August 22, 2025 • 25 mins
Finding and developing the right talent is perhaps the most consequential responsibility any leader faces. Yet many managers approach hiring with minimal preparation, relying on gut instinct rather than proven methodology. This episode John and Greg dive deep into the structured approach that separates successful hiring managers from the rest.
We begin by examining the critical foundation of any successful hire: properly defining the role. This means going beyond dusty job descriptions to analyze current needs, determine specific goals, and identify essential competencies. As we discuss, alignment with stakeholders across your organization ensures the position is properly situated for success before you ever post a job listing.
The conversation then shifts to sourcing strategies, with practical insights on where to find qualified candidates and how to leverage your existing team for high-quality referrals. We explore the advantages of panel interviews over one-on-one conversations, not just for better candidate assessment but for creating built-in support systems once someone is hired. Our detailed breakdown of interview preparation covers everything from creating consistent question sets to setting up appropriate meeting spaces and taking comprehensive notes that protect both you and your organization.
Perhaps most valuable is our extensive discussion of onboarding—the often-neglected final phase of hiring that dramatically impacts retention and productivity. Research shows that employees who experience structured onboarding are significantly more likely to stay with a company for at least three years. We outline a comprehensive 90-day plan that includes pre-boarding activities, first-day orientation, training schedules, regular check-ins, and formal performance reviews.
Whether you're hiring for the first time or looking to improve your existing process, this episode provides the framework and specific tools to find, onboard, and develop the talent your organization needs to thrive. Remember that as a manager, the entire hiring process falls under your responsibility—and getting it right pays dividends for years to come.
Ready to transform your approach to hiring? Reach out to us at wando75.jw@gmail.com with your experiences or questions about implementing these strategies in your organization.
Presented by John Wandolowski and Greg Powell
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Well, hello and welcome to our podcast, success
Secrets and Stories.
I'm your host, john Wondoloski,and I'm here with my co-host
and friend, greg Powell.
Greg, hey, everybody.
And when we put together thispodcast, we wanted to put out a
helping hand and help that nextgeneration and help answer the
(00:35):
question of what does it mean tobe a leader?
Today, we want to talk about asubject that I think supports
that concept.
Okay, about a subject that Ithink supports that concept.
So you're hiring a new employeeand you're a new manager and you
(00:57):
want to understand what'sinvolved in that process and
you're looking at a thoughtfulapproach in terms of finding the
right candidate with the righttalent for your organization
Just exactly what's involved inthat.
Well, there's quite a few piecesthat are involved, but the
thing is that you can make a badhire and it's not doing what we
(01:18):
used to call block and tackling.
It's the simplistic approach tomake sure that your process is
there before you start theprogram.
So if you're going to hiresomeone, you should do a little
review to make sure that allthese pieces are in place For
example, defining the role andrequirements for a job and
(01:40):
usually there's an existing jobdescription, but you need to
take a look at it to see if itactually describes the job.
If it doesn't, you need to gothrough the block and tackling
of analyzing your needs,determining the specific goals
and requirements of the role.
Define the job role.
Create a detailed jobdescription outlining the
(02:03):
responsibilities, therequirements, the skills, the
experience and thequalifications.
Next is identifying keycompetencies Pinpoint the
essential skills and knowledgesneeded to be successful in the
role and aligning withstakeholders.
If you haven't heard this termbefore, it's a really important
(02:23):
element of trying to make sureyou have a good job description.
It ensures that the roledefines the alignments and the
needs and expectations ofstakeholders within the
organization.
I can kind of cut that down fora little bit of making sure
that there's communicationrequirements for the position
and they need to talk to otherdepartments and understand the
(02:44):
skill sets in order to create agood communication.
In my world, when I was inmaintenance, I would have a
mechanic tell the operationspeople what to do.
It's like nope, that's not theidea.
That's not communication.
Next is actually going in andseeing the requirements and the
(03:05):
skill sets necessary foractually hiring Greg.
Why don't you help us with thatbackground?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
strategy for attracting and sourcing
candidates.
I mean, where will I normallyget these folks?
Where do they reside?
Where are the best and thebrightest working and might be
(03:30):
looking for another job or abetter opportunity?
Then you've got to put on yourbrand face.
You've got to attract qualifiedapplicants right.
There's various recruitmentmethods out there to reach a
diverse pool of potentialcandidates.
But you've got to get yourselfseen and known.
Ask your staff for referencesIf you got a good team right.
They're good.
They probably know and hangaround with people like
themselves.
Exactly Right.
(03:51):
So if someone on your team hasa recommendation, odds are the
candidate will be a goodreference, but the best fit for
the job opening is ultimatelyyour call.
So you still have to beresponsible to make that
decision.
To bring them on board.
Then you screen candidates,evaluate applications based on
qualifications and then, whenyou get it culled down to what
appears to be appropriate,conduct initial screenings and
(04:12):
those interviews.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
You want to assess a short list of candidates through
interviews and potentiallytheir skill assessments as well,
john, and there's differentways to conduct an interview,
and you and I have talked aboutthis before.
There's different ways toconduct an interview, and you
and I have talked about thisbefore.
I'm kind of a fan of havingthree or four people as a team,
and I've done one-on-ones.
I've seen both.
Which one have you seen thathave been the most successful?
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So for me, John, we call it the panel interview.
That's the team interviewyou're referring to, because you
get multiple perspectives andthen you kind of huddle up and
talk.
So what did you see?
Oh, I saw it this way, and youhave some good conversation that
helps you get to the bestdecision.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, and I kind of like the idea that the team
which, what is interesting isafter that new candidate is
actually hired the other peoplethat were in that panel are
helping that person succeedbecause they're part of picking
that person for the panel.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
You're exactly right, john, they have a vested
interest in that person'ssuccess, right?
