The Metiss Group's Blog

We recommend every hiring manager have a repeatable selection process consisting of three phases: job and candidate definition, screening, and evaluation.  How do you know if your selection process is any good?  If you can answer yes to these questions, you probably have an excellent selection process:

• Do your employees respect the new hire for succeeding in your selection process?
• Would your employees cringe if they had to go through your selection process?
• Do weak candidates drop out of your selection process because it is too hard?
• Are superstars attracted to your company because your selection process ensures weak candidates are not hired?
• Every new hire, without exception, goes through your selection process?
• A potential superstar has not dropped out of your selection process because you moved too slowly?

Develop a quality selection process, be disciplined in administering it, and empower your team for success.

Select (verb) – To choose in preference to another or others; pick out (Random House Dictionary).
Process (noun) – A series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result (Random House Dictionary).

Does your selection process consist of a series of actions to bring about an ideal choice of candidates?  Many leaders rely on intuition, gut instinct, or some haphazard interview approach when choosing among candidates.  We recommend hiring managers use a defined, repeatable process for selecting talent.

Your selection process should include three phases:

• job and ideal candidate definition;
• screening;
• evaluation.

Define the job and ideal candidate in the definition phase clarifying what is expected of the job and what the ideal candidate will look like.  The screening phase should include consistent behavior-based questioning and assessments that tie back to the job and candidate definitions.  The evaluation phase should analyze gaps and discrepancies between observed candidate behavior and job and candidate requirements.

Define the steps in your selection process, stick to them, and you will empower those in the selection process for success.