Profile defines the work the person needs to do, not the skills required. It’s what a person DOES with what they HAVE that determines success. Follow these Step 1: Welcome and Understand Motivation steps to create the primary objectives. Then put the top 6-8 in priority order. Please provide a quick overview of your background. What are you looking for in a new job? Why is having that important to you? Determine the Top 6-8 Performance Objectives Describe task, the action required, and the expected result. Step 2: Wait 30 Minutes Note immediate reaction to the candidate. Stay objective. Measure 1st impression 1. What’s the major objective or biggest change? Increase sales by 15%/month at the end of the interview. 2. What does the person need to do to be successful? Rebuild the team 3. What needs to be done first? Determine root cause problem Step 3: Conduct Work History Review 4. What’s the biggest technical challenge? Reduce power consumption For the past few jobs ask about positions held, dates, promotions, duties, recognition, 5. What does strong team skills mean? Prepare specs with marketing why left and explain gaps. 6. Convert HAVING to DOING – for each skill ask, “what does person need to do with the skill?” - Use CPA to establish new SOX reporting Step 4: Ask About 2-3 Significant Accomplishments 7. Define problems or improvements needed. Reduce employee turnover Please describe your most significant (team, individual, job-specific) accomplishment. 8. What do the best people do differently than average people? Show up 100% of time Conduct fact-finding for 10 minutes. 9. Describe the environment (pace, decision-making, resources, team, manager). 10. Describe strategic or creative issues. Prepare product roadmap Step 5: Ask About Job-specific Problem One major challenge we’re currently facing is (describe). How would you go about Create Employee Value Proposition (EVP) resolving it? Get into two-way dialogue. Why would a top person want this job? Why is it better than competing jobs? Step 6: Allow Time for Questions What are the growth opportunities? What will the person learn, do, become? Do you have any specific questions about the job or the opportunity presented today? Tie it to a major company program Emphasize opportunities, minimize (job branding). requirements. Step 7: Recruit and Close While I’m seeing some other strong candidates, I’m impressed with your background. EXAMPLE: “As part of the company’s new emphasis on services, the product manager will lead What are your thoughts? the effort to launch a new series of online delivery systems over the next 18 months.” Step 8: Measure 1st Impression Again Consider the impact on you, the impact on others (customers, peers, superiors, staff), To hire the best you need to convert standard jobs into career opportunities. and the impact on performance.

©2006-2007 The Adler Group, All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized copying is prohibited. The Adler Group tel: 888.878.1388 email: [email protected] www.adlerconcepts.com Performance-based Hiringsm HOT TIPS

BASIC FACT-FINDING TEAM FACT-FINDING TECHNICAL FACT-FINDING RECRUITING BASICS

• Describe situation, challenges • Draw a work chart w/titles • What were the big tech challenges • Make the candidate earn the job. • Describe beginning and end • What was your role, why you • What was your role in the project • What was accomplished • What was plan & were results met • What expertise did you bring • Create an opportunity gap: use push & pull to challenge/excite the candidate. • Why were you chosen • What were biggest team problems • How did you apply this to project • When, how long did it take • Did you influence team performance • Describe biggest tech problem • Use the “30% Plus Solution” = job growth • Describe team, your role • Examples of initiative helping others • Describe how solution was found + job stretch + compensation + hiring manager’s total involvement. • Environment – pace, resources • Examples of being influenced • What did you like most/least • Skills used, learned, applied • Types of people you liked/disliked • How did you prioritize tasks, why • Test offers: don’t make an offer until all aspects • What results were expected • Did you get better as team member • How did you plan project have been accepted. • Describe successes, failures • What didn’t you do you should have • Was plan achieved • Recruiting isn’t selling. It’s marketing. • Describe planning, management • Where did people seek you out • Describe tools used • Listen 4:1 more than talking. Ask questions. • Did you achieve plan • Describe toughest team issue • What was biggest frustration • Obtain 2-3 examples of initiative • Describe your worst team issue • What was biggest satisfaction • What did you change/improve • Who did you mentor • Where did you go extra mile, why LEGAL BASICS • Toughest problem faced, why • Who mentored you • Where did you excel • Don’t ask anything personal. • Toughest decision made, how • How did you improve yourself, learn • Examples of technical initiative • Don’t ask about outside clubs/social activities. • Biggest conflict faced • What do you like/dislike re: teams • How did you learn technical skills • Don’t ask about family or age. • What did you learn about yourself • Describe any team recognition • What areas did you need to learn • Don’t ask anything that could determine religion • How did you grow as a result • What would you do differently • How could you have been better or race. • Describe likes, dislikes • How did you grow as team player • Where did you feel deficient YOU CAN ASK ABOUT: • How did you improve yourself • How would others describe you • Who did you influence • What would you do differently • Who do you want to work with again • Where did you compromise • Ability to travel, if required. • What recognition did you receive • How could you still get better • Did you get any recognition • Ability to work overtime, if required. • Anything job related.

10-FACTOR CANDIDATE ASSESSMENT TEMPLATE KEYS: NO 2’S. PROVIDE EVIDENCE, NOT FEELINGS. A 3 IS A GREAT HIRE.

FACTOR LEVEL 1 LEVEL 2 LEVEL 3 LEVEL 4 LEVEL 5 EVIDENCE-BASED ASSESSMENT UNQUALIFIED LESS QUALIFIED FULLY QUALIFIED HIGHLY QUALIFIED SUPER STAR PROCESS 1. Technical Skills Incompetent. Below Can do work, but Can perform all required Does more, better, faster. Leader in field. minimum standards. needs added support. work very well. Sets the bar. Collect then decide: use the interview to 2. Motivated to Do Lazy, passive, doesn’t Will do the work Self-motivated to do Takes initiative to do Totally committed to collect information. Share this info in a the Work want to do the work. if urged or pushed. this type of work. more, better, and faster. get it done. group debriefing session. 3. Team Skills in Uncooperative, bad Will cooperate if asked. Fully cooperates. Takes initiative to help Inspires, coaches. Similar Groups attitude, hides problems. Needs urging. Handles conflict. others. Motivates. Asked to lead. 1. Measure 1st impression at the end of interview 4. Problem Solving, Misunderstood issues Barely understood issues. Understood all issues Quickly understood issues Understood all issues. 2. Thinking and no solutions. Superficial. Weak solutions. and had good solutions. w/great solutions. Optimizes results. Assess candidate on each of the ten factors 3. 5. Achieved Similar Experience & accomplish- Some comparable accom- Handled similar projects Environment and projects Scope, culture match Assign interviewers two or three factors only Results ments are total mismatch. plishments. Needs training. with very good results. match with strong results. w/exceptional results. 4. Need facts, dates, details to rank the candidate 6. Planning & Unorganized. Weak Reactive. Good organizer, meets Anticipates problems, Great execution. 5. Don’t accept feelings, emotions or vague remarks Executing planner. Very reactive. Misses deadlines. deadlines, prioritizes. beats deadlines. Optimizes results. 6. Seek balance across all ten factors 7. Environment & Complete mismatch on Reasonable match on Good match on pace, Very successful in this Thrives in this type of 7. Cultural Fit culture & environment. culture & environment. resources, culture. type of culture. environment, culture. Don’t globalize strengths or weaknesses 8. 8. Trend of Growth No personal or business Flat trend. Capable, Growth trend is consistent Strong upward growth Great upward trend. 3s are promotable - a great hire! growth noted. needs pushing. and positive. trend. Wants more. Needs big opportunity. 9. 4s and 5s are super hires, but need super jobs! 9. Character & Questionable character. Job somewhat fits values Strong fit on values, Job clearly meets values, Great character. 10. No 2s - the difference is motivation to do the work Values Job doesn’t fit values. and needs. motivating needs. motivating needs. A role model. 10. Potential & This job is over person’s Barely handle job, Can handle job and Will make big impact. Will make great impact. Summary head. unlikely to grow. has upside potential. Has quick upside. 2+ levels upside.

Lou Adler’s Performance- based Hiring Workshop

Handbook

How to Interview and Recruit Top People

Lou Adler’s 1. Introduction/Overview/Agenda 4 Performance- 2. Performance-based Hiring System 5 based Hiring 3. Finding and Hiring Top Employees 6 Workshop 4. Performance Profiles 10 5. The Performance-based Interview 19 6. The 10-Factor Candidate Assessment 30 7. Recruiting & Closing 39 Handbook 8. Anatomy of a Bad Hire 41 9. Legal Issues 43 10. Summary and Conclusions 45

Appendix

Performance-based Hiring Interview Guide 1. Overview of Performance-based Hiring and How to Use 2. How to Prepare Performance Profiles 3. Performance Profile Samples • Product Manager • Mid-level Software Developer 4. The Performance-based Structured Interview 5. 10-factor Candidate Assessment Template 6. Organizing the Interview and Debriefing 7. Organizing the Interview Matrix 8. Conducting the Panel Interview Lou Adler’s Performance- based Hiring Workshop

Handbook

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Course Objectives

1. Introduction to Performance-based Hiring as a system for making hiring top talent a more consistent process. 2. Recruiters will learn how to become true partners in the hiring process. Managers and other interviewers will learn what it takes to consistently hire top people. Key: recruiters and hiring managers must work together meeting each other’s needs. 3. Top candidates don’t use traditional job descriptions as a means to apply for or accept a new job. Attendees will learn how to use performance profiles to clarify expectations. Performance profiles are more useful in attracting and assessing competency. 4. Participants will learn how to use the performance-based interviewing process that relies on two basic questions. One digs into a candidate’s past accomplishments and is used to compare motivation and competency to do the required work. The other question gets at thinking skills. 5. Assessments need to be balanced across all job factors. Participants will learn how to use the 10-factor assessment tool to document their findings. 6. Objectivity is the key to an accurate interview. Techniques will be presented in order to reduce natural biases and prejudices. 7. Participants will learn how to lead and participate in panel interviews. These are useful in increasing the accuracy of the interviewing process.