And then you want to make a joboffer.
You want to extend acompetitive offer not an
insulting offer, but acompetitive offer to the top
candidate and recognize you'reprobably going to have to
negotiate back and forth alittle bit and that's okay.
So, to effectively conductinterviews for hiring a new
employee, there's some things tothink about.
Prepare thoroughly.
(05:25):
Again, you don't wing it.
You don't just go in there andsay, okay, let's see what
happens here.
Prepare thoroughly, create acomfortable atmosphere.
That's also part of yourcompany culture.
They're going to get to seethat firsthand, right.
Ask insightful questions, notbinary questions with, yes, no
responses, but somethinginsightful.
Focus on understanding thecandidate's skills, what their
(05:50):
experience is and, again, theircultural fit.
But you want to remain unbiasedbecause you need the
professionalism to come throughthe process.
And then you want to follow upwith each candidate to maintain
a positive employer brand,because even somebody you turn
down or you don't select,they're still thinking, hey,
this is a pretty good company.
I would tell my friends whowork there or maybe they sell a
product or service that youmight want them to use.
All right, preparation,preparation, preparation, no
(06:14):
question about it.
Define the job.
I mean, you want to clearlymake sure that folks that are
applying for this job understandwhat's required, what they're
going to be responsible for andthe desired skills those
preferred skills, actually.
And then you want to developinterview questions and that's
probably not as hard as youmight think it is, but it's
worth the time to develop thosereally good questions, a
(06:35):
structured list of questionsthat assess the candidate's
qualifications and fit with thecompany culture.
Now you have to be careful withwhat questions you ask.
You want to ask questions verypertinent to the job, what it
takes to be successful at thejob.
But if someone were to come inand maybe it's a female
candidate and you're thinkinglooks like she's really talented
, but I think she might bepregnant, she might, you know,
(06:56):
and you can't ask her hey, areyou pregnant?
No, no, you can't do that,absolutely not.
Age, same thing.
You cannot discriminate basedon age.
So the person, as long asthey're meeting the requirements
that you're setting out there,you've got to interview that
person and consider themseriously for the role.
John.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
When I had done candidate reviews before, we
were often told that we couldonly use the same questions.
We would find a list of like 20questions and you could only
use the 20 questions and theyhad to go.
The same questions had to beused for each candidate.
Is that correct?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
That is absolutely correct.
That keeps you out of purgatory, as it were, from a legal
standpoint, and it's also fairto the candidates.
Each candidate should be askedthe same questions and given the
same opportunity to respond.
And if you game the system bysaying, well, this person should
know more or less, and askdifferent questions, that's not
going to give you the bestresults as far as candidates.
(07:51):
So by all means, come up with aset of questions, and a lot of
companies have them kind of onfile.
These are our questions formarketing analysts, here's our
questions for engineer.
Two, and maybe there's two orthree sets of questions, but you
have to choose from thatalready given list of questions
to ask.
One thing that some folks don'twant to spend the time with, but
you need to do it reviewcandidate materials Carefully.
(08:13):
Examine the resumes.
Don't just race through them.
Carefully examine them Coverletters.
Oftentimes there's some reallygood information because the
candidate is trying to get yourattention.
So look at that cover letter.
That cover letter is anotherpiece of paper that gives them a
chance to sell themselves andany other application materials
that they might provide to you.
A project plan they created, anidea they'd recommended to
their company.
But you want to look atpotential areas for discussion
(08:35):
and if they send you that, thenyou have something that you can
be more personal with on them.
Prepare the interview space thisis really key and I can tell
you over the years I've seensome pretty bad choices for well
, the cafeteria was, lunch wasdone and we went to the back
area, yeah, but people come inand out, right, they go to the
vending machines, whatever Justcrazy.
(08:57):
Respect the candidate thatyou're bringing in and ensure
there's a quiet, comfortable andprofessional setting for the
interview, and you do that inadvance.
If you have an admin or someonethat could do that for you,
that's great, but you still ownit.
Hey, my admin, where are wemeeting for the interview?
And make sure that you'recomfortable with where that
meeting is going to be conducted.
John.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
And I think the most important part is that there's a
partnership between HR and theteam that's hiring.
And at this point it is now theteam's responsibility to create
a comfortable atmosphere,because that's where the real
interviewing process is going totake place.
It should be a welcoming kindof environment where the
(09:37):
candidate is greeted warmly, youintroduce yourself, you
introduce any others.
If you're going to do a panel,there should be at least some
kind of small talk or engagement, so it's a casual conversation,
so that it's a pretty stressfulkind of environment and you
want the candidate to do theirbest and you want them to relax.
It's very important that you'recreating that atmosphere and
(09:59):
that can help Craig.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, john, we've talked before about icebreakers
and consider this an icebreakerright.
Make people level playing fieldfeeling comfortable so they can
give their best and you can doyour best in interviewing them.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, exactly, and even if you don't know
icebreakers, look one up, takethe time, have something that
would make them feel comfortableor at least your group feel
comfortable and then explain theinterviewing structure to the
candidate themselves so thatthey kind of things.
And you have to be carefulbecause there's different kinds
(10:37):
of questions and you want to askinsightful questions but you
have to have it in like what wetalked about, that list of 20.
They have to be in there first.
They can't come up after youstart talking and you start
interviewing.
And one of the interestingelements of asking a question is
asking what they call starquestions.
So you're asking for somethingthat shows a situation, a task,
(11:00):
an action and a result that theycreated themselves, where they
can talk about their experienceand their accomplishments.
