Contents:

Recruiting:	Tracking your recruitment activities and results
Hiring:	The best interview questions
Ask the Expert:	When to bring up compensation
Commentary:	Big company vs little company

March madness, hiring not basketball, continues. My clients report adding record numbers of new people in the past month. The general outlook for hiring shows no let up which means the competition is going to continue to get worse. A recent article discussed how there is growing trend where people are leaving the hot new startups and returning to the old-line companies. What this tells me is that the larger, existing companies are getting better at competing not that there is anything wrong with the new companies.

You need to look over both shoulders now to watch for people trying to steal your good employees. It's not just your traditional competitors anymore. In my workshops I ask the participants, "Why should someone come work for your company?" You need to have a solid answer if you want to target the right people and compete effectively.

Recruiting
Last month I told you how you should develop a recruitment strategy and try a wide variety of techniques to generate candidates. This month I will discuss how to track the success of your efforts.

Every recruiting technique has costs associated with it. These costs include both money and time. When you try a new recruiting technique you have to track these costs to evaluate its effectiveness. The easier of the two to track is money.

A simple way to monitor cost is to create a matrix. For each ad, internet posting, headhunter, etc., write the technique as the label for a row on your matrix. Then label you columns with how many candidates you generated, how many interviews, how many offers and how many hires. These are very numbers to keep track of and will give you very nice snapshot of the effectiveness of your recruiting efforts.

Tracking how much time you spend is a little bit more difficult. On the same matrix, create a column for time spent. Try to keep track of how much time you spent creating the ad, talking to headhunters, checking responses online, etc.? Your goal is to choose recruitment activities that deliver results in the shortest period of time and cost the least. Try this for a month or two and you will learn a great deal about what works for you and your company.

Hiring
Last month we talked about working down the iceberg when you question a candidate. This month I'll discuss the specific types of questions to ask. It usually is a good idea to start with a specific example. Ask for an example of something the person did that is the same or similar to those things you will need them to do on your job. For an engineer, ask for an example of a product they designed. For a sales rep, as for an example of a big deal they closed. For an administrative assistant, ask for an example of a system they put in place.

Once you have the example, make certain to ask action questions where they have to tell you what they did. You are most interested in how they handled situations. "How did you overcome the price objection?" "How did you solve the timing problem on the circuit?" "How did you upgrade the phone system?"

Next make certain to probe. This means you will ask lots of follow-up, and detail questions. "Who else was involved?" "How long did the project last" "What was the budget for the project?" "Who approved your decision?" The more details you get, the smaller the chance you will make a mistake.

And finally, get more examples. Don't stop with just one example. If creating a budget is important on your job, get two or three examples of budgets the person has created. The more examples you can explore, the better picture you will have of the person's true capabilities.

The key to an effective hiring decision is gathering as much information as possible. You want to ask lots of effective questions and get many examples.

Ask The Expert:
When do I bring up compensation during he process? T.J. San Francisco

The best time to explore a candidate's compensation is during the telephone screen. I want to know that I am interested before I get into their compensation.

Once you have determined that you will continue the process with the candidate, ask them to describe their current compensation. You need this information before you decide to invest a lot of time with the person. Insist on the information if they won't share it with you. The best argument is that it is in both your interests not to waste time.

Candidates, in many cases, have been coached not to reveal salary information. You need to let them know that you can't continue the process without compensation information.

Commentary
In my opening I spoke about big companies versus small companies. The important thing to understand in hiring is there is the right job for the right person. When I used to spend time at the racetrack we called it "the right horse for the right course". All companies have things to offer and also things that are not so great. If you are going to succeed in the hiring game, you need to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your company and map those to the right types of people.

If you provide lots of structure and support, try to attract people who have been successful in that environment in the past. If you are a risk-taking company, look for people who like to take risks.

This sounds so simple but in these days of terrible labor shortages, too often it is easy to overlook some of these common sense details.

Good Luck and Great Hiring! Please feel free to pass this along, in its entirety, to anyone you think might benefit from our insight. Let them know that they can sign up for their own subscription at www.selectingwinners.com