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Performance-based Hiring – A Systematic Business Process

Performance Profiles: Top people don’t want equivalent jobs, they want better jobs. Most job descriptions are too vague, they define jobs in generalities. These 20,000 foot job descriptions allow for a false sense of understanding and require too many candidates to be seen. In addition they prevent companies from consistently attracting top talent to even be considered. Performance Profiles define the real job, what people will actually do. This helps attract, assess, and hire top people. Talent-centric Sourcing: Target top employees, not top candidates. Top people work hard, work well with others, and consistently achieve superior results. However, top people are not always great candidates. More important, top people tend to be more discriminating when looking at, applying for, and considering whether to accept an offer. The hiring process must be designed to meet the needs of top employees, not top candidates. Evidence-based Assessment: Interviewing is much more than just assessing competency. Conducted properly a good interviewer can not only accurately assess candidate competency and motivation for the job, but also recruit and close the candidate at the same time. A good interview starts, however, by learning to control emotions and be objective. Integrated Recruiting & Closing: Recruiting isn’t done at the end of the process. To be effective it must be part of every step. Using the interview to manage expectations is a key part of this.

Make hiring top talent a business system: Our process is designed to do all of these things in a systematic, integrated fashion. We call this Performance- based Hiring – a systematic business process for hiring top talent.

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The Best Employees are not the Best Candidates

1. The traits on the left typically characterize the best people in any company. 2. The traits of the best candidates on the right tend to be presentation-based and more superficial. 3. The traits of the best candidates can be measured in minutes. The best employees take weeks or months. 4. When you build your hiring processes to find and hire best candidates you typically exclude the best employees. 5. Two-thirds of best candidates are NOT best employees. These are the people you hire who are of average competency and unmotivated. 6. Two-thirds of best employees are NOT best candidates. SO if you hire on presentation you’re likely to make TWO BIG CLASSIC HIRING MISTAKES: Mistake 1: Hiring competent, but unmotivated people. These people need extra pushing to become average. Mistake 2: Not hire a strong person because they didn’t do to well during the interview. 7. The best employees tend also to be less active. They are more discriminating when looking for new jobs. This requires more effort to find and hire them. The criteria they use to select a new job includes: the opportunity in the job including how it relates to the company strategy, the quality of the hiring manager, the comp plan in balance with the opportunity. 8. Top employees tend to be more long-term focused. Candidates tend to be more short-term focused. For these candidates the hiring and offer process can be more transactional. It must be solution oriented to hire top employees.

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The Best People Want Different Things 1. When top people look for new jobs they don’t start with a title and location, they start looking for good companies and classes of jobs. So don’t develop sourcing strategies around job descriptions. 2. The actual decision to accept a job is based largely on the job match including the type of work and long term career opportunity. Top people want work that motivates them and provides a long term opportunity. 3. The best people are also looking for hiring managers who can mentor them and offer personal development. Top people accept jobs in their own image! 4. The quality of the team is a critical part of the decision to accept an offer. The best people want to work with other strong people. 5. A professional recruiting and interviewing process sends a powerful message. 6. In general younger people focus more on the company, career path and compensation since they have less knowledge about their own abilities and potential. 7. Sourcing top people requires an understanding of how the look for new jobs. This is not the same criteria they use to accept an offer.

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Sourcing Sweet Spot: Less Active, Semi-Passive Candidates

1. Active candidates – they need a job and look aggressively. The best people tend to be under-represented in this group. 2. Less active candidates – they are fully-employed and look infrequently, generally on bad days. The best people are over- represented in this group. They will respond to great advertising and compelling jobs that stand out. They won’t spend a lot of time applying. 3. Semi-passive candidates – they are fully-employed and never look. However, they will listen to potential opportunities if they are personally contacted. To attract them you need to offer both a better job and a better long term career. The best people are fairly represented in this group. 4. Very-passive candidates – they are not looking and don’t want to consider anything else. To attract them requires significant effort, time and cost. The best people are fully represented in this group, so it’s worthwhile if necessary. 5. Too many companies spend too much of their time and too many of their resources pursuing active candidates. In order to hire stronger people sourcing processes must be redesigned to handle the needs of those less active candidates who are also top employees.

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Become Talent Centric - Implement Job Branding

1. Since active candidates aren’t very discriminating you can offer basic jobs based on traditional job descriptions. You can also make it hard to apply in an attempt to weed out the worst of an average group. 2. To attract less active candidates you need to offer better jobs. This is where performance profiles are extremely useful. In addition you need to make the jobs easy to find and the application process relatively easy. 3. A better job defines the challenges, describes the key projects, and clearly identifies the impact the person can make. 4. To attract semi-passive candidates you need to offer a better career. A better career involves the long term growth aspects of the job and the company potential. 5. Job branding is the process of relating the job to the overall company prospects. This way candidates can quickly see the importance of the job both short-term and long-term.

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First, Break All of the Rules – What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman, Gallup (Simon & Shuster, 1999)

1. The best managers know that it’s best to hire talented people who can learn the skills needed. Skills and experience do not replace talent. 2. Most people won’t change too much, so it’s better to hire talented people who want to do the work you need done. It’s too hard too push someone to improve their performance if they’re not talented at the task required. 3. The reverse is also true – the best people want to do work that they’re good at. It’s easier to be self-motivated doing work that’s enjoyable. 4. The best managers first need to clarify expectations to determine what work really needs to be done, and then go find people who want to do this work. 5. A Performance Profile achieves this objective plus it eliminates the problems associated with traditional skills and experience-based job descriptions: • It clearly defines the work required to be done • It is complete – all critical hard and soft skills are clearly defined in a manner that’s easy to assess using a performance-based interview. • It’s compelling – it will attract top people who are motivated to look for work they want to do. • It’s not exclusionary – it focuses on talent and potential in combination with skills and experience. 6. Preparing a Performance Profile before looking for people takes about an hour. It saves 10-15 hours during the search and hours every week after the person is hired by not having to push someone who wasn’t talented or motivated enough to do the work to begin with.

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The Key is Eliminating Traditional Job Descriptions

1. Traditional job descriptions are not compelling to top people with all of the skills listed. Few want to do the same work over again. 2. Some of the best people don’t meet all of the standard criteria. These people are automatically excluded. 3. The best people want to know what they’ll be doing. This increases job satisfaction, reduces the likelihood of a counter-offer, and minimizes salary premiums. 4. The best managers naturally clarify expectations. This is a fundamental management technique. 5. It’s best to hire people who are highly motivated to do the work you want done. This means you must define the work needed to be done ahead of time.

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Experience-based Selection Vs. Performance

1. Write Performance Profile highlighting the DOING of activities, not the HAVING of skills and experiences. 2. Convert each “Having” into a “DOING,” by asking what is most important outcome expected with the skill. 3. Achieving results is always more important than having skills. 4. It’s what you DO with what you HAVE, not what you HAVE that counts! 5. If candidate can meet performance objectives then he/she has enough experience, skills, and academics. 6. Focus on outcomes, rather than input. Deliverables are easier to prioritize. 7. Get everyone to agree to real job needs. 8. Candidates self-select in and out more easily using Performance Profiles. 9. Make each objective different enough to test all capabilities of candidate. 10. This process will clarify expectations, increase the size of the candidate pool, and improve the recruiting/closing process.

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Examples of Performance Objectives

Develop interfaces between Oracle applications and legacy systems: as part of this high- visibility project the person selected will lead the development effort for more efficient data transfer using his/her knowledge of PL/SQL, SQL, Forms 6i, Reports 6i and Database 8i. The primary project is (describe briefly). This project is targeted for completion by (date). As part of a project team, the Oracle application developer must quickly assess project status, identify any potential bottlenecks, and with the team prepare a comprehensive project plan.

Assess the current state of patient care within the assigned specialty: Within the first 3-6 months, review all current clinical care management practices and current patient outcome performance indicators. Develop a plan (including measurable metrics) to improve the quality of the care provided and associated patient outcomes by incorporating evidence based and best practices into the patient care process.

Quickly engage with all customers visiting the dealership. Uses variety of techniques to approach customers, develop quick rapport, and engage in meaningful dialogue. Learns opening techniques to build trust. Move ____% of first-time visiting customers to the next step in selling process (create interest in this dealership as a place to buy a car and willing to invest time in evaluating different cars/options).

Lead the development of the two-year product plan: Take the lead on preparing the two-year product program due within 120 days, coordinating with product development and engineering. This needs to consist of competitive analysis, assessment of technology trends, and market and consumer research. Include revenue and market share analysis by channel, including segmentation analysis. New products (introduced within 12 months) should represent 20% of total revenue within 18 months.

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Identifying the Critical Success Drivers

1. Every job has 6-8 key drivers that determine ultimate success. 2. They need to cover all aspects of the job including working with others, planning and organizing work and any cultural issues. 3. Ask ‘What does the person selected need to do to be successful?” 4. For on-boarding they need to be SMARTe objectives (specific, measurable, action-oriented, results defined, time bound, environment described). For example, “reduce factory overhead costs by 2% per quarter starting within 6 months.” 5. For hiring purposes basic performances objectives are adequate. These include a description of the task, the action required and the expected result. 6. More than just MBOs - examine methods and steps leading to success. 7. Sub-objectives are often more important than the main objective - these are the steps needed to achieve main objective. For example, “build team, assess problem, conduct research, plan the project” are often critical sub-objectives. 8. Best to prioritize these job objectives in a group setting to get team consensus. 9. Create a timeline. What does the person need to do in the first month, first quarter, first six months, and first year? 10. Cover everything – then select the most important.

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Preparing Performance Profiles A performance profile defines the work the person needs to do, not the skills required. It’s what a person does with what they have that determines success. Follow these steps to create the primary objectives. Then put the top 6-8 in priority order.

Determine the Top 6-8 Performance Objectives Describe task, the action required, and the expected result.

What’s the major objective or biggest change? – Increase sales by 15% per month What does the person need to do to be successful? – Rebuild the team What needs to be done first? – Determine root cause problem What’s the biggest technical challenge? – Reduce power consumption What does strong team skills mean? – Prepare specs with marketing Convert HAVING to DOING – for each skill ask, “what does person need to do with the skill?” – Use CPA to establish new SOX reporting Define problems or improvements needed? – Reduce employee turnover What do the best do differently than average people? – Show up 100% of time Describe the environment (pace, decision-making, resources, team, manager). Describe strategic or creative issues. – Prepare product road map

To hire the best you need to convert standard jobs into career opportunities.