If you're asking open-endedquestions during the
interviewing process, you mightfind that you're going to have
to have a lot of follow-up andthat gets you further away from
the original question.
So asking situational questionssometimes pulls the candidates
(11:24):
to actually answer technicalquestions.
The things in terms of culturalfit are important too, to
understand a candidate's valuesand some of their work style and
whether it would actuallycomply with the company culture,
and you should allow time forthe candidate to ask questions,
to provide time for them to asksomething about the company,
(11:45):
something about the role,something about the team.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
I can tell you, john, I've always been excited when
we get to the end of ourquestions and we say any
questions you'd like to ask usat this time and they come
prepared.
They come prepared with somequestions.
That maybe tells us they know alittle bit more about our
business.
It helps them distinguishthemselves versus other
candidates.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Exactly Well said, the evaluation of a candidate.
Listen intently and focus onthe candidate responses and
non-verbal clues.
Body language is part of thatprocess.
Take detailed notes documentingkey points and observations for
follow-up questions that youmay have.
(12:25):
I'm going to just break for asecond and say if there is a
problem with the interviewingprocess and somebody were to
argue about it, they're going togo right back and seeing what
your notes are.
So your notes are part ofdocumentation.
You have a conversation, youhave a question.
Put it on the piece of paperthat you're using to ask
(12:45):
questions that there issomething that the HR department
can take a look at.
If they need to Be consistent.
Apply the same question that wetalked about this to all
candidates.
Post interview evaluationreview your notes, assess the
candidate's strengths,weaknesses and determine if it's
a good fit.
And then, my favorite you asthe hiring individual hiring
(13:11):
manager, need to talk to thereferences.
You need to call the references.
It's not the HR department'sresponsibility to do that, it's
yours.
Take responsibility for it,Greg.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Yeah, john, one thing I want to add to the
post-interview evaluation.
That's when you kind of we usedto call it a huddle up and the
folks that interviewed thecandidate would talk about what
we liked about that candidate.
We talked about what we likeabout all the candidates, so we
had rich discussion about thetop candidates we saw and what
made one candidate distinguishthemselves among the rest.
And having that other person tobounce it off of pros and cons
(13:45):
we felt made for a richerdiscussion and a better final
decision.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
It's a good point.
After each candidate, the panelshould do that, document what
they've come up with, and thenthere's going to be that final
decision on which candidate theyfinally picked and that would
go to the file.
That would basically show thatprogression of making a decision
.
Craig, I think you have theother part that is important in
(14:09):
terms of the interviewingprocess.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Thanks, john.
For me it's following up,Meaning it's not done just when
the interviews are done.
The final decisions.
Now you've got to inform thecandidate and you want to
provide timely feedback to allof the candidates, not just the
one that you want to make theoffer to, but all the candidates
, regardless of whether they'removing forward in the process or
not.
And that talks again about yourculture, your integrity, how
(14:31):
you treat people.
It's an extension of thecompany.
You want to maintainprofessionalism at all times,
ensure a positive candidateexperience throughout the entire
hiring process.
Whether they get the job or not, you want them to say gosh, I
didn't get the job this time,but that's a pretty sharp
company.
I'd like to work for them, ormaybe I'd like to buy their
products or services, john.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
And how many times have we seen it where the first
candidate ended up passing onthe position and you go to the
second candidate so that youknow that you've done very well.
You're the second candidate,the first one decided to go
another direction is, I think,the buzzword people like to use
and you end up calling thesecond or even the third and
they know that you wereappreciated and they were
(15:09):
recognized as being capable.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Absolutely.
So now you've hired someone, Doyou have an onboarding plan?
It doesn't just stop becauseyou said I can wipe my brow.
We did all that work, we gotsomebody coming on board.
They're coming to this date.
Well, there's a little bit moreto it Now.
They're somewhat might say thereal work starts.
Okay, A successful onboardingplan is essential for welcoming
(15:32):
new employees, boostingproductivity because you want
them to ramp up more quickly,right, and enhancing retention,
more apt to stick around alittle longer.
Research shows that employeeswho experience structured
onboarding are significantlymore likely to stay with a
company for at least three years.
And, as you talk about ROIreturn on investment on this
process three years is prettygood these days.
(15:53):
You get somebody, that's good.
They stay at least three yearsand companies with strong
onboarding practices see anoticeable increase in new hire
productivity.
It means they ramp up morequickly, they're able to make
contributions more quickly andthat's ultimately what you want.
So pre-boarding before day oneall right, yeah, so this phase
aims to engage the new hirebefore their official start date
(16:15):
, because you want to reduce theanxiety and then you want to
turn that, if they had anxietyinto excitement and build some
really nice, strong excitement.
So welcome communication, senda personalized welcome email or
package with key information.
It's like you know when's thestart date, the time location.
They probably know some of thisstuff already.
But be professional and againrelieve some of that anxiety.
(16:36):
Essential paperwork, Facilitatethe completion of necessary
forms.
Some companies have an HRdepartment that does that, Some
do not.
But there's things that arejust required by law to be done
before they can actually startwork.
So things like the I-9, W-4 forour taxes.
Pretty much everybody now is ondirect deposit, so making sure
that is taken care of.
You want to minimizeadministrative tasks the first
day, right, you don't want themto be caught up in administrivia
(16:59):
for eight hours and that'swelcome to the company day one.
And now, because of the way thework situations occur there's
technology involved, workspacesetup.
Ensure that all the necessaryequipment laptop, phone,
software is ready, not day one,but before they start.
Not day one, yeah, Right.
