Opinion: Choose employees based on performance, not comparisons

For example, many managers compare candidates to make their hiring decision. This is a high-risk way to hire because you don’t know if you are comparing three good apples, three bad apples or some combination of each.

The best way to hire is to compare all of the apples against one apple standard.

Prepared companies establish competencies and behavioral standards for each of their most critical roles, hiring people based upon examples of past behaviors.

A competency is a group of related job behaviors that are critical for success in a position. A behavior is an observable action – what a person says and does. If you can observe the behaviors or listen to a candidate describe behaviors, you can come to the conclusion that the individual possesses the required competency.

For example, one competency might be planning for results. You cannot directly observe someone planning for results, but you can observe or listen for steps or behaviors that constitute the overall competency:

• Translate organizational strategies into specific objectives;

• Clearly identify the major actions required to accomplish goals;

• Anticipate problematic situations and develop contingency plans to address them; and

• Consider the most critical resources needed to carry out plans.

Behavioral standards are articulated by describing each behavior at low, midlevel and high performance. They define the standard of what a candidate of various levels of ability could do.

If you need to hire someone good at planning for results, you would ask a series of questions about how he or she has demonstrated related behaviors in the past. Then rate the answer as low, medium or high performance according to your standards.

If you think this is too much trouble, consider how much trouble it is to fire a bad hire. Besides, it’s not as hard as it sounds. Try defining competencies and behavioral standards for your own job, then make an interviewing tool to hire your replacement.

Step one: Define competencies. Think of three main things you are responsible for doing. If these three things don’t get done, your job would collapse.

Step two: Define behaviors. For each of the three competencies list the behaviors involved in demonstrating the competency (again, be reasonable).

Step three: Define standards. For each of the behaviors, write a statement for how it looks when performing at a high, mid and low level.

You now have a very clear view of what is required in your job and what it looks like at low to high levels of performance. You are ready to build an interviewing tool, which has two parts.

First, create a list of interview questions that will elicit responses describing past behaviors. Second, organize the competencies and behavioral standards into a grid with space to check your assessment of expected performance based upon the candidate’s answer.

All you have to do in the interview is get people to tell stories about how they have handled a situation in the past. You simply check the box for which level of performance would have been demonstrated.

Let’s say planning for results is a key competency for your role. The behavior, “Clearly identifying the major actions required to accomplish goals,” has been defined by these standards:

High performance – considers all major stakeholders when writing and placing priorities on objectives for each written goal.

Mid-level performance – writes clear objectives for each goal.

Low-level performance – has identified what needs to be done without consideration of priorities or written commitment.

Perhaps you would say, “Describe how you prepared to accomplish an important goal in the past.” If the candidate talks about including other people, placing priorities and keeping important records, then he or she is likely to be a high performer in that job behavior.

This reduces the risk of hiring someone you connect well with, but who believes the universe does all of the planning, and thus doesn’t bother with it and doesn’t want to learn how to do it.

Your favorite candidate may be the best-looking apple, but another may taste better or be more nutritious when compared to standards that really matter.

Linda Bower is a speaker, executive coach and human performance improvement consultant in Rogersville.