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Performance Profiles – Treat as Interview with Manager 1. While you start with major objectives, sometimes the sub-steps along the way become the most important objectives. 2. Hint for Most Jobs – Assess. Plan. Execute. First figure out what needs to be done, than put a plan together to do it, then do it. 3. All objectives don’t have to be completely SMARTe – but they need to be understandable. Action verb is the most important part: do, build, change, create, lead, develop, improve, upgrade. 4. Include the environmental issues – pace, tight resources, politics – in some of the objectives. You’ll compare this to the same environment the candidate achieved his/her success. 5. Don’t forget management and organizational issues. This is frequently overlooked, yet is often critical to management success. 6. Convert technical and educational needs into a DOING-type accomplishment, by determining what the person actually needs to do with the skill. This way it’s much easier to measure competency by getting an actual example of something similar. 7. It’s easier to prioritize deliverables, then prioritizing skills and experiences. 8. Consider what do the best do differently.

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Create Employee Value Proposition to Attract Top Employees

1. Hiring manager is responsible for describing compelling nature of job. Get specific details. Don’t generalize, exaggerate, or use motherhood-like statements. 2. Clearly describe what the person will learn as a result of working in this job. Example: Learn solution selling and territory sales planning. 3. Clearly describe some of the compelling projects involved. Example: Help develop a major new territory. 4. Clearly describe the importance of the job to the overall company business objectives. Example: Lead the launch of a new product line to our existing customer base. 5. Convert skills into exciting projects. Examples: • Use your industrial sales experience to develop major Fortune 500 clients. • Use your creative Flash design skills to develop awesome launch page for new customers. 6. Performance Profiles convert boring jobs into real career opportunities. It’s easier for hiring managers to assess competency, easier for recruiters to find more top candidates, and will get more less active and passive candidates to invest time in evaluating your jobs.

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Performance Profiles are Foundation of Good Hiring

1. Solves fundamental problem with hiring – most interviewers use their own perception of job needs, rather than the real job needs. 2. Shift decision-making process from skills and presentation to performance and comparable results! 3. Getting agreement is hardest and most important part. 4. This is part of core management skills – telling people what they’re supposed to do. Clarifying expectations is the #1 objective for all managers and the #1 key to increasing employee satisfaction. 5. If managers consider this too hard to do, they shouldn’t be managers. 6. This process allows ads to be written that generates a larger pool of best employees, not best candidates. 7. The performance profile should be reviewed and discussed as a core aspect of the on-boarding process. It also should be used to manage, develop and review the new employee throughout the year. 8. What’s the impact of using performance profiles on hiring managers? Recruiters? Candidates?

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The Typical Unstructured Interview is Flawed

1. Most interviewers assess the wrong stuff – first impressions, skills and experience as described in the resume, and the candidate’s interviewing ability. Few interviewers assess the candidate’s competency and motivation for the job. This is the real stuff! 2. Most interviewer’s are impressed with good candidates. These traits are easier to measure than those of best employees. Motivation to get the job is not the same as motivation to do the work. 3. Other factors also affect interviewing accuracy. These include the need to fill the job, other related work activities, interviewing skills, personal biases and prejudices, and even the time of day. 4. Separating presentation from performance is the first step in conducting an accurate interview. This requires a stop-start mentality. First the interviewer must stop doing things that prevent an objective assessment. Second, the interviewer must start using a methodical structured approach to assessing competency and motivation. 5. The basic 2-question performance-based interview overcomes all of these issues by neutralizing impact of first impressions and addressing core success traits of the best employees. 6. Knowing the process will be enforced and that the interviewer will be judged on how well they conduct the interview helps improve overall accuracy.

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The Typical Unstructured Interview is Flawed

1. Most interviewers assess the wrong stuff – first impressions, skills and experience as described in the resume, intelligence, verbal skills and the candidate’s interviewing ability. Few interviewers assess the candidate’s competency and motivation for the job. The real stuff! 2. This leads to four common hiring mistakes: • Bad hire: overvaluing presentation skills. Random results. • Over hire: hiring strong people who are competent, but not motivated to do the work. This is due to overvaluing experience and knowledge. Technical interviewers tend to make this mistake most often. • Incomplete hire: hiring a person who is very good at some of the job, but not the whole job. This is attributed to globalizing strengths and assuming the person can do everything. Intuitive interviewers tend to make this mistake by overvaluing verbal skills, confidence and intelligence. Often the person is good at planning, but weak on executing. • Non hire: Not hiring the best person. This is due to globalizing weaknesses and overvaluing presentation skills.

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Step 1 & 2: Controlling Biases and Emotions

1. Use first part of interview to understand why candidate is looking for a job – need a job or want a better job. 2. Control Emotions – wait 30 minutes before making a yes or no decision. 3. If you like someone become a little more cynical. Ask more questions and get more details. This overcomes the tendency to talk too much and be more accepting. 4. If you don’t like someone become more open-minded. Give this person the benefit of the doubt. This overcomes the tendency to look for negative information. 5. Interviewers tend to look for confirming information based on the candidate’s first impression. 6. Measuring first impression at the end of the interview allows for objectivity to prevail. Compare this to your initial reaction to the candidate. This reveals the interviewer’s personal biases. 7. Remaining objective is the most difficult part of interviewing.

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Step 2 – Performance-based Selection

1. Conduct a Work History Review 2. For 20-30 minutes ask the candidate for this information for the past few jobs or past 3-15 years. • Company name, title, time in each position. • Describe environment: pace, resources, how decisions were made • Explain gaps in employment • Describe any promotions or recognition received • Draw a work chart showing who the person worked with, for, and for whom. Include associates from other departments, vendors, and customers. Get the titles of these associates. • Ask about why the person stayed, left, and took each job. • Have the person highlight major accomplishments at each job. • What the person liked most and least, including supervisors. 3. A work history review provides a solid foundation for the balance of the interview. By itself it reveals growth trends over time, highlights performance, and reveals what others think of the candidate. 4. You’ll use some of the major accomplishments as the basis for subsequent questioning. Select those that best compare with actual job needs.

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The Most Important Question of All Time

1. Obtain as much info as you can about the candidate’s most significant accomplishments. This reveals competency, character, personality, the ability to learn, team skills, the ability to accomplish results, pace, attitude, capability, and potential. 2. The best candidates aren’t naturally going to provide this info without prompting. The interviewer must take responsibility to obtain this information. Otherwise you’re measuring interviewing skills, not job competency. 3. The answers are more important than the questions. Just remember this questioning technique and you’ll have 75% of the information you need to make an accurate assessment – if you know the job. 4. Motivation is key. You want to know why the candidate excelled in the examples chosen. This will affect sourcing and hiring, as well as interviewing. 5. The key for every question of this type is to obtain the results achieved, the process used to achieve the results, and a good understanding of the environment in which they took place – resources, pace, time, sophistication.

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The Most Important Question of All Time

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Repeat the Question Over Again to Determine Consistency

1. Each accomplishment question should last at least 8-10 minutes. 2. Ask candidate to describe most significant accomplishment regardless of job or when it occurred. Find out why this was considered the most significant. 3. Key point to consider: when did this accomplishment take place, and was it an individual or team accomplishment. This starts to get at motivation. 4. During the balance of the interview use forced-choice questions to build a trend line of team and individual accomplishments over time: • Tell me about a previous accomplishment or an accomplishment at company ABC. • Tell me about your biggest team accomplishment – use when the person started with a big individual accomplishment. 5. Ask about job-specific accomplishments. • One of our big challenges is (describe). What have you accomplished that’s most similar? • This is also good to describe the job without selling. 6. Alternative questions • Tell me about your biggest failure. • What else did you accomplish at XYZ? • What accomplishment stretched you the most? • What accomplishment gave you the most personal satisfaction? • What was your biggest accomplishment with the least amount of experience?

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Using Accomplishment Question for Lower Level Positions

1. The best people, even those just starting out in their careers have traits of the best people – persistence, hard-work, initiative, working with others. 2. Ask those people with limited experience to provide examples of: • Exceeding expectations • Taking the initiative • Working on a team project • Leadership – influencing others 3. You’ll need to evaluate more of these shorter accomplishments to establish a framework and see a trend of growth. 4. Look for maturity and responsibility in the examples given. 5. Focus on team projects. Working with others is a critical skill. Find out if the person was chosen to lead and the results. Also discover what the person did when things went wrong. 6. Look for the source of motivation. Motivation to succeed is the key. Competency without motivation is a common problem when hiring less experienced people.

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Using the Trend Line to Assess Performance

1. The trend line is very revealing, whether it’s up, down or sideways. 2. An upward trend is positive, but it means you’ll need to continue to offer challenging and bigger jobs to the person. 3. A flat trend line is not bad, if the person is highly motivated to do the work that needs to be done. To validate this obtain specific examples of where the candidate has excelled at similar work. Don’t accept a statement like, “I like to, or want to do the work you’ve described.” Look for proof of the person doing this type of work recently. 4. A downward trend is concerning. This often reveals burnout. Validate this to determine the cause of the lack of progress. 5. Observe the growth of team skills in comparison to individual accomplishments. For management jobs this should be growing. For technical positions this should be positive and sufficient to meet job needs. 6. Always ask the candidate to describe the work team when describing team accomplishments. This reveals the types of people the person has worked with successfully in the past. 7. For management positions spend more time on team accomplishments than individual accomplishments.

