CEOs of small, growing companies tend to call a bookkeeper to maintain financials or ask consultants about the right go-to-market strategy. But when it comes to hiring people, many use their gut instinct or the “would I have a beer with this guy?” test to make employment decisions.
Many leaders rely on unstructured interviews or ask colleagues to rate candidates on nebulous characteristics like “fit” and “technical chops.” These unstructured approaches often give leaders misplaced confidence in their so-called hiring assessments, especially when numbers are assigned to candidates. And absent clear, written calibration on what those ratings mean, calculating the average 1-5 rating out to two decimal places doesn’t make the measurement any better—it just provides the illusion of measurement.
A better approach would be to use industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology. Yes, a yawner of a name, but it’s a field steeped in research and statistics about understanding and predicting behavior at work. It can help business leaders select the best person for each role and effectively motivate employees. It can also help align your leadership team to company priorities, guiding them toward corporate growth.
Although IO psychology originated in the early 20th century, not many leaders have heard of it. While other fields have created glitzy marketing campaigns for their less-than-stellar tools, I/O psychology has focused on excellence of measurement more so than telling the world about its excellent measurement. In short, it is a well-kept secret that needs to be more known.
Like many sciences, I/O psychology works best when applied by trained practitioners, but a few key principles can help any business leader make better decisions when interviewing and hiring job candidates.
Before the interview
Here are three steps to take before you even begin to interview candidates.
List competencies
Think about the role you are interviewing for and consider what competencies a job candidate needs to be successful in that role. For instance, if you are hiring someone to grow the company in an adjacent market, it’s a good bet that traits such as entrepreneurship, an interest in learning, the ability to influence others, and commercial acumen will be important.
Prepare interview questions
Next formulate behavioral questions that determine whether a candidate possesses each competency. Prepare these questions in advance and ask every candidate to answer them. This approach will give you better, consistent information about each potential new hire, allowing you to fairly and objectively compare each candidate.
Make sure the questions target a competency directly. Avoid brainteaser questions like, “If I shrunk you and put you in a glass how would you get out?” An essential I/O psychology tenet is the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, so instead ask about past behavior with this series of questions:
- Tell me about a time you had to learn a new area to sell a product you were previously unfamiliar with.
- What was the situation?
- What did you do?
- What was your role specifically?
- How did it end?
- What might you do differently next time?
Develop a rating scale
Prepare a Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) that measures the candidate’s performance by rating specific, observable behaviors tied to a numerical scale of 1 to 5. For each question, determine ahead of time what answers would lead to rating of very ineffective (1), effective (3), and exceptional (5).
For example, a candidate who struggles to articulate a learning strategy or who could not articulate value to clients would garner a 1 rating while a candidate who sought relevant sources and experts, and developed a working understanding to sufficiently describe the product in a timely manner would gain a 3 rating. A 5 rating would be reserved for a candidate who is deeply immersed in a topic, using multiple sources and integrating knowledge quickly, and has demonstrated the ability to become an expert in short order.
During the interview
Take copious notes during the interview and leave the evaluation for later. The easiest way to stay focused on the interview details and avoid evaluation is to write what is said instead of writing comments such as “good response” or “did the right thing.” This is very important because if you rush to evaluation, you aren’t giving the candidate an opportunity to independently demonstrate each competency. If you evaluate midway, it may color your judgment of the next question’s responses.
After the interview
After interviewing each candidate, go through your notes and assign ratings on each competency to each potential hire based on their answers, considering the BARS you created. It’s important to rate each candidate immediately; you’re not comparing them against each other, but rather, against the standards you’ve set.
Think about each competency independently and collectively. For instance, someone might rate a 3 on influence but their decision making is a 5. Taken together, those ratings might make them the lead candidate, if the role requires exceptional decision making and influence skills are less important.
Be realistic about role requirements; it’s highly unlikely that expert skill is needed for each competency. Being solidly competent means the person will be successful. In other words, 3s on some competencies is fine. Holding out for someone who scores all 5s will delay your hiring as you search for the impossible candidate.
Final thoughts
If this process seems too daunting, just as many leaders hire or contract an accountant or marketing consultant, consider contracting an I/O psychologist to help with employee assessment and selection. They can create job related competency-based interviews for you or even conduct the candidate assessment using interviews and even more robust assessment tools. A small investment in this expert skill set for key hires can pay large dividends.
Sandy Fiaschetti, Ph.D.
Source link