Because if you wait until dayone and we've all been there,
(17:19):
right, and the IT department'sscrambling and the legal
department's scrambling, HRdepartment's scrambling, the
facilities guy or gal isscrambling trying to get to your
space when you knew beforehand.
So secure these things beforethe person starts right, and
then for remote roles, becausethere's a lot of that going on
these days.
Provide clear instructions forself-setup so they know what to
do, how to do it, so they canengage their first day as well,
(17:43):
John yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
And you've hired the person, you've gone through the
process, you've done all thethings to get that person in the
door.
You're not done, you've onlybegun them, introducing them to
(18:12):
your staff, getting them tounderstand their workspace and
you know the ever famous.
Show them where the bathroomsare, show them where the
cafeteria is.
Those are all very importantelements and for them to
understand that they're cominginto an environment that are
really interested in making themfeel comfortable and be
successful.
Making sure that theyunderstand the handbook and the
policies are something that youread afterwards.
(18:33):
You don't need to read it tothem, but they should know where
it is and that there's certainrequirements that you might want
to highlight, like in someenvironments there's policies
and regarding information, likeyour laptop and your thumb
drives and trying to takeinformation off the site.
You have to cover those thingsat the front end.
(18:55):
Then you're talking abouthaving an idea of what happens
after the first week of actuallybeing on the job.
You're structuring the training, scheduling, specific role
training and providing relevantresources and materials.
You discuss goal setting andtalking about goals in terms of
(19:17):
expectations for the first fewweeks and the first few months,
creating a clear roadmap of whatthat means in terms of the
organization, team activitiesand this one, I've seen people
have done it very well in termsof getting together for lunch or
having a coffee break orvirtual activities to foster
(19:38):
connections and to build arapport with their colleagues.
As a hiring manager, you needto check in with the individual.
It's a one-on-one meeting tomonitor their progress and to
give them an opportunity to askquestions and to provide support
.
It's like a mini mentoringprogram, if you want to consider
it, making sure the person hasthe opportunity to succeed.
(20:00):
Feedback is encouraged.
New employees share theirfeedback and they talk about
whether the onboard processingis working or not working.
That's the best place to askthose kinds of questions is in
the first week.
Next is defining that 30-daydevelopmental and immersion into
(20:24):
the position.
Deepening the training.
Providing further training interms of the company's products
or services or internalprocesses.
Making sure that they have thenecessary tools.
Project involvement, graduallyintroducing them to new
employees, to projects or tasksto apply their learning and to
(20:47):
contribute to the team.
For them to understand thatconnection learning and to
contribute to the team, for themto understand that connection.
Now more to the role of thefeedback and coaching, to make
sure that they check in with themanager on a regular basis and
offer constructive feedback,criticism, guidance.
All this is actually sayingthat you need to mentor the
(21:09):
person, to make sure that theyhave a buddy plan, that there is
somebody that can provide thatguidance, so that the person
doesn't feel like they'reabandoned on the job.
Here's the keys.
Good luck, have fun.
You want to take it that nextstep, greg.
They're past the 30 days.
Now the real question is canthey make it to their 90 days?
Speaker 1 (21:32):
That's it, john.
So, thinking about performancealignment and growth, from that
kind of 60 to 90-day periodperformance review, a more
formal review of the new hire'sprogress against the initial
goal set.
Right, they've had sometraining, they've had a little
onboarding, they probably had abuddy or mentor, but at some
point they've got to demonstratethey can do the job.
And if the candidate is failingand you've supplied and
(21:56):
provided them with all thesedifferent resources you are
preparing then documents forpotential dismissal right, you
don't wait until 120 days or 240days.
This is a period of time.
This first 90 days is realimportant that if you see them
failing, they're not making ithappen and you've been in
contact with them, you're givingthem support and resources.
Then you start to think aboutdismissal and you need the
(22:17):
paperwork to support that Goalrefinement.
When things are going well, youwould say work with a new
employee to adjust existinggoals and set new ones for the
next period.
Because they've knocked it outin 30 days.
They've knocked it out in 60days.
Looks like 90 days is going tobe the same.
Go, because they've knocked itout in 30 days.
They've knocked it out in 60days.
It looks like 90 days is goingto be the same.
Go ahead and ante up a littlebit higher, because they're
showing they're capable ofmaking that happen.
Also, professional developmentDiscuss career paths and
(22:39):
identify potential training ordevelopment.
They're not going to leave youin nine months, necessarily, but
you do want to start thinkingabout the future and have them
start to think about it and doboth of your parts to help
provide them with the capabilityto move up and on if they can,
because you want them to stayfor a while.
They're not just here for theone job.
If you really want to get yourreturn on investment with folks,
if you'd like them to be therefor a few years, do different
(23:01):
functions and expand themselves.
Ongoing feedback right Feedbackis a gift.
Maintain open communicationchannels and encourage ongoing
feedback regarding the role, theteam and the company to the
individual.
John.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
So, just to summarize , if you're going to be hiring
someone and you're a new manager, there is so much more to that
process that you own that maynot be as obvious in the other
roles that you've had.
You're involved in the processto make sure you're getting the
right candidate, because you'reworking with HR to send out the
information of what you need.
You're involved directly tomake sure that you're hiring the
(23:41):
correct candidate and thenyou're putting together that
effort of 30 days, 60 days and90 days to mark that time, to
make sure that you made thecorrect decision and that the
people that are around this newcandidate are either helping
that person to succeed oridentifying that there are
issues that need to be addressedand that you need to take
(24:02):
action on.
Because there's an issue, it'sall you and you have to take the
responsibility for hiring thatperson from the beginning to the
end and making sure thatthey're actually taking off and
having a successful careerbecause you got the right person
on board.
