Subject: May Hire Score Newsletter

Welcome to the May edition of the Hire Score Newsletter. I want to share a very enlightening experience I had this past month.

In April, I delivered a presentation for Shell Oil Company in Houston, TX at their Leadership Conference. There was one other keynote presenter, Dr. Aubrey Daniels. Dr. Daniels is one of the leading Behavioral Scientists in the world and, in my opinion, the one who makes the most sense.

The theme of his presentation was how positive reinforcement is the best way to change behavior. During his presentation he made a couple of points that support everything I have been sharing with you for the last two years in this newsletter. The first point was, "If you are going to change an outcome, you need to change behavior."

This is the primary underpinning of our entire Selecting Winners performance-based approach to hiring. Succeeding in business is all about attaining the necessary outcomes. And, if you are going to hire people to deliver those outcomes, you better hire the right behavior. Here is a great way to think about this. You do NOT hire a person, you simply rent their behavior. A job is a behavior rental agreement.

Dr. Daniels' point is a validation of my process of developing a performance-based success profile. 1. Understand your business model. 2. Identify your business need. 3. Translate your business need into specific outcomes the person needs accomplish to satisfy your business need. 4. Determine the knowledge, skills and abilities (behaviors) the person must exhibit to accomplish the outcomes.

The second point Dr. Daniels made in his presentation was, "Stay out of peoples' minds!" I cannot count the number of times I have told people to stop trying to figure people out in an interview. This is the single most UNRELIABLE way to predict what a person will do.

The problem here is that most people go into an interview trying to figure the person out. But, you are not trained behavioral psychologists, therefore, you are placing yourself in a position for which you are unqualified. To further complicate the problem, almost every interview training program forces you into this predicament. Don't get me started on the, "Ask 4 questions to learn everything you need to know" or the "Ask brainteasers" approaches that are unfortunately being promoted by people who just don't know any better.

Stick with our proven Selecting Winners process and you will have the highest probability of making a good hiring decision. For more information on the Selecting Winners process, you can visit our website at www.selectingwinners.com.

Next, I want to talk about the current hiring climate. Last month, I began the newsletter by saying the sky was not falling, and it isn't. There was a front-page article in yesterday's USA Today newspaper. The headline stated that companies were still hiring despite all the recent layoffs. Well ... DUH! Thanks for the great insight!

The current climate is certainly different than it was 6 months ago, but it is still human capital (I really hate that term so from this point forward I will never use it again)that makes the biggest difference. Companies with the best talent will still win almost every battle in the marketplace. The hunt for talented people can never slow down.

The real difference now is that you will have to do a better job of selecting talent because the pool to choose from is larger. I hate to be a broken record, but using a proven selection process becomes even more critical in down times. Each hiring decision you make takes on greater importance because you will be making fewer of them.

The second part of the USA Today article talked about how the people being hired were in different areas than previously, e.g.; customer support and sales versus marketing. My question is, "Why the big change now?" If you make every hire as result of the process I described above - careful evaluation of your business needs - I don't understand how you can have these radical shifts in focus.

I certainly understand that business conditions change, but I still contend that if your hiring process is an integral part of your business strategy, these swings of focus are much smaller. You shouldn't have to reinvent your hiring process because market conditions shift. Instead, you should only have to make minor corrections to a well thought-out strategy.

Last month's contest was for the craziest/funniest thing to happen in an interview. I got some great responses. But, one really stood out. The entry is from Heather Richards and here it is:

Every now and then our company recruits individuals with Business Intelligence experience. One recruiter asked a candidate: "Tell me about your datamodeling experience?". The candidate's response was "I never dated a model".

Way to go Heather. You win a free entry to one of my upcoming online seminars (a $750 value).

This month I am going to do something a little different. As most of you know, I travel all over the world speaking about employee recruitment, selection and retention. This month I am looking for referrals from you to your company or any professional organization with whom you might be affiliated. For each referral you send me, I will send you a copy of my "How To Hire The Perfect Administrative Assistant" product. This $297 value is yours absolutely free if you send me a bonafide speaking referral. If you need more information about my speaking, you can get it all at www.barryshamis.com. By the way, if you want to send a suggestion about the website, I will send you a copy of my "Smartass Answers To Stupid Interview Questions" book for free. Thanks in advance for all your help. Remember, please send your referrals to contest@selectingwinners.com. I hope everyone wins this month!

Monthly Rant

A couple of weeks ago an article appeared in the Sunday business section of the Seattle newspaper. A local software company (no, not the big M in Redmond) had just laid off 1/3 of their workforce. The article chronicled the process the executive team went through to make the choices. It talked about how they agonized over the decision, didn't sleep for days and so forth. I think they were trying to elicit sympathy for the executive team.

Well, they will get none from me. You see, two years ago we spoke with this executive team about aligning their hiring process with their business strategy using our Selecting Winners process. But, at the time, they did not see that as a priority. They told us they knew how to hire and were going to focus on other issues. Ooops!

The article went on to say that they were going to cut back on non-revenue producing positions. If maximizing revenue is a key part of their strategy, why did their hiring over the past two years not reflect that strategy? This is the classic example of not aligning hiring with strategy.

This executive management team is looking for credit in how humanely they handled a layoff when, in my opinion, they should be admonished for how poorly they handled their hiring practices.

If you are going to improve just one skill inside your company, you will get a better return by helping your management team do a better job of hiring than any other single area.

Have a great month recruiting!

Barry Shamis, President Selecting Winners

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