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Basic Fact-finding Team Accomplishment Technical Accomplishment Overview of job, company Draw an org chart w/titles What were the big tech challenges Team and org structure What was your role, why you What was your role in the project Environment – pace, resources What was plan & were results met What expertise did you bring When? How long? Results? What were biggest team problems How did you apply this to project What results were expected? How did you influence results Summarize before and after situation Before and after situation 3-4 examples of initiative helping What did you do first, why How did you plan project? others Describe process used to find Obtain 2-3 examples of initiative Examples of being influenced solution What did you change/improve Types of people you liked/disliked What aspects did you like most/least Big challenges or conflict faced Describe 3-4 things you did to How did you prioritize tasks, why What did you learn about self become a better team member How did you best use tech expertise How did you grow as a result What didn’t you do, you should have What tools did you require/use What would you do differently Where did people seek you out What was biggest problem, how was What (technical) skills needed Describe situation resolving team it resolved, could it have been better How were these enhanced issue What did you push, change, or What (technical) skills learned Describe biggest conflict & challenge Describe likes, dislikes resolution What are your technical strengths Why were you chosen for role Examples coaching others Examples of initiative How did you improve yourself Examples of being coached How did you learn technical skills What would you do differently How did you improve yourself, learn What areas did you need to learn What recognition did you receive What did you like/dislike How did you learn this Did you receive any team How did you creatively improve or recognition push technology envelop What would you do differently

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Interview Notes

1. Describe the project. What was the big business impact?

2. How did you get the project – assigned or volunteered? Why?

3. What was your role? What was the biggest challenge?

4. Can you give me an example of what you mean?

5. Get three examples of initiative.

6. How did you grow as a person or what did you learn about

yourself?

7. Describe your biggest mistake.

8. What would you do differently if you could?

9. What recognition did you receive?

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Assessing Competency

The trend line: look for consistency, no unexplained gaps in work history, recognition in each job (promotions, salary increases, awards), and motivation to do the work. Level 1: doesn’t want to do the work and/or can’t do the work. This is easy to figure out. Level 2: competent to do the work, says he/she will do the work, but won’t do it. This is the most common hiring mistake. It’s caused by judging people on their skills and presentation. Level 3: competent and motivated to do most, if not all, of the work described in the Performance Profile. This is a top employee and should be hired unless a stronger person is available. The person is clearly promotable in a normal time frame. Level 4: a great hire. Look for an upward trend line and examples of exceeding expectations in comparable types of work. This person is quickly promotable in a short period of time. Level 5: a super hire. This person has a track record of doing excellent work in comparable situations. Recognition and remarkable capability should be obvious. This is a person who is clearly able to handle at least two promotions in a reasonable time frame. If you want to hire 4s and 5s you’ll need to provide them with bigger jobs, better jobs and more growth opportunities.

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Using the 10-Factor Assessment to Improve Job Matching

The 1-5 Levels One – incompetent, doesn’t make cut. Pretty easy to figure this one out. Two – just competent, but too much coaching required. Sits on the bench. This is most common hiring mistake. Overvalue presentation, not performance. Three – fully qualified. Does what’s needed with normal training and supervision. A top hire. Makes the first team. Some great talents. Four – highly qualified. Does more, does it faster, does it better. A starter; a potential all-star. Multi-talented. Pushes manager and organization to improve. Five – Super Star. Totally committed to excel. Does most and best. An all-star and potential MVP. Pushes manager and organization to change. Has broader impact.

Targeted Fact-finding - Increase assessment accuracy by using definitions to look for information in candidate’s responses.

Candidate: ______Position: ______Interviewer: ______Date: ______

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Interview Notes for Team Skills

1. Describe the project. What was the big business impact?

2. What was your role? Describe the key team members.

3. Get three examples of initiative helping others.

4. Get examples of helping or cooperating with others.

5. How did you grow as a person or what did you learn about

yourself in working with other people?

6. How have you applied this in subsequent situations?

7. Describe your biggest interpersonal mistake?

8. What would you do differently if you could?

9. Did you receive any team recognition?

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Using the 2nd Interview Question

1. Ask candidate how he/she would solve or handle a job-related issue. 2. Allow candidate to ask questions to see if person knows what to look for to better understand the problem. 3. A give-and-take dialogue is a good way to assess communication skills, job understanding, and confidence. 4. Good candidates are capable of visualizing an approach to solve a problem even if the person doesn’t know the answer right away. 5. Don’t assume the person can implement a solution just because the person can put a plan together. Get a specific example of some related comparable accomplishment. 6. This type of problem-solving can also be used as a take-home problem. Allow the candidate to present his/her evaluation and conclusions at a follow-up meeting.

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The Performance-based Interview - Summary

1. The Situational Question. This is the second basic interviewing question. Ask the candidate to discuss a job-specific problem, then get into a give-and-take dialogue. Have the candidate describe how they would assess and solve the problem or issue. This question gets at problem-solving, planning, creativity, and strategic thinking. Don’t over do it. To increase it’s assessment value, ask candidates to describe something they’ve accomplished most comparable. This confirms an ability to think in combination with strong execution. 2. Caution: Don’t overvalue the communications or visualization skills, without a track record of comparable past performance. Most interviews use affability, assertiveness, and visualization questions to determine complete competency! 3. DO – DO – DO – THINK. Use at least three accomplishment-based questions for every situational question. This pattern increases assessment accuracy by combining past successes with the ability to plan the future. 4. Two questions plus fact-finding is the key to getting accurate and meaningful answers from all candidates, even those that are nervous or not naturally good interviewers. 5. Wait 30-minutes before you judge competency. First conduct a comprehensive work history review. This is how you remain totally objective throughout the interview. 6. Balance across all job needs is the key. Use the 10-Factor candidate assessment template to evaluate candidate for all important performance traits.

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Performance-based Hiring Compared to Behavioral Interviewing

1. PBI is Performance-based Interviewing. BEI is behavioral event interviewing. 2. Untrained interviewers skim the surface, asking a lot about a little. Very little information is learned. This type of interview is useless. 3. A behavioral interview asks for examples to justify different behaviors and competencies. This is better, since it’s structured, but it doesn’t determine motivation for the actual job. It also doesn’t get at consistency. For example, a person might demonstrate lots of initiative, but not what’s needed for the job, or the person might not do it consistently for all jobs all of the time. 4. A performance-based interview looks at behaviors, skills, and competencies as sub-sets of accomplishments. By digging deep into 3-5 accomplishments over time consistency and motivation are revealed. This should to be compared to actual job needs to determine fit. 5. Performance-based interviewing is more flexible and candidates find it more professional. It’s much harder to fake a performance- based interview. Performance-based interviewing also provides the opportunity to add recruiting components into the questioning.

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Other Forms of the Most Significant Accomplishment Question 1. What major tasks did other interviewers cover? Was there anything else worth discussing not yet mentioned? Was there another major project at the same company that addressed a different area of expertise? 2. One of our biggest challenges is (describe)? What have you accomplished that’s most comparable? (Use this to get at job-related issues and needs.) 3. What was your most satisfying accomplishment or a project or task you enjoyed most? (Use this to understand motivation) 4. What was your biggest accomplishment where you had the least amount of expertise to start? (Gets at learning and persistence) 5. What was your biggest failure? (Fact-find) How did you grow from this or do something significant later on as a result of this? (Gets at growth and personal development) 6. We have a problem with (describe). Have you ever handled anything like this? (Gets at job-related issues.) 7. What do you think your greatest strengths are? Can you describe some significant accomplishment(s) that demonstrates these? 8. Based on hindsight and growth what major accomplishment would you like to do over? 9. Our culture is (describe). Can you tell me about some major accomplishment that involved some of these cultural similarities? 10. We have an unusual team. (Describe.) Can you describe some major accomplishment where you dealt with people like this? 11. Commitment and persistence are the most important parts of this job. Tell me about your most significant project where you really had to go the extra mile.

Position: ______Candidate: ______Date: ______

Tech Projects, Key Tasks

Problem Questions: Thinking

Recruit/Close Interest Level

Summary and Evaluation:

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The Importance of Recruiting

1. From beginning to end the performance-based interview is designed to recruit and assess candidates in parallel. This starts in the beginning with Step 1 by determining motivation. By first asking what the candidate is looking for in a new job, and then asking “why” these factors are important, you’ll uncover core needs. This is useful information ask you frame your subsequent questions and establish opportunity. 2. Step 6 provides time later in the interview for candidates to ask questions. If candidates ask lots of questions early, mention to them that you would like to conduct a structured interview first, and that you’ll give them ample time towards the end to ask their questions. This establishes interviewer control – an important aspect of effective recruiting. 3. The best are more discriminating. Selling is not appropriate. This cheapens the job. The goal is to make the job attractive enough so that the candidate wants to sell the interviewer. Strong candidates don’t want to work for people who oversell, under-listen or conducts an unprofessional interview. 4. Create interest: preface some questions by describing the importance of the job and the impact on the company. Then ask the candidate to describe his/her most comparable accomplishments. 5. Be skeptical: when you say to the candidate that he might not have all of the skills required for the job, the person sees an opportunity for growth. 6. Mentioning that other good candidates are being considered makes the job more appealing. Never say, “you’re the only candidate we’re seeing.” This loses your natural advantage. 7. Testing is the key. This allows for an open exchange of information, and allows the company to respond appropriately. 8. Recruiting starts at the beginning, and continues throughout the process. It starts with a great job and a comprehensive interview. This way candidates learn for themselves why the job is a good career opportunity. You “sell” the job by asking questions and listening, not by over-talking! 9. While you want the candidate to think about the job, you want them to tell you what they’re thinking. That’s why testing is so important.

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The Basic Structured Interview – One Hour

1. Control emotions. If you like someone, ask more challenging questions. If you don’t initially like the person, prove they can do the job. 2. Conduct work-history review to establish framework. Get highlights of major accomplishments, and any recognition. 3. Review 3-4 major accomplishments for about 10 minutes each. 4. Recruiting Bonus: describe job challenges as preludes to asking about candidate’s accomplishment. 5. Ask how person would solve or address typical problem. 6. Ask person how and why they’re interested in the job. 7. Close the interview and measure 1st impression again.