So, if you like what you'veheard, yeah, I've written a book
(24:26):
called Building your LeadershipToolbox and we talk about tools
like this and it's available onAmazon and Barnes, noble and
other sites.
The podcast is what you've beenlistening to.
Thank you so much.
It's also available on Apple,google and Spotify.
A lot of what we talk about isfrom Dr Durst and his MBR
program.
If you'd like to know moreabout Dr Durst, you can find out
(24:48):
on successgrowthacademycom, andif you'd like to contact us,
please send me a line.
That's wando75.jw at gmailcom,and the music is brought to you
by my grandson, so we want tohear from you.
Drop me a line, tell me what'sgoing on, what you like and what
(25:10):
you would like to hear about,and it's always helped us to
create content.
Thanks, greg, this was fun.
Thanks, john as always nexttime yeah.
Well, hello and welcome to our podcast, success
Secrets and Stories.
I'm your host, john Wondoloski,and I'm here with my co-host
and friend, greg Powell.
Greg, hey, everybody.
And when we put together thispodcast, we wanted to put out a
helping hand and help that nextgeneration and help answer the
(00:35):
question of what does it mean tobe a leader?
Today, we want to talk about asubject that I think supports
that concept.
Okay, about a subject that Ithink supports that concept.
So you're hiring a new employeeand you're a new manager and you
(00:57):
want to understand what'sinvolved in that process and
you're looking at a thoughtfulapproach in terms of finding the
right candidate with the righttalent for your organization
Just exactly what's involved inthat.
Well, there's quite a few piecesthat are involved, but the
thing is that you can make a badhire and it's not doing what we
(01:18):
used to call block and tackling.
It's the simplistic approach tomake sure that your process is
there before you start theprogram.
So if you're going to hiresomeone, you should do a little
review to make sure that allthese pieces are in place For
example, defining the role andrequirements for a job and
(01:40):
usually there's an existing jobdescription, but you need to
take a look at it to see if itactually describes the job.
If it doesn't, you need to gothrough the block and tackling
of analyzing your needs,determining the specific goals
and requirements of the role.
Define the job role.
Create a detailed jobdescription outlining the
(02:03):
responsibilities, therequirements, the skills, the
experience and thequalifications.
Next is identifying keycompetencies Pinpoint the
essential skills and knowledgesneeded to be successful in the
role and aligning withstakeholders.
If you haven't heard this termbefore, it's a really important
(02:23):
element of trying to make sureyou have a good job description.
It ensures that the roledefines the alignments and the
needs and expectations ofstakeholders within the
organization.
I can kind of cut that down fora little bit of making sure
that there's communicationrequirements for the position
and they need to talk to otherdepartments and understand the
(02:44):
skill sets in order to create agood communication.
In my world, when I was inmaintenance, I would have a
mechanic tell the operationspeople what to do.
It's like nope, that's not theidea.
That's not communication.
Next is actually going in andseeing the requirements and the
(03:05):
skill sets necessary foractually hiring Greg.
Why don't you help us with thatbackground?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
strategy for attracting and sourcing
candidates.
I mean, where will I normallyget these folks?
Where do they reside?
Where are the best and thebrightest working and might be
(03:30):
looking for another job or abetter opportunity?
Then you've got to put on yourbrand face.
You've got to attract qualifiedapplicants right.
There's various recruitmentmethods out there to reach a
diverse pool of potentialcandidates.
But you've got to get yourselfseen and known.
Ask your staff for referencesIf you got a good team right.
They're good.
They probably know and hangaround with people like
themselves.
Exactly Right.
(03:51):
So if someone on your team hasa recommendation, odds are the
candidate will be a goodreference, but the best fit for
the job opening is ultimatelyyour call.
So you still have to beresponsible to make that
decision.
To bring them on board.
Then you screen candidates,evaluate applications based on
qualifications and then, whenyou get it culled down to what
appears to be appropriate,conduct initial screenings and
(04:12):
those interviews.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
You want to assess a short list of candidates through
interviews and potentiallytheir skill assessments as well,
john, and there's differentways to conduct an interview,
and you and I have talked aboutthis before.
There's different ways toconduct an interview, and you
and I have talked about thisbefore.
I'm kind of a fan of havingthree or four people as a team,
and I've done one-on-ones.
I've seen both.
Which one have you seen thathave been the most successful?
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So for me, John, we call it the panel interview.
That's the team interviewyou're referring to, because you
get multiple perspectives andthen you kind of huddle up and
talk.
So what did you see?
Oh, I saw it this way, and youhave some good conversation that
helps you get to the bestdecision.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, and I kind of like the idea that the team
which, what is interesting isafter that new candidate is
actually hired the other peoplethat were in that panel are
helping that person succeedbecause they're part of picking
that person for the panel.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
You're exactly right, john, they have a vested
interest in that person'ssuccess, right?
And then you want to make a joboffer.
You want to extend acompetitive offer not an
insulting offer, but acompetitive offer to the top
candidate and recognize you'reprobably going to have to
negotiate back and forth alittle bit and that's okay.
So, to effectively conductinterviews for hiring a new
employee, there's some things tothink about.
Prepare thoroughly.
(05:25):
Again, you don't wing it.
You don't just go in there andsay, okay, let's see what
happens here.
Prepare thoroughly, create acomfortable atmosphere.
That's also part of yourcompany culture.
They're going to get to seethat firsthand, right.
Ask insightful questions, notbinary questions with, yes, no
responses, but somethinginsightful.
Focus on understanding thecandidate's skills, what their
(05:50):
experience is and, again, theircultural fit.
