We had talked about this in one of my earlier posts. Selecting Talent is a topic of perennial importance and more so in the current business circumstances. I am currently reading "Great People Decisions" by Claudio Fernández-Aráoz and he says,“Nothing is more important than knowing how to hire and promote great people,”.
I have tried to build my own model of Push & Pull techniques for Selecting Talent, here is something I would like to share with you:
- Great Talent always gets pulled by the challenges in the job, so make sure that you talk about these early in the selection discussions. Share candidly and transparently about the challenges of the industry, company, culture and what kind of people are respected and are successful in your organisation.
- Let the candidate ask all kinds of uncomfortable questions and probe you as much as you are probing her. Ask her to share all the uncomfortable questions with you. it is better that she asks you than a third party. Again be candid in sharing your perspective and say that this is only one perspective and you would like her to gain more, so she should meet more people and also people who have left the organisation in the past.
- I have always found that meeting with different persons in the organisation is important for the candidate to feel the culture. I have also found that a informal discussion with few others over lunch in the company cafeteria (if you can plan for this) is very helpful. This gives everyone a good feel of what one is getting into.
- Push the candidate away by highlighting to her all the aspects which she might find difficult in the company, job and her prospective manager, watch her reactions carefully, watch her bounce back if she can and her reasons for doing so. Push her back by asking probing questions and test her out, this will give you a glimpse of how will she be on the job. Many interviewers feel shy about the difficult questions and do not ask them, this is a serious mistake and can lead to disastrous results.
- Push her by giving difficult job related situations and ask her to jot down her thoughts and present to you these in a structured manner, watch again on how he deals with this situation. A presentation by her will be ideal.
Push & Pull help both candidate and organisation dig a little deeper than the surface to find if this is the Best Fit for both of them. There are no great candidates but there are Great Fits which create the magic in organisations.