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Anatomy of a Bad Hire

1. Shift the decision-making process from presentation to performance to eliminate 50% of all hiring mistakes. Anyone can hire a Level 5, or not hire a Level 1. Most mistakes are made by not differentiating between the 2s, 3s and 4s. 2. Focus on what people do with their skills in comparison to real job needs. Find people who have excelled and exceeded expectations in what you need done. 3. Balance is the key. Examine all 10 factors in balance. Don’t focus on just two or three competencies. But make sure the competencies are in comparison to real job needs. Missing this could lead to the great person for the wrong job problem. 4. Go out your way to remain objective throughout the interviewing process. Collect information before deciding. Then decide as a team after sharing the information. 5. Measure 1st impression at the end of the interview when you’re not affected by it. Then determine if the person’s 1st impression is an asset or a liability. In many cases top performers have overcome weak first impressions to through extra effort.

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Anatomy of a Bad Hire

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Legal Issues – Make Sure You Check with Your Legal Counsel

1. Conclusions – 1) Foundation is using job profile to establish objective and essential criteria 2) Need to use structured interview that accurately measures candidate’s ability to meet performance objectives 3) All interviews need to ask similar performance-based questions 4) Need to ask all candidates the same questions 5) Minimize legal liability by demonstrating objective process – F&P has won numerous cases 6) Increases assessment accuracy 7) “Performance-based process is the missing link that has been missing in most hiring processes” 2. During questioning – don’t ask personal questions. They’re not needed. You can ask about felony convictions, but not arrest record. You can ask about education, the ability to travel, and working unusual hours if job related. 3. For ADA you can ask how person would accomplish the task if essential. Don’t add non-essential objectives. Might need to make modest accommodations.

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The Most Important Things I Heard Today Are ……..

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Keys to Implementing Performance-based Hiring

1. Stopping bad practices is harder than starting best practices. 2. Start with the easy things first: • Start preparing Performance Profiles • Control emotions by adding discipline into the process • Become talent-centric – meet the needs of top people • Rework application process to target top employees 3. Add some structure with enforcement – use the 10-Factor form. 4. Test it out first. Get everyone involved. 5. Use panel interviews and collaborative debriefing sessions to increase learning and user adoption rate. 6. Start getting better. If you’re a recruiter, become a partner. If you’re a hiring manager or interviewer, start practicing the performance- based interview approach. 7. Wait 30 minutes! You’ll reduce your hiring mistakes by 50%. 8. No 2s! – go through each of the 10 factors to reach consensus. 9. Make hiring top people a systematic business process!

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Advanced Sourcing and Recruiting Techniques

Lou Adler’s 1. Introduction/Overview/Agenda 3 Performance- based Hiring 2. Become Top Employee Focused 8 Workshop 3. Developing a Sourcing Strategy 12 4. Online Marketing and Advertising 16 5. Semi-Active Candidate Sourcing 21 Handbook 6. Passive Candidate Recruiting 22 7. Name Generation Ideas 23 8. Proactive Employee Referral Program 26 9. ZoomInfo Case Study 27 10. The Basics of Networking 30 11. Recruiting and Closing 37 12. Counter-offers and the Competition 45 13. Applicant and Client Control 48 14. Becoming a Partner 50 15. Summary and Next Steps, Feedback 53 Lou Adler’s Performance- based Hiring Workshop

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Performance-based Hiring – A Systematic Business Process

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Agenda and Course Objectives

1. Recruiters will learn how to become true partners in the hiring process. 2. Top people don’t look for nor accept offers using the same criteria as average candidates. Everything must be redesigned from the perspective of these top people. 3. There are some great active candidates around. Some passive candidates are active when their jobs become less satisfying. All passive candidates become active just when they start comparing offers. 4. Recruiting and closing top candidates requires strong solution selling techniques. 5. Everyone has multiple offers. Managing the close requires more sophisticated recruiting techniques.

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The Theory of Recruiting

1. The Theory of Recruiting: Understanding these fundamental principles will have a profound effect on individual recruiter performance. They relate to the energy required to close a strong candidate. The best require more effort and resources to find and hire. If some of the energy used to convince a candidate of the merits of a position can be automated, less effort is required by the recruiter. 2. The Law of Positive Energy: it takes less effort to hire an active candidate and more effort to hire a passive candidate. Resources and time must be applied to hire more passive candidates. The effort and cost to hire candidates increases depending on how passive they are. Pursuing a top passive candidate is costly and time consuming. There are recruiting techniques you can use to minimize this effort. 3. The Law of Persistence: too many recruiters accept a NO too easily. The only NO that is valid is one where the candidate or hiring manager has enough information to accurately decide. It’s the recruiters job to never give up until candidates or hiring managers have enough of the right information. This is as much art as science. Persistence is the key to overcoming an unwarranted, premature or unjustified NO. 4. The Recruiting Inflection Point: when the candidate has enough information to realize the job is a good career move, the person changes his/her viewpoint from “why I don’t want this job,” to “why I want this job.” The candidate has just become an active candidate and the whole recruiting process now changes. Knowing how to get to this point, and what to do next, is a critical skill of a top recruiter.

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The Best People Want Different Things 1. Top people start looking when their jobs become routine and less satisfying. Sometimes their boss drives them away. Sometimes the long term growth opportunities become questionable. 2. When top people look for new jobs they don’t start with a title and location, they start looking for good companies and classes of jobs. So don’t develop sourcing strategies around job descriptions. 3. The actual decision to accept a job is based largely on the job match including the type of work and long term career opportunity. Top people want work that motivates them and provides a long term opportunity. 4. The best people are also looking for hiring managers who can mentor them and offer personal development. Top people accept jobs in their own image! 5. The quality of the team is a critical part of the decision to accept an offer. The best people want to work with other strong people. 6. A professional recruiting and interviewing process sends a powerful message. 7. In general younger people focus more on the company, career path and compensation since they have less knowledge about their own abilities and potential. 8. Sourcing top people requires an understanding of how the look which is somewhat different than the criteria they use to accept an offer.

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Become Talent Centric - Implement Job Branding

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Develop a Sourcing Strategy

1. A sourcing strategy involves a compensation strategy in combination with a candidate development approach. A good comp strategy needs to offer a fair comp package with a better job and more career opportunity. 2. Use the 30% Solution as a way to position your job. Suggest that your candidates evaluate your job along three dimensions – short-term job stretch, long-term growth and a comp increase. Together this should equal 30%. The plus is the hiring manager’s total involvement. 3. To attract the best less active candidates you need to offer better jobs. This is where performance profiles are extremely useful. In addition you need to make the jobs easy to find and the application process relatively easy. 4. A better job defines the challenges, describes the key projects, and clearly identifies the impact the person can make. 5. To attract top semi-passive candidates you need to offer a better career. A better career involves the long-term growth aspects of the job and the company potential. 6. Job branding is the process of relating the job to the overall company prospects. This way candidates can quickly see the importance of the job both short-term and long-term. 7. The sourcing strategy we’ll be presenting is based on creating alternate methods to drive candidates to great jobs other than just job boards. In some cases this will be using SEO techniques, job aggregators, using talent hubs and micro sites, and expanding a companies ability to network with top performers.

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Implement a Multi-channel Sourcing Strategy

1. Use a multi-tier sourcing process to achieve the highest quality in the shortest period of time at the lowest reasonable cost. 2. The list shown here is a suggested approach to source top people in sequential fashion. The basic idea is that companies should increase their emphasis on building pools of top talent. With this resume database recruiters are then able to interact, create interest and contact people when specific opportunities become available. 3. The idea of using a job description as the primary sourcing tool is becoming less important. This is why job boards are becoming less significant as a major sourcing tool. 4. Talent Hubs are web micro sites where companies can gain candidate interest in a class or group of jobs. If these sites are optimized to be found, companies can then drive candidates to specific jobs. Most top people want to find out about the company, its culture and some of its career opportunities before applying. 5. A company’s career site is the hub of activity. If this is less than perfect top people are unlikely to apply. Even passive and referred candidates will go to the career site before applying. 6. The Employee Referral Program should be the dominant source of new talent. Most companies don’t make full use of this great network.

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The 1st Step to Hiring the Best – Job-branded Better Advertising 1. Make sure your advertising and Talent Hubs can be found. • Use SEO techniques • Reverse engineer your ads – make sure your target audience can find your advertising? 2. Long titles are helpful. Make them visible and compelling. Some far out ideas: • The Best Darn Sales Job in Dallas • Clean Up our Facility – Maintenance Department Supervisor • A No Brainer – Lead Our Logic Control Design Effort 3. Taglines can help add visibility • Senior Engineer – Push the Technology Envelop • Marketing Manager – Create Our Future • Customer Service Rep – Take Care of Our Critical Asset 4. Job Branding – tie the job to a major company initiative or something important to the candidate • Lead the launch of our major new product line • The first step to a six figure field sales position 5. The copy needs to focus on what the person will learn, do, and become • Use your 1 year+ budgeting experience to implement new cost controls • Take a small team of tech specialists and achieve big success in improving performance • Pounding the phones is fun when you’ve got the right beat. • If you like a fast-pace, can organize chaos, and are personally committed to be the best, check this software development job out. • Our training is second to none. Get a fresh start in this emerging technology.

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Semi-active Sourcing Strategy

1. Lead, don’t follow. If you do what everyone else does, you’ll get average results. 2. Use a consumer marketing focus. Consider what top people do and how they respond. 3. Use Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm model: • Innovators – the technology enthusiasts • Early Adopters – the visionaries • Early Majority – the pragmatists • Late Majority – the conservatives • Laggards – the skeptics The Innovators and Early Adopters will get a bigger share of the best candidates in the semi-active candidate pool. 4. Use drip marketing techniques to stay in touch with candidates in your resume pool. Send compelling email and ask candidates to respond with examples of their best comparable work. This auto-separates the best from the rest. 5. Viral marketing: if jobs are compelling enough they will be sent along to others. 6. Bounty Jobs, Agency Referral Programs and Hireability tap into the concept of networks of recruiters for a reduced fee. 7. Stay on top of trends – MySpace, YouTube, Yahoo! 360°, video, graphics Page 21 Lou Adler’s Performance- based Hiring Workshop

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Typical Problems with Sourcing Passive Candidates

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Prepare a Candidate Profile

1. Source from the competition. Use these names in your search strings. Don’t only look for candidates, though. These are great networking connections. 2. Find functional or indirect competitors. Determine who does the best comparable or equivalent work. Map the process and the culture and the scope of the accomplishments. 3. Target people who might have indirectly worked with the person as networking sources. Buyers are great sources of top sales people. Vendors are great sources for engineers, buyers, and product marketing people. 4. Association leaders often know the best people in their groups. Target these right away. 5. Professors or industry experts know outstanding people in the field. 6. Alumni lists – get peers, subordinates, and supervisors – are useful in finding the names of top people. 7. Work backwards. Find out how the ideal candidate evolved. What companies did he/she work for, what schools would they have attended, and who would know this person as they progressed in their career. 8. Reverse engineer your hiring process. Work through your hiring process as if you were a top person. Make sure a top person can find your jobs and will apply. Track actual results using web analytics.