But you want to remain unbiasedbecause you need the
professionalism to come throughthe process.
And then you want to follow upwith each candidate to maintain
a positive employer brand,because even somebody you turn
down or you don't select,they're still thinking, hey,
this is a pretty good company.
I would tell my friends whowork there or maybe they sell a
product or service that youmight want them to use.
All right, preparation,preparation, preparation, no
(06:14):
question about it.
Define the job.
I mean, you want to clearlymake sure that folks that are
applying for this job understandwhat's required, what they're
going to be responsible for andthe desired skills those
preferred skills, actually.
And then you want to developinterview questions and that's
probably not as hard as youmight think it is, but it's
worth the time to develop thosereally good questions, a
(06:35):
structured list of questionsthat assess the candidate's
qualifications and fit with thecompany culture.
Now you have to be careful withwhat questions you ask.
You want to ask questions verypertinent to the job, what it
takes to be successful at thejob.
But if someone were to come inand maybe it's a female
candidate and you're thinkinglooks like she's really talented
, but I think she might bepregnant, she might, you know,
(06:56):
and you can't ask her hey, areyou pregnant?
No, no, you can't do that,absolutely not.
Age, same thing.
You cannot discriminate basedon age.
So the person, as long asthey're meeting the requirements
that you're setting out there,you've got to interview that
person and consider themseriously for the role.
John.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
When I had done candidate reviews before, we
were often told that we couldonly use the same questions.
We would find a list of like 20questions and you could only
use the 20 questions and theyhad to go.
The same questions had to beused for each candidate.
Is that correct?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
That is absolutely correct.
That keeps you out of purgatory, as it were, from a legal
standpoint, and it's also fairto the candidates.
Each candidate should be askedthe same questions and given the
same opportunity to respond.
And if you game the system bysaying, well, this person should
know more or less, and askdifferent questions, that's not
going to give you the bestresults as far as candidates.
(07:51):
So by all means, come up with aset of questions, and a lot of
companies have them kind of onfile.
These are our questions formarketing analysts, here's our
questions for engineer.
Two, and maybe there's two orthree sets of questions, but you
have to choose from thatalready given list of questions
to ask.
One thing that some folks don'twant to spend the time with, but
you need to do it reviewcandidate materials Carefully.
(08:13):
Examine the resumes.
Don't just race through them.
Carefully examine them Coverletters.
Oftentimes there's some reallygood information because the
candidate is trying to get yourattention.
So look at that cover letter.
That cover letter is anotherpiece of paper that gives them a
chance to sell themselves andany other application materials
that they might provide to you.
A project plan they created, anidea they'd recommended to
their company.
But you want to look atpotential areas for discussion
(08:35):
and if they send you that, thenyou have something that you can
be more personal with on them.
Prepare the interview space thisis really key and I can tell
you over the years I've seensome pretty bad choices for well
, the cafeteria was, lunch wasdone and we went to the back
area, yeah, but people come inand out, right, they go to the
vending machines, whatever Justcrazy.
(08:57):
Respect the candidate thatyou're bringing in and ensure
there's a quiet, comfortable andprofessional setting for the
interview, and you do that inadvance.
If you have an admin or someonethat could do that for you,
that's great, but you still ownit.
Hey, my admin, where are wemeeting for the interview?
And make sure that you'recomfortable with where that
meeting is going to be conducted.
John.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
And I think the most important part is that there's a
partnership between HR and theteam that's hiring.
And at this point it is now theteam's responsibility to create
a comfortable atmosphere,because that's where the real
interviewing process is going totake place.
It should be a welcoming kindof environment where the
(09:37):
candidate is greeted warmly, youintroduce yourself, you
introduce any others.
If you're going to do a panel,there should be at least some
kind of small talk or engagement, so it's a casual conversation,
so that it's a pretty stressfulkind of environment and you
want the candidate to do theirbest and you want them to relax.
It's very important that you'recreating that atmosphere and
(09:59):
that can help Craig.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, john, we've talked before about icebreakers
and consider this an icebreakerright.
Make people level playing fieldfeeling comfortable so they can
give their best and you can doyour best in interviewing them.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, exactly, and even if you don't know
icebreakers, look one up, takethe time, have something that
would make them feel comfortableor at least your group feel
comfortable and then explain theinterviewing structure to the
candidate themselves so thatthey kind of things.
And you have to be carefulbecause there's different kinds
(10:37):
of questions and you want to askinsightful questions but you
have to have it in like what wetalked about, that list of 20.
They have to be in there first.
They can't come up after youstart talking and you start
interviewing.
And one of the interestingelements of asking a question is
asking what they call starquestions.
So you're asking for somethingthat shows a situation, a task,
(11:00):
an action and a result that theycreated themselves, where they
can talk about their experienceand their accomplishments.
If you're asking open-endedquestions during the
interviewing process, you mightfind that you're going to have
to have a lot of follow-up andthat gets you further away from
the original question.
So asking situational questionssometimes pulls the candidates
(11:24):
to actually answer technicalquestions.
The things in terms of culturalfit are important too, to
understand a candidate's valuesand some of their work style and
whether it would actuallycomply with the company culture,
and you should allow time forthe candidate to ask questions,
to provide time for them to asksomething about the company,
(11:45):
something about the role,something about the team.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
I can tell you, john, I've always been excited when
we get to the end of ourquestions and we say any
questions you'd like to ask usat this time and they come
prepared.
They come prepared with somequestions.
That maybe tells us they know alittle bit more about our
business.
It helps them distinguishthemselves versus other
candidates.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Exactly Well said, the evaluation of a candidate.
