Welcome to the December edition of the Hire Score Newsletter. As always, welcome to the new subscribers and welcome back to our existing subscribers. I have a ton of information to share with you this month so let's jump right in.

I received an inquiry this past week from a very large software company. They were looking for an assessment tool to help them hire better sales reps. After a few minutes of questioning, I learned that they were experiencing a high turnover rate and lower than hoped for production rate from their new sales reps. The solution they decided on was to use an assessment tool to help them make better hiring decisions.

Those of you that read last month's newsletter know I recommended an excellent tool from the www.effectiveselection.com website. And, I did recommend the same instrument to this person as well. But, I did ask the most important question which was, "Do your managers know how to hire?" The answer was "No, but we thought this tool would fix the problem."

This attitude (looking for a quick and dirty fix) is very prevalent today. Everyone wants a simple solution but sometimes, if you want to get it right, there isn't a simple solution.

With this as an introduction, I want to spend some time discussing our philosophy on the subject of hiring. At the very core of our Selecting Winners process is the belief that, "An educated Manager applying the appropriate strategy and implementing relentlessly, must succeed!" It begins with an educated manager. If you don't provide your managers with the knowledge base from which to draw, chances are very good that they will not make great decisions.

You can give managers tools all day long but if they don't understand the basics of what they are trying to accomplish, they will achieve mixed results. Going back to the company that called me, even though I may share with them a fabulous tool, if that is the only data point they have, their probability of making good decisions is not very high. Learning how to hire is a life-long pursuit. You need to attend workshops, read books, listen to tapes, etc. to keep your knowledge base growing. (See our Hiring Resources section at www.selectingwinners.com for some suggestions)

The step in our solution is to choose the right strategy. Anyone who tells you there is only one way to hire is missing the point. There are a variety of issues that will affect your ability to fill your company with top talent. Unemployment rates, your compensation plan, your reputation, your size, the industry you are in and the time of the year are just of few of the variables. The companies winning the war for talent know that strategies change over time and with a shifting market.

You need the knowledge base to help you choose the appropriate strategy. You need your knowledge base to help you adjust your strategy over time. Too often, a company will pick a strategy and then stick with it no matter what. Don't fall into this trap. For every recruiting assignment, review your strategy and adjust as necessary.

The last step in our process is to implement relentlessly. You have to adopt a serious recruitment mentality. This means that you have to plan for it, budget for it, track your results and make recruiting a part of your strategic plan. Don't be a reactive recruiter (meaning you only recruit when you have a position to fill). Make an effort to spend some portion of EVERY day working on recruiting issues.

So to review, we all want a simple solution to our recruiting and hiring problems but don't fool yourself. By adopting the Selecting Winners philosophy of education, strategy and implementation you will increase you probability of winning the war for talent.

I just want to put in a quick shameless plug. We just completely redesigned our website www.selectingwinners.com . This site now has descriptions of all five of our Selecting Winners workshops as well as all of our hiring resource products. Please take a look.

Question of the Month
"How do I know when to settle for less than I need when hiring?" Ron H Tampa FL

This is a great question and I am going to give you a serious answer void of any Florida counting jokes. We don't live in a perfect world. The ideal candidate does not always come knocking on our door. Trade-offs are a real business issue.

The key is to make your decision with the best available data. This starts with our Selecting Winners performance-based Success Profile. Without the benefit of this "picture of the successful person" you really are driving blind. But if we have this profile, and we know it takes 5 requirements to meet our expectations, and we find a candidate that only has 4 of the 5, we can now start to evaluate based on best available data.

If you are missing one requirement, go back to your list of performance outcomes and determine which of those will not be met as a result the person missing one of the requirements. Can you live with this? How long will it take you to get them up to speed? What adjustments will you need to make to your schedules? What will it cost to get them up to speed?

By having a Performance-based Success Profile and evaluating against it, you can now make these "trade-off" decisions in a much more intelligent manner. I know many of you work for companies that manage to "headcount". And often, your window to fill a position can open and close very quickly. Under this set of circumstances, it becomes that much more critical that you make your hiring decision using a proven methodology.

Monthly Rant
Now don't get me off on a rant but .. I ran into a new interviewing program that claims to teach you everything you need to know about hiring in half a day. Boy, do I need some of this secret potion because it has taken me 26 years to learn what I know and I continue to learn every day. Please don't be fooled by these "get rich quick", "get thin quick", "get smart quick" claims. It just isn't possible!

This is a classic example of someone playing off your fears and taking advantage of you. There is no quick solution to the hiring problem we all face but there is a philosophy that will drive your daily decisions. It is, "An educated manager applying the appropriate strategy and implementing relentlessly must succeed!"

On a personal note, we just finished our 2001 kickoff meeting in Kauai. We had our instructors and business partners in from all over the world. We unveiled our latest version of our Selecting Winners workshops (version 11.0). Also, I introduced three new workshops to our suite of classes that include Advanced Skills, College Recruiting and Individual Contributor workshops. You can read all about the new workshops at www.selectingwinners.com .

During our meeting I was constantly amazed at the talent seated in the room. I am very lucky to work with some of the best minds and most talented people in the arena of recruiting and hiring. I was looking at first-hand proof of the difference it makes when you hire great people.

I want to take a minute and thank all of you for making this a great year for all of us at Selecting Winners. I hope we have been able to add some value in return. Have a great holiday season and I will talk with you again next year!

Have a great month recruiting!

Barry Shamis

As always, if you know of someone you think might benefit from this newsletter, please fell free to pass it along in its entirety. If you want your own subscription, please signup at www.selectingwinners.com If you no longer want to receive this newsletter please send an email to leave-hirescore@mh.databack.com