Ok, you're hiring. You're looking at a pile of résumés and trying to figure out how to find that needle in the haystack: the best applicant. A traditional interview process isn't going to tell you everything you need to know to find the right person.
A traditional interview might tell you who is the right person to charm you into hiring them. It won't, however, spotlight the right person to step into your organisation and do the job you need them to do. Someone who's going to rise to the occasion, grow into their role, and work hard to be the best employee they can be.
At my company, we're proud to say we have a full staff of these powerhouse employees. Our office staff didn't turn out to be this awesome by luck, but by design. We had to work harder to find amazing employees than simply reading their résumé and sitting down for an interview or two. We created a valuable process to kick the tyres on new employees.
So what's the best way to identify the applicant who's going to integrate into your corporate culture and hopefully elevate productivity and everyone around them?
Here's how: put them to work. Give them a task to do and judge their performance on that task, before you give them the job. We call it homework and, for us, it's usually a micro-project representative of the job they'd like to fill. We do this for every applicant; every time.
When it makes sense, we also strive to hire certain employees first on a contract basis to see how they perform on a single project before offering them a permanent position. We do this with programmers and designers and the method works excellently to test a person's performance and "fit" before committing to them long-term.
Hiring on contract isn't always an option. When it isn't, the homework method gives valuable insight.
Most companies are looking for a culture of employees who are movers and shakers, leaders and problem-solvers. People who make a bad habit of saying "that's not my problem", or "I can't", tend to hide that negativity in a traditional interview.
We want people who say "let's figure this out". Problem-solvers know the information is out there if you try hard enough to find it. We want the people who are confident and capable of doing that.
Fortunately for those of us doing the hiring, the market right now favours us. We have the advantage, with a large base of applicants seeking to fulfil positions these days. We get our pick of the litter.
But remember there are superior ways to figure out just who is the pick of the littler. To find out if someone is a problem-solver and to get a sense for how they solve problems, find out how they approach work projects, and how compellingly the results are presented when you've given them a short deadline and concrete deliverables. Let them show you, rather than tell you, just how they can perform in a real-work situation by creating one as part of the interview process. You'll be surprised how compelling the results and it will help you fine-tune your workforce to a group of go-getters, problem-solvers and innovative thinkers.
Sabrina Parsons
CEO, Palo Alto Software