Listen intently and focus onthe candidate responses and
non-verbal clues.
Body language is part of thatprocess.
Take detailed notes documentingkey points and observations for
follow-up questions that youmay have.
(12:25):
I'm going to just break for asecond and say if there is a
problem with the interviewingprocess and somebody were to
argue about it, they're going togo right back and seeing what
your notes are.
So your notes are part ofdocumentation.
You have a conversation, youhave a question.
Put it on the piece of paperthat you're using to ask
(12:45):
questions that there issomething that the HR department
can take a look at.
If they need to Be consistent.
Apply the same question that wetalked about this to all
candidates.
Post interview evaluationreview your notes, assess the
candidate's strengths,weaknesses and determine if it's
a good fit.
And then, my favorite you asthe hiring individual hiring
(13:11):
manager, need to talk to thereferences.
You need to call the references.
It's not the HR department'sresponsibility to do that, it's
yours.
Take responsibility for it,Greg.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Yeah, john, one thing I want to add to the
post-interview evaluation.
That's when you kind of we usedto call it a huddle up and the
folks that interviewed thecandidate would talk about what
we liked about that candidate.
We talked about what we likeabout all the candidates, so we
had rich discussion about thetop candidates we saw and what
made one candidate distinguishthemselves among the rest.
And having that other person tobounce it off of pros and cons
(13:45):
we felt made for a richerdiscussion and a better final
decision.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
It's a good point.
After each candidate, the panelshould do that, document what
they've come up with, and thenthere's going to be that final
decision on which candidate theyfinally picked and that would
go to the file.
That would basically show thatprogression of making a decision
.
Craig, I think you have theother part that is important in
(14:09):
terms of the interviewingprocess.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Thanks, john.
For me it's following up,Meaning it's not done just when
the interviews are done.
The final decisions.
Now you've got to inform thecandidate and you want to
provide timely feedback to allof the candidates, not just the
one that you want to make theoffer to, but all the candidates
, regardless of whether they'removing forward in the process or
not.
And that talks again about yourculture, your integrity, how
(14:31):
you treat people.
It's an extension of thecompany.
You want to maintainprofessionalism at all times,
ensure a positive candidateexperience throughout the entire
hiring process.
Whether they get the job or not, you want them to say gosh, I
didn't get the job this time,but that's a pretty sharp
company.
I'd like to work for them, ormaybe I'd like to buy their
products or services, john.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
And how many times have we seen it where the first
candidate ended up passing onthe position and you go to the
second candidate so that youknow that you've done very well.
You're the second candidate,the first one decided to go
another direction is, I think,the buzzword people like to use
and you end up calling thesecond or even the third and
they know that you wereappreciated and they were
(15:09):
recognized as being capable.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Absolutely.
So now you've hired someone, Doyou have an onboarding plan?
It doesn't just stop becauseyou said I can wipe my brow.
We did all that work, we gotsomebody coming on board.
They're coming to this date.
Well, there's a little bit moreto it Now.
They're somewhat might say thereal work starts.
Okay, A successful onboardingplan is essential for welcoming
(15:32):
new employees, boostingproductivity because you want
them to ramp up more quickly,right, and enhancing retention,
more apt to stick around alittle longer.
Research shows that employeeswho experience structured
onboarding are significantlymore likely to stay with a
company for at least three years.
And, as you talk about ROIreturn on investment on this
process three years is prettygood these days.
(15:53):
You get somebody, that's good.
They stay at least three yearsand companies with strong
onboarding practices see anoticeable increase in new hire
productivity.
It means they ramp up morequickly, they're able to make
contributions more quickly andthat's ultimately what you want.
So pre-boarding before day oneall right, yeah, so this phase
aims to engage the new hirebefore their official start date
(16:15):
, because you want to reduce theanxiety and then you want to
turn that, if they had anxietyinto excitement and build some
really nice, strong excitement.
So welcome communication, senda personalized welcome email or
package with key information.
It's like you know when's thestart date, the time location.
They probably know some of thisstuff already.
But be professional and againrelieve some of that anxiety.
(16:36):
Essential paperwork, Facilitatethe completion of necessary
forms.
Some companies have an HRdepartment that does that, Some
do not.
But there's things that arejust required by law to be done
before they can actually startwork.
So things like the I-9, W-4 forour taxes.
Pretty much everybody now is ondirect deposit, so making sure
that is taken care of.
You want to minimizeadministrative tasks the first
day, right, you don't want themto be caught up in administrivia
(16:59):
for eight hours and that'swelcome to the company day one.
And now, because of the way thework situations occur there's
technology involved, workspacesetup.
Ensure that all the necessaryequipment laptop, phone,
software is ready, not day one,but before they start.
Not day one, yeah, Right.
Because if you wait until dayone and we've all been there,
(17:19):
right, and the IT department'sscrambling and the legal
department's scrambling, HRdepartment's scrambling, the
facilities guy or gal isscrambling trying to get to your
space when you knew beforehand.
So secure these things beforethe person starts right, and
then for remote roles, becausethere's a lot of that going on
these days.
Provide clear instructions forself-setup so they know what to
do, how to do it, so they canengage their first day as well,
(17:43):
John yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
And you've hired the person, you've gone through the
process, you've done all thethings to get that person in the
door.
You're not done, you've onlybegun them, introducing them to
(18:12):
your staff, getting them tounderstand their workspace and
you know the ever famous.
Show them where the bathroomsare, show them where the
cafeteria is.
Those are all very importantelements and for them to
understand that they're cominginto an environment that are
really interested in making themfeel comfortable and be
successful.
Making sure that theyunderstand the handbook and the
policies are something that youread afterwards.
