Welcome to the May edition of the Hire Score Newsletter from Selecting Winners. Before we launch into a whole bunch of new tips and techniques on recruiting and hiring, I want to address a couple of pieces of mail I received in response to last month's newsletter. In particular, some people were confused about my stand on values. Once again, it is not that values are not important, it is just that we cannot interview for them.

Values implement themselves through a person's behavior. The term values is open to interpretation but behavior is pretty clear-cut. Simply identify the behaviors that will work in your environment and find out whether the person you are interviewing has demonstrated those behaviors in the past.

I work with a lot of startup companies and the executives constantly ask me how they can work on the culture of their organization. This is a good question and an important one. People will want to come and work at your company if they feel there is a cultural match. Your culture will help improve the productivity of your company. And, your culture will improve you ability to keep good employees.

I am going to show you how you integrate your culture into your selection process. You begin by clearly defining your current culture. Your culture is defined by the behaviors of the people working at your company. A great way to identify these behaviors is to benchmark existing people who match the culture.

Think of someone, inside your company, that is a perfect fit. This person epitomizes your culture. Next, determine what that person does, how they act, how they treat people and situations that caused you to label them as a perfect fit.

This exercise will result in a list of specific behaviors. You have just translated your culture into specific behaviors that you can now interview for quantitatively. Let's look at an example. Mary is your best employee. She does whatever is necessary to get the job done. She works without much supervision and she is always helping out other people in the department. Your culture is defined by accountability, initiative and team play. These are the specific behaviors that define your culture.

The next step is to determine if the candidates you interview demonstrate these behaviors. Develop a series of questions that give the person an opportunity to share with you how they have handled similar situations in the past. Ask how they have helped other people in their department. Ask how much contact they have with their supervisor. Ask how they get their assignments. Ask to describe the last time they above and beyond the call of duty to finish an assignment. And don't forget to probe each of these examples with clarification and detail questions.

The responses will give you the best indication of whether the person behaves in a way that is consistent with your culture.

How can you use culture as a tool in your recruiting? How about using a key component of your culture as a benefit in you recruitment advertising? Let's say your culture values balance in a person's life and you want to promote this in your recruiting. The headline of your ads might be, "Imagine Being Home By 6:00 PM" In addition to attracting attention with a great headline, you have trumpeted a key component of your company's culture.

A critical question you have to answer for candidate's in today's market is, "Why should I work for you?" People are interested in working with people like themselves. Also, when your style is consistent with theirs, the relationship has a higher chance of succeeding over time. It is a good idea to wear your company's culture on your sleeve. Get it right out in front during the recruitment process.

Four of the strongest drivers motivating someone to take a job are: 1. Go with a winner 2. Big risk big reward 3. Change the world 4. Lifestyle

Using this information, you should craft the message that best works and is consistent with your company and culture. This will differ from company to company but it is a great screening and qualifying device. If someone is not interested in rolling the dice, your message of big risk, big reward will not play well. But to the person who wants to live life in the fast lane, your big risk, big reward message is right on the money.

Question of the month:
"Should we use panel interviews during the selection process? J.B. Kansas City

Panel interviews, one interviewee facing multiple interviewers, are generally not a good idea. There are two reasons why I counsel against using them. First, they put the candidate under a much higher stress level. Interviews are stressful enough without your process adding any more. A higher stress level usually lowers the quality of data you get.

The second reason is that it is very hard to control an interview with multiple interviewers. Not only do you have to manage the interaction between yourself and the candidate, but you also have to be aware of the interaction amongst the interviewers. There is enough to focus on with just the candidate without worrying about your fellow interviewers. A sequence of one-on-one interviews is a much better process.

Commentary
It is time to be inclusive as opposed to exclusive. Traditionally during the selection process people have looked for a way to eliminate someone as opposed to a way to have them fit. In a labor market as tough as we face today, you have to broaden your traditional views. Don't read a resume and say they don't have experience in our market. Instead, read the resume and look for things they have done that might translate to your industry. Don't say that the person is too junior. Instead, try to determine how quickly you can bring them up to speed. It is way too easy to let ego, cynicism, traditional thinking and other distractions get in the way of your finding and choosing great employees. Give everyone the benefit of the doubt and gather as much data as you can. This results in the highest probability of making a great hiring decision.

Have a great month recruiting!

BARRY SHAMIS