A recent Deloitte survey found that 48 percent of U.S. workers plan to look for…
Tim Brennan
Profiles International
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Peter Drucker has said, “Executives spend more time on managing people and people decisions than on anything else, and they should. No other decisions are so long-lasting in their consequences or so difficult to unmake and yet, by and large, executives make poor promotion and staffing decisions. By all accounts, their batting average is no better than .333. At most one-third of such decisions turn out right; one-third are minimally effective and one-third are outright failures. In no other area of management would we put up with such miserable performance.”
In a sampling of management workshop participants, we asked, “Do you agree with Drucker?” We found that most do agree and they provided an additional, important insight: just because the hiring decision turned out to be a mistake, that does not imply that the person hired left the new job. Although in many cases, the new hire falls short of expectations and should never have been hired or he or she requires too much supervision — often they remain on the job because (for managers) accepting poor performance is easier than finding a replacement!
When we hire a new person to come into our business we share the expectation they will be the “right one,” or we would not have hired them. Why, then, are we so often disappointed?
Our research suggests the answer may be a missed point of focus. We are trying to find and hire top candidates rather than top employees. They are not the same!
In conversations with recruiters and employers, we have compiled this list of the characteristics of top candidates:
- Good Résumé
- Good Skills
- On time for interview
- Prepared for interview
- Good communicator
- Enthusiastic
- Great first impression
- Aggressive jobseeker
- Interested in you
- Interested in company
- Good follow up
- Poised and confident
Is anything missing on the list? Looks rather attractive, doesn’t it?
Consider this: using this list, would all of your top employees today be considered top candidates?
Our respondents gave us the following list of characteristics of top employees:
- Highly motivated to work
- Competent
- Do more than required
- Do not make excuses
- Anticipate problems
- Solve problems
- Take initiative
- Learn quickly
- Committed
- Focused
- Consistent
- Strong team player
- Loyal
Did you notice there is not much overlap between the two lists? To improve your odds of hiring right the first time, give careful thought to the qualities of your top employees then look for those qualities in those you hire. A good assessment can help you measure both, instead of guessing!