(18:33):
You don't need to read it tothem, but they should know where
it is and that there's certainrequirements that you might want
to highlight, like in someenvironments there's policies
and regarding information, likeyour laptop and your thumb
drives and trying to takeinformation off the site.
You have to cover those thingsat the front end.
(18:55):
Then you're talking abouthaving an idea of what happens
after the first week of actuallybeing on the job.
You're structuring the training, scheduling, specific role
training and providing relevantresources and materials.
You discuss goal setting andtalking about goals in terms of
(19:17):
expectations for the first fewweeks and the first few months,
creating a clear roadmap of whatthat means in terms of the
organization, team activitiesand this one, I've seen people
have done it very well in termsof getting together for lunch or
having a coffee break orvirtual activities to foster
(19:38):
connections and to build arapport with their colleagues.
As a hiring manager, you needto check in with the individual.
It's a one-on-one meeting tomonitor their progress and to
give them an opportunity to askquestions and to provide support
.
It's like a mini mentoringprogram, if you want to consider
it, making sure the person hasthe opportunity to succeed.
(20:00):
Feedback is encouraged.
New employees share theirfeedback and they talk about
whether the onboard processingis working or not working.
That's the best place to askthose kinds of questions is in
the first week.
Next is defining that 30-daydevelopmental and immersion into
(20:24):
the position.
Deepening the training.
Providing further training interms of the company's products
or services or internalprocesses.
Making sure that they have thenecessary tools.
Project involvement, graduallyintroducing them to new
employees, to projects or tasksto apply their learning and to
(20:47):
contribute to the team.
For them to understand thatconnection learning and to
contribute to the team, for themto understand that connection.
Now more to the role of thefeedback and coaching, to make
sure that they check in with themanager on a regular basis and
offer constructive feedback,criticism, guidance.
All this is actually sayingthat you need to mentor the
(21:09):
person, to make sure that theyhave a buddy plan, that there is
somebody that can provide thatguidance, so that the person
doesn't feel like they'reabandoned on the job.
Here's the keys.
Good luck, have fun.
You want to take it that nextstep, greg.
They're past the 30 days.
Now the real question is canthey make it to their 90 days?
Speaker 1 (21:32):
That's it, john.
So, thinking about performancealignment and growth, from that
kind of 60 to 90-day periodperformance review, a more
formal review of the new hire'sprogress against the initial
goal set.
Right, they've had sometraining, they've had a little
onboarding, they probably had abuddy or mentor, but at some
point they've got to demonstratethey can do the job.
And if the candidate is failingand you've supplied and
(21:56):
provided them with all thesedifferent resources you are
preparing then documents forpotential dismissal right, you
don't wait until 120 days or 240days.
This is a period of time.
This first 90 days is realimportant that if you see them
failing, they're not making ithappen and you've been in
contact with them, you're givingthem support and resources.
Then you start to think aboutdismissal and you need the
(22:17):
paperwork to support that Goalrefinement.
When things are going well, youwould say work with a new
employee to adjust existinggoals and set new ones for the
next period.
Because they've knocked it outin 30 days.
They've knocked it out in 60days.
Looks like 90 days is going tobe the same.
Go, because they've knocked itout in 30 days.
They've knocked it out in 60days.
It looks like 90 days is goingto be the same.
Go ahead and ante up a littlebit higher, because they're
showing they're capable ofmaking that happen.
Also, professional developmentDiscuss career paths and
(22:39):
identify potential training ordevelopment.
They're not going to leave youin nine months, necessarily, but
you do want to start thinkingabout the future and have them
start to think about it and doboth of your parts to help
provide them with the capabilityto move up and on if they can,
because you want them to stayfor a while.
They're not just here for theone job.
If you really want to get yourreturn on investment with folks,
if you'd like them to be therefor a few years, do different
(23:01):
functions and expand themselves.
Ongoing feedback right Feedbackis a gift.
Maintain open communicationchannels and encourage ongoing
feedback regarding the role, theteam and the company to the
individual.
John.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
So, just to summarize , if you're going to be hiring
someone and you're a new manager, there is so much more to that
process that you own that maynot be as obvious in the other
roles that you've had.
You're involved in the processto make sure you're getting the
right candidate, because you'reworking with HR to send out the
information of what you need.
You're involved directly tomake sure that you're hiring the
(23:41):
correct candidate and thenyou're putting together that
effort of 30 days, 60 days and90 days to mark that time, to
make sure that you made thecorrect decision and that the
people that are around this newcandidate are either helping
that person to succeed oridentifying that there are
issues that need to be addressedand that you need to take
(24:02):
action on.
Because there's an issue, it'sall you and you have to take the
responsibility for hiring thatperson from the beginning to the
end and making sure thatthey're actually taking off and
having a successful careerbecause you got the right person
on board.
So, if you like what you'veheard, yeah, I've written a book
(24:26):
called Building your LeadershipToolbox and we talk about tools
like this and it's available onAmazon and Barnes, noble and
other sites.
The podcast is what you've beenlistening to.
Thank you so much.
It's also available on Apple,google and Spotify.
A lot of what we talk about isfrom Dr Durst and his MBR
program.
If you'd like to know moreabout Dr Durst, you can find out
(24:48):
on successgrowthacademycom, andif you'd like to contact us,
please send me a line.
That's wando75.jw at gmailcom,and the music is brought to you
by my grandson, so we want tohear from you.
Drop me a line, tell me what'sgoing on, what you like and what
(25:10):
you would like to hear about,and it's always helped us to
create content.
Thanks, greg, this was fun.
Thanks, john as always nexttime yeah.
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