Page 23 Keyword Generator March 2007

Keyword Concepts Comments Keywords Basic Words Email, location, intitle:, inurl:, City *@company.com –jobs resume (skill1 OR skill2 OR skill3)

Competitors Identical work

Functional Competitors Similar work

Technical and Skills Basic and unusual terms

Job Titles Use generic titles

Performance Terms Relevant to job: launched, exceeded, project, led, team

Recognition Terms Relevant to job: awards, patents, whitepapers, speaker, books, articles Alumni, Academics, Target best schools, specialty Certificates, Licenses colleges, trade schools

Leadership Positions Consider non-work leadership roles i.e., charity, community, societies Societies, Association, See Directory of Associations, Clubs include diversity groups,

Vendors, Customers, Get connected for networking Team Members

Trade Shows, On resume and use for Conferences networking

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The Importance of Employee Referrals

1. For most top companies it is the #1 source of strong candidates. Target 35-50% of all new hires from the ERP. However, to accomplish this it must be marketed aggressively. 2. There is a heavy admin requirement. Submittals must be tracked and acknowledged. 3. All candidates submitted must be pre-qualified. Remember, only talk to the best. Pre- qualified candidates can be quickly identified and brought to the top of the list. Ask employees to justify their submittals with some type of pre-qualification screen. 4. Trend: after first flood of candidates employee response declines quickly. The objective of an ERP is to target the best employees to provide the best names. 5. Need to proactively get the names of the best from all new and recent employees: • Need aggressive program to target new employees – market, advertise, put instructions in employee on-boarding kit and on intranet with big section. • Recruiters need to schedule and meet with new and recent employees to get org charts of prior companies. • Just get the name. Employee doesn’t have to know if person wants to leave or not. This makes it easier to get “best” names. • Ask “who was best on your team” and pre-qualify. Why? Ask, “what kind of recognition did person receive?” • Give referral bonus to new employees even though the recruiter does the work. 6. Recruiters must network with referred candidates. This is how the network of the best expands rapidly. Consider this: a proactive ERP with constant and aggressive networking will allow a company to know all key players for any type of job within only two to three degrees of separation.

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Using ZoomInfo to Network • 30 million North American names • These people personally know the candidate you’re going to hire • Put together compelling ad/email • Use JobCast as “Push” advertising • Call, recruit and get referrals

Slide 30

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Slide 32

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Continue Script for Cold-calling Referred Candidate

Great, first let me just ask you a few questions for a minute or two, and then I’ll give you a quick overview of the project I’m leading. If it then makes mutual sense to evaluate this seriously we’ll schedule a time to talk in more depth. (Then conduct quick screen) Primary objection: You tell me first – I’ll be more than happy to give all the information you want about the positions at ______you’ll ever want to know, but we’ve discovered that it takes about 10 minutes to discuss all the options. Most people aren’t interested in hearing about this, unless they’re completely interested. The open spot is a senior level position, in ______, and there’s a lot of flexibility in the scope of the position. By me just asking a few basic questions, I can determine if we’re even in the ballpark, then I’ll give you an quick overview of the job. If we’re mutually interested we can then schedule another time to discuss the opportunity in great depth. Is this okay?

First, just tell me your current title. How long? (then conduct short profile)

Basic if person over-qualified: Now that I know your background this job doesn’t seem big enough for you, because …..(explain)

Basic if person not qualified: Now that I know your background this job isn’t really a good fit, because …..(explain) However, let me tell you a little about the job. You might know someone I should network with. (Then use compelling description of job).

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Techniques to Overcome Call Reluctance

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How to Find Semi-Passive Candidates

1. Semi-passive candidates are not actively looking, so you need to contact them with a professional pitch. This is usually a phone call and obviously takes more time. Who you call and what you say is critical. You can only afford to call people who are worthy. A worthy person is either a good candidate or knows a good candidate directly. You’ll need to spend time determining who to call. 2. By using the correct pitch you can quickly convert a semi-passive candidate into a more active person. By creating demand in the job you do not need to spend as much time convincing candidates to pursue your opportunity and stay engaged. 3. Identify targets through networking – employees and candidates. The purpose of the first is NOT to recruit the candidate. It’s to determine if the person is worthy. If the person is a good candidate then you recruit the person. If the person is not a candidate, then you need to get referrals of other worthy people. 4. You must push for names. If you get them easily they’re not good. Ask the people you call who the best people they know are, not those that are looking. 5. Prequalifying is important. You can only afford time wise to talk with the top 25%. 6. Staying in control of the conversation is a critical piece of networking. Never let a candidate say they’re not interested. This means you told them too much about the job. The recruiter is the person to determine if they’re interested in the candidate. 7. The recruiter stays in control by screening first, before describing the job. This is critical. You must engage with candidate for 10 minutes before they’ll give you any referrals. The initial call is about establishing a level of professionalism. 8. Networking is an art. It’s also the key to finding the best semi-passive candidates.

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Networking - How to Develop System for Finding Top People 1. You don’t have enough time to talk with everyone. You must prequalify everyone. 2. You must establish your professionalism before someone will give you an important name. 3. You have most leverage when the person you’re recruiting is interested in the job. 4. Delay their yes/no decision for at least 6-8 minutes. 5. During this time be vague about the job and obtain their background info. 6. Always have candidates draw org charts for current and past jobs. This is important for assessing fit, and for networking. 7. Casually ask about names, but don’t force it. Who is best person you’ve worked for? 8. If not qualified, develop long term relationship. Then push for names. 9. Ask who is best, not who is looking. Use the Pull & Push to get names: candidates will not give you names of the best people they know unless you guide them along. Some ideas: 1. Who was your best boss, co-worker at ______company? Why? (pre-qualify!) 2. How did you rank among your peers, who was best? 3. Draw org chart and get names of best people on team at prior company 4. Who would you want on your team? (from boss or co-worker) 5. Who was you best hire, best employee? 6. Who surprised you most? Who was the best learner? Who did you learn most from? 7. Who did you develop? Who has the most potential?

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Don’t Take “NO” for an Answer 1. Remember a “NO” is a stall technique. It’s based on lack of information. The only acceptable “NO” is when the candidate has enough information to decide. 2. Anticipate a NO with an exciting opening. The standard “would you be open to explore ….?” is designed to minimize a NO response. 3. You’ll need to use an attention getting device to overcome a NO. For example, asking a candidate if they’re making a strategic or tactical decision forces the candidate to think. Asking a question is one way to get a candidate to respond. Asking a clever question is even better. 4. Persistence is the key. Don’t take NO for an answer. Your goal is to establish a relationship with the person in the first 5-10 minutes. Only then will they be open to giving you leads. Of course, how you ask for leads is an art in itself. 5. Use the close upon objection technique to keep the conversation going. For example, try “if I can demonstrate to you that this opportunity represents job growth of a least 20-25% per year would you spend 10 minutes with me exploring it?” Then explain that a return on an investment of 10 minutes versus a great career opportunity is a pretty good trade-off. The worst case is you lose 10 minutes of time, the best case you find out about the competition and hear about a great job. 6. Just persisting two to three times will often be enough to turn a NO into an OKAY. Then conduct the two-minute overview.

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Voicemails and Metrics Key metrics you must track: # of calls made (target 30 to 50), % call backs (target 60-75%), % who say “Yes” (target 80%), % worthy (target 65%), # referrals/call (target 2-3). If you achieve these metrics you’ll be finding 2-4 good candidates for any search within 2-3 days. Voice Mail Techniques – establish credibility and create interest The Direct Recruit: the key – recruit the person directly rather than be evasive. “I’d like to discuss a senior level position in marketing with you.” People are more likely to call back if there’s something in it for them personally. I’m the Expert: build up your reputation as someone worth knowing. “I’m not sure if you’ve heard my name but I’m recognized as a leading recruiter in the Java space. During a recent meeting at the ______conference your name was mentioned twice to me as someone I need to connect with regarding a search for a senior level developer.” People are more likely to call back if they can network with someone who is well networked. The Name and Info Dropper: mention someone or something important the candidate will recognize. “I was just talking to the CFO at ___ regarding an interesting take on the new Sarbanes-Oxley ruling. This came up as part of search I’m conducting for a senior level financial executive search position I’m leading for a Fortune 200 company.” Knowing people and issues gives you more credibility. Confidential Referral: on ZoomInfo you’ll find former companies. Mention this in your voicemail. “I was just talking with a marketing director at (prior company) and your name was brought up in the conversation as someone I need to call regarding I search I’m leading for a senior level manager.” When the person calls back mention that you automatically treat the names of people who provide names to you as confidential, and you’ll do the same for this person. Direct Referral: if you have permission just mention the person’s name. This will yield close to 90% callbacks if the referring person is credible. Since more than 50% of your calls will be like this you should be able to get your overall call back yield over 75%! “Karen Jones says hi, and insisted I call you on a search I’m conducting for a senior level person in ERP systems design.” The Creative Pesterer: keep on calling and leaving messages at different times with fun messages. Eventually the person will either answer the phone or call you back just to get rid of you. “I don’t want to bother you too much but I know you’ll buy me dinner once you hear about a search I’m leading for a senior management position in engineering.” The Follow-up: use this as part of an email or direct mail campaign. Using ZoomInfo’s Job Cast and other tools you can find emails for many people on your initial cold list. Send them a compelling summary of the job and mention that you will follow-up with them in a few days directly on the phone. If you have their regular mail address you might want to send a real letter.

