Valuable information from Bruce Elder, a keynote presenter at the Mequoda Summit Boston 2010
“The most important decisions that business people make are now “what” decisions, but “who” decisions.” – Jim Collins author of Good to Great.
That quote was a starting point for the presentation Bruce Elder, a principal at ghSmart, gave at the Mequoda Summit Boston 2010. The audience he was speaking to was filled with CEOs and mangers of companies who have the arduous task of hiring talented individuals to help their businesses succeed.
The presentation was lively and filled with tips and strategies for deciphering if a potential hire is capable of doing his or her job correctly, while fitting in with the culture of a company.
It made me think about a past position I held where I was in charge of hiring interns. Bruce’s presentation made me realize that I could have been making selections in a more efficient and effective manner.
Reasons to use hire correctly
One of the best reasons to hire correctly is the time and money spent during the process. According to Bruce, an average hiring mistake costs a company up to 15x that person’s base salary due to a wide variety of costs, ranging from recruitment and compensation costs to mistakes and damaged customer relationships.
The best people to hire are “A Players”. These are the candidates who have at least a 90% chance of succeeding in a role that only the top 10% of possible candidates could accomplish.
So how can managing personnel hire the right people? Creating a scorecard for the position should be the first step.
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Developing a scorecard
A scorecard is about condensing job requirements, establishing clear business priorities and setting a bar for success in the role. A scorecard will also help interviewers prepare and will provide a smooth transition into ongoing performance management.
3 parts of a scorecard
Mission: The objective in this part of the scorecard is to create an executive summary of the job’s core purpose.
A key question to ask oneself while creating this part is “how would I explain this role to somebody in no more than five seconds?”
Outcomes: This part describes what a person needs to accomplish in a role. Three key questions to ask your self while determining this part of the scorecards are:
-“What are 3-8 core things I expect someone to accomplish in this role?”
-“What does success look like for the role, and how will I know when it has been achieved?”
-What key metrics can I use to measure the result?”
Competencies: This part describes how you expect someone to operate in the fulfillment of the mission and the achievement of the outcomes. These are behaviors, skills and values that match the role. Two key questions to ask your self while determining this part of the scorecard are:
-“What behaviors or skills are most important for a person to be successful in this role?”
-“What are our cultural competencies that everyone in our organization must have?”
The keynote presentation delivered by Bruce Elder of ghSmart at the Mequoda Summit Boston 2010 was full of pertinent information for hiring star employees. Hopefully this information from Bruce will help the next time you’re looking to fill a position.
