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 The Adler Group, Inc. Irvine, CA. 888.878.1388 www.adlerconcepts.com © 2007. All Rights Reserved. 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.