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Take Home Exercise and Practice 1. Use the trial tools to practice cold calling passive candidates. 2. Just getting names on Linkedin is a quick and free start. 3. Have a plan in place: • Conduct the search • Call 15 people • If there are no worthy people (a strong candidate or a person who knows a strong candidate) on the list call the next 15 people. • Stop calling if you don’t have at least 3-4 good leads from these first 30 people. Develop a new cold list instead. 4. NEVER ever call everyone on any list. This is a waste of time. Once you find 3-4 good people to network with, then just use this network. 5. You want to quickly identify top people. These are the people who know other top people. So the first time you go through any list the primary objective is to find highly qualified people to begin networking with. 6. DO NOT be disappointed if you don’t find candidates directly from the list. Use the list to develop sources of candidates. 7. How you ask these highly qualified people for other names determines if you’ll be successful. The key: proactively ask for names of people who they know are good, not those they know who are looking. Ask for names of people they would hire or want to work with.

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Recruiting is Consultative Selling

1. There are three broad types of selling methods. When hiring top performers it’s important to become an expert at consultative selling. In the rush to find candidates and close deals there is a tendency to hurry the process. This is counter-productive. It cheapens the job and reduces the chance a top- performer will consider your offer. 2. The best people need more information at every step in the process. Trying to push the process without providing this information always backfires. The goal of a consultative recruiter is to ask questions to understand what information the candidate needs to move forward. The recruiter then has to obtain this information. The promise of getting the information can be used as a lure to get the candidate to agree to moving on to the next step. 3. The goal of a recruiter is to move the process steadily forward, not close the deal. Progress is measured then by each forward-step. You’ll need to track your progress this way. While you can be proactive in obtaining the required information and pushing the process along, don’t get ahead of yourself. This can turn a strong candidate against you. 4. Order takers tend to sell on price and quantity, and then they rush to close. This type of selling has no place when dealing with top performers. 5. Transactional selling is one-step above order takers, but not much. This type of selling is characterized by some type of custom pricing based on a customer’s unique needs. However, the key to success here is to push to close quickly. Top candidates often need extra time to evaluate any necessary trade-offs between alternative opportunities or in comparing job growth vs. compensation. 6. Good recruiters need to balance the need to close with the need of candidates to have enough time and information to evaluate opportunities properly. 7. Consultative selling is more about asking questions, listening, and trying to understand what a candidate needs to know to move forward. Not taking “no” for an answer is part of this, especially when the candidate is making important decisions without the right information. Page 37 Lou Adler’s Performance- based Hiring Workshop

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Four Basic Closing Techniques

1. Close Upon a Concern: the key here is to identify the problem or reason for the person not proceeding. Test the concern by asking if this could be resolved would the person move on to the next step. If yes, you’ll need to resolve the concern and proceed. If no, then the concern wasn’t the real problem. You’ll need to ask to find out what’s really stopping the person from proceeding. Then test it again using this technique. Iterate this process until you’ve exhausted all possible options. 2. Trial Close: use this to see how close you are to finalizing the offer. If the candidate says yes, proceed with pulling all of the details together. Of course, test the details to make sure they’re acceptable before the offer is formally extended. If the person says no, you’ll need to figure out what the problem is, close upon this concern, resolve, and then try the trial close again. 3. Secondary Close: a secondary close is used to get the candidate to agree to something other than accepting an offer, however agreement to this point indicates the person is likely to accept an offer. Asking when the person could start if all of the details are put together is an indication that the person is likely to accept an offer, since they have already mentally agreed to a start date. If they balk at giving a start date, it generally means they haven’t thought that far ahead, and there is much work still to be done. 4. Final Close: once you get agreement on everything ask the candidate when they will accept the offer once it’s formalized. If the candidate doesn’t say right away, then some serious problem exists. If the person says they have to think about, there are real serious problems. The point of testing offers using these closing techniques is to have the candidate tell you what they’re thinking about so you have a chance to address any concerns. Page 38 Lou Adler’s Performance- based Hiring Workshop

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Why Recruiting is Essential

1. Stay the buyer – make the candidate prove he/she is worthy. Make the person earn the job, it has more value this way. Selling is a turn-off. Heavy selling comes across as desperation, and diminishes the value of the job. 2. How many strong candidates want to work for someone who is unprepared, sells to soon, seems less competent than candidate, has low standards, and conducts a superficial assessment? 3. Reverse of the old adage - Applicants accept jobs from managers in their own image! 4. Opportunity Gap – difference in every other opportunity and your position. What the person will learn, do, become. The bigger the gap the less competition. Make the job more valuable, then compensation becomes less of an issue. Goal of recruiter is to create this gap, aka “job stretch” – shoot for 10-20% and you’ll be able to close anybody. 5. Recruiting the best requires a solution selling approach that gets into needs vs. benefit analysis. Don’t try to make it a transaction. This turns the best off. This is the difference between excluding candidates too soon, and hiring the best on fair compensation terms. 6. In competitive markets applicants have upper hand going in. Good recruiters have to make candidate want the job quickly -- they’ll sell you then. 7. An “I have to think about it,” response means offer was premature. 8. Don’t oversell or move too fast -- these can be turn-offs. 9. Recruiting is essential if terms or job conditions are not ideal. Applicant’s decision must be strategic rather than tactical. This is why creating the Opportunity Gap is so important.

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Recruiting Basics – Part II

1. The best are more discriminating. Selling is not appropriate. This cheapens the job. The goal is to make the job attractive enough so that the candidate wants to sell the interviewer. 2. Determine motivation at the beginning of the interview by first asking what the candidate is looking for in a new job, and then asking “why” these factors are important. This gets at core needs. This is useful information later on when putting an offer package together. 3. Create an Opportunity Gap: this is the basis of all recruiting and consultative selling. The opportunity gap is the difference between the candidate’s current job and what is being offered in the new position. This can be also be called job stretch. During the interviewing process recruiters and other interviewers must be able to show top candidates how much job stretch or growth will occur in the new position. The bigger the stretch the more attractive the opportunity. 4. Create interest: preface some questions by describing the importance of the job and the impact on the company. Then ask the candidate to describe his/her most comparable accomplishments. 5. Question results: when you suggest candidate might not have all of the skills the person sees opportunity for growth. 6. Mentioning that other good candidates are being considered makes the job more appealing. Never say, “you’re the only candidate we’re seeing.” This loses your natural advantage. 7. Testing is the key. This allows for an open exchange of information, and allows company to respond appropriately. 8. Recruiting starts at the beginning, and continues throughout the process. It starts with a great job and a comprehensive interview. This way candidates learn for themselves why the job is a good career opportunity. You “sell” the job by asking questions and listening, not by over-talking! 9. While you want the candidate to think about the job, you want them to tell you what they’re thinking. That’s why testing is so important. 10. Testing interest on a 1-10 scale is a good way to determine how interested the candidate is in the job. Ask the person where she/he stands now and what it information would be required to be at a level 9 – ready to accept. The recruiter needs to then get this information to close the deal. Page 40 Lou Adler’s Performance- based Hiring Workshop

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The Importance of Recruiting – Part III

1. Create an Opportunity Gap: this is the basis of all recruiting and consultative selling. The opportunity gap is the difference between the candidate’s current job and what is being offered in the new position. This can be also be called job stretch. During the interviewing process recruiters and other interviewers must be able to show top candidates how much job stretch or growth will occur in the new position. The bigger the stretch the more attractive the opportunity. 2. Top passive candidates will normally requires at least 20-25% overall growth to move from one position to another. Some of this growth can be in job stretch, with the rest being in the form of compensation increases. The bigger the job stretch the less the comp increase needs to be. Instead of asking for a bigger salary or comp plan, recruiters should be able to describe a bigger job. 3. There are a number of ways to describe this opportunity gap, however to start it’s important that the recruiter understand the real job (the performance profile) and be able to conduct a comprehensive performance-based interview. This way the recruiter will be speaking from a solid foundation, and won’t need to rely on motherhood, apple pie, and hyperbole to present a convincing case for moving forward. 4. Challenging a candidate’s expertise is a useful way for the person to recognize that they might not have all of the skills required to handle the job. This way they learn the that the new job offers real job growth and an opportunity to learn and grow. 5. Describing some major challenges involved in the job and then tying these to an important company initiative is a way to make a job bigger and more important than just a job description. Then by asking the candidate to describe some comparable accomplishments, he or she needs to prove they are worthy of handling an important task. 6. Testing interest on a 1-10 scale is a good way to determine how interested the candidate is in the job. Ask the person where she/he stands now and what it information would be required to be at a level 9 – ready to accept. The recruiter needs to then get this information to close the deal.

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Using the Trend Line to Demonstrate Stretch and Growth

1. Use the interview to find voids in the candidate’s background that your opportunity can overcome. 2. The trend line is very revealing, whether it’s up, down or sideways. During the interview look at both team/management growth and individual contributor growth. Look for opportunities to sell your job as offering one or both of these. 3. An upward trend is positive, but it means you’ll need to continue to offer challenging and bigger jobs to the person. 4. Mention that top people manage their time and career choices wisely. Short term jobs taken for the money tend to diminish upward growth opportunities. Suggest that it’s better to look for growth and opportunity first and then the money will take care of itself. 5. Tell the person that if her comp gets too far ahead of what the job is worth she’ll have fewer opportunities in the future. 6. Your goal is to clearly demonstrate that the new position provides more short and long term growth than all other opportunities, including a counter-offer. 7. Use close upon and objection technique to move the process to the next step – if we can demonstrate that this position offers more growth that your other positions would you be open to meet with the manager another time?

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Testing is the Key to Applicant Control Step 1 - End of First Interview - Create Supply and Demand, and Test interest. Find out why the candidate wants to move forward or not. Step 2 - Test at Each Event e.g., 2nd interview call-back - get something at each level Step 3 - Preliminary Offer Test - if we could put an offer together in the range we discussed, what are your thoughts? (uncover and address objections) Step 4 - Secondary Close - if we could meet your needs on all of these areas when would you be in a position to start? Step 5 - Close Upon an Objection - if we agree on that issue when would you be in a position to accept an offer or move to the next step? If vague - what other issues are of concern? (and repeat close upon objection) Step 6 - Final Offer - if I can get a formal offer put together on the terms we’ve agreed to when can you give me your official acceptance? (if longer than 24 hours - back up and continue testing and probing for objections) Testing of all offers allows for a natural approach to creating a career management approach to presenting the job. If you move too fast you can make the job seem less important, or it seems like you’re hiding something. Key Point: while you do want candidates to think about an offer, it’s essential that the person tells you what’s on his or her mind. If you don’t know what’s bothering the candidate you can never address the problem ahead of time. This can make the negotiating process very uncomfortable. This process is used to negotiate the actual offer, but the real value is that it allows both the candidate and the hiring company to maintain face throughout the process. This creates open and honest two-way communication. Often negotiating offers can leave a real stain on both parties as one or the other digs into a position.

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Negotiating Compensation

1. Ask early and often: constantly validate comp needs at every step. Ask person what they’re now making at first meeting. Ask again for more details about comp, benefits, car, bonus, etc. Determine when person had last review. 2. Put comp in the parking lot:. Ask, “Forget the comp for now. Is this a job you want? If it isn’t I’d suggest you pass on it regardless of salary.” 3. Use the 30% rule to explain that job stretch and job growth are more important in the long run than short term compensation. Ask, “if we could demonstrate that there is 20% job stretch, would it make sense to evaluate it, even if the comp increase was modest?” Then you have to prove it! 4. Reduce expectations: “If you make too much up front more is going to be expected of you. Would you be willing to explore this job if we could add some type of performance bonus?” 5. Play hard ball when candidates demands more comp. Say, “if I can get you that amount are you willing to make a 100% commitment to take the job?” 6. Retract the offer to determine real interest. • “Are you saying you won’t accept the offer unless we reach that level?” • “I’m sorry based on what you want and where we are, we want to terminate these discussions.”

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Multi-dimensional Recruiting

1. The best people will get counter-offers and competitive offers. 2. Seek out the information to put together a side-by-side comparison. 3. Emphasize the motivating criteria determined in the interview. 4. Map to needs of top performers – job stretch, job growth, hiring manager and team, job link to company strategy. 5. Offer shopping bag of “stuff” that indicates your company is a equivalent to a “Favorite Place to Work” and employer of choice. 6. Provide enough information for candidate to convince spouse and advisors that the job represents a career opportunity. 7. Provide enough information to confidently turn in resignation letter and overcome “fear of leaving” strong relationships. 8. Stigma of counter-offers no longer present, so anticipate the problem and preclude the possibility on at least 3-4 factors. Make the cost of staying more risky than leaving.

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How to Recruit When a Relocation is Involved

1. Most people will not relocate for just 30%. They will need job stretch, significant job growth, real upside opportunities and a significant compensation increase. Target 40-50% for all of these. To meet this, compensation needs to be somewhere in the 10-15% range. A significant bonus or equity opportunity can be part of this. 2. Top people will rarely say yes to a relocation on the first call. So recognize that if recruiting requires a relocation it will involve a number of additional steps. The first one is just a discussion of the job. 3. Assume you’ll get a no when asking if the person will relocate. So don’t ask the question or frame it differently. Try - “If the job represented a 1 in 100 opportunity would it make sense to just talk about it for 10 minutes?” Most people will say yes to this. 4. The only way a person will eventually accept a relocation is if it truly is an outstanding career move. This takes a lot of time and information to even consider this. To get to this point you must change your recruiting process. Here are some additional steps to add: • Exploratory call with hiring manager • Onsite exploratory visit and onsite visit with family • Meetings with relocation experts • Finding job for spouse 5. At the end of the first call state that you’d like the person to consider as a next step a low key exploratory discussion with the hiring manager on the phone. Make sure you created real job stretch even if the candidate is not interested. Then begin proactive networking. A few days later call the candidate back and mention that the hiring manager wants to talk to the candidate on a purely exploratory basis. Say the hiring manager was very impressed with the person’s background. A few people will say yes. 6. While you won’t convert everyone this way, expect 20% of the people you call to eventually relocate. After the first call invite the person onsite for an exploratory visit.

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Handling the Resignation Process and Counter-offers

1. Don’t shy away from this process. Top people often get pressure to stay. Good recruiters must inject themselves early into the process. 2. One way to minimize the chance of counter-offers is to discuss how to handle them early in the process. First get the candidate to discuss how he/she feels about counter-offers. Then go on to ask the candidate what he/she would do when asked if they would entertain the idea. You goal is to get the candidate to admit that accepting a counter-offer is unprofessional and even going through the process will put the candidate in a bad light. 3. If the candidate is open to considering a counter-offer, suggest that the person talk with his/her boss about the opportunity for a better job without another offer on the table. This way you can minimize the chance of a counter-offer before it’s too late. 4. Also ask the candidate would feel about a person who worked for him/her that accepted a counter-offer. This approach allows the person to better understand the negative aspects of accepting a counter-offer. 5. The possibility of a counter-offer is minimized by testing offers using the methods described in this module. Getting a candidate to formally agree in writing to an offer immediately after it’s presented reduces the chance of him/her even entertaining the possibility of a counter-offer. 6. Ask the candidate to describe how he/she’ll will resign. Walk through this process step-by-step. Even offer to write the resignation letter. Have the person clearly indicate that the decision is final and that a formal agreement has been signed with the other company. Describe that the candidate will be nervous, and that there will be a lot of pressure applied on the person to stay. All of this will be minimized if the opportunity you offer is big enough and the offer letter has been signed and formally approved. Regardless stay involved with the candidate at every step.

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Applicant Control: Recruiting Starts at the Beginning

1. To make the job more valuable close the first interview by creating supply and demand. Affirm the candidate’s strengths, but clearly say that there is competition. 2. Don’t rush the process. A new job represents a major career move for a top person. Ask what the person would need to know to move to the next step. This is the difference between a solution-selling approach combined with needs analysis vs. transactional selling. 3. Prep: have candidate prepare a detailed write-up of 2-3 significant accomplishments. This way candidate is unlikely to forget important details. During the interview have candidate ask hiring manager some key questions. The most important – what are some of the projects and challenges involved in this job? Then the candidate can respond with a relevant example of a similar accomplishment. 4. After the first interview determine interest on a 1-10 scale. A 7-8 means sincere interest, a 5-6 some interest, and a 5 or less little interest. Then ask what the person would need to know to know to get to a 9 or 10. Suggest that you’ll make sure this information is obtained in subsequent interviews. 5. Explain early that the person should accept this job only if it represents a clear career move – at least 20% job stretch and job growth – even if comp is a lateral. 6. Remember a “no” before the candidate has all of the information to decide is an avoidance technique. Recruiters must persist and get candidates the information they need to make an objective decision. Keeping the candidate open-minded is the hardest part about being a recruiter. It’s also the most important part. 7. Validate a concern using the “close upon an objection” technique. Once you know the concern ask, “if we could address that issue to your satisfaction, would you be willing to move on to the next step?” If the candidate says yes, all you need to do is address the issue.

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Handbook

Influencing Your Hiring Manager Clients

1. Have the hiring manager rank the candidate on a 1-10 scale with a 7-8 meaning the manager is favorably impressed, but needs more information and a 5-6 means the person is marginal. Then ask the hiring manager what information would be needed to move the candidate to a 9-10. Then suggest that you’ll attempt to get this information over the course of the next round of interviews. 2. Recognize assessments based on emotions, biases, or superficial information like - “I didn’t like the person.” “Just wouldn’t fit.” “A poor communicator.” “Was too nervous.” None of these mean the candidate was weak. It means the interviewer conducted a bad interview. Lead the debriefing session and go through each item on the 10-factor with the hiring team. 3. When an manager says no, you’ll need to find the specific causes. Separate these into three categories – valid, based on real evidence; emotional, based on presentation and personality; or intuitive, based on a narrow range of factors. 4. Challenge the manager with contrary evidence. Use the close upon objection technique to keep the interviewer open-minded. Ask if the interviewer would be willing to see the person again if you could provide proof that their concern is not valid. Then, of course, you must obtain proof. 5. Use a variety of techniques to validate the assessment. These include additional interviews, take-home problems, reference checks and personality and skills tests. When these overwhelmingly support your position interviewers tend to be more objective. Also, you can suggest the candidate meet another person whom the interviewer respects to obtain a second opinion. 6. Recruiters need to begin the salary discussions early with hiring managers and others involved in the approval process. This makes sure you’re not wasting your time looking for people who won’t meet your compensation targets.

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Handbook

Impact of Recruiter

1. When a recruiter is in a subordinate or support role: • Sends out too many candidates • Has to work too hard to have managers see candidates • Too much time spent chasing after mythical candidates • Suffers moving job-spec syndrome • Has little influence on candidate or hiring manager 2. As a partner, recruiter has far greater impact: • Sends out fewer candidates • Managers will quickly see all candidates presented • Recruiter’s advice is trusted by hiring manager and candidate • Closes more offers on reasonable terms • All performance measures improve – cost, quality, time 3. As a coach, recruiter leads the hiring process: • Called in before requisition is opened • Trains hiring managers • Conducts debriefing sessions • Minimizes wasted efforts.

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Handbook

The Most Important Things I Heard Today Are ……..

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Recruiting and Sourcing Summary

1. Shift the decision criteria • Candidates: from short-term to long term • Clients: from qualifications to results 2. Put compensation in the parking lot. Make the job the differentiator. You’ll never have enough money. 3. Manage expectations through by creating an opportunity gap. 4. Make sure your ads can be found. 5. Make sure your ads are compelling. 6. Make sure it’s easy to apply. 7. Make your career web site the hub of all recruiting. 8. Referred and passive candidates will check out your web site first. 9. The hiring manager must be personally and 100% committed to hire top talent. Recruiters can’t do it alone.

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