The Art of Selecting The Right Candidate for a Position

Have you ever hired a candidate who was a perfect match for the job description only to find eventually that the person did not have the behaviors or personal talents needed to be a team player? If so, you are in good company, because it happens often in the selection process.

Recently a client reported that a candidate made a great impression in the interview. Candidates, who need a position, are never better as salespeople or as presenters than when they represent their skills and talents in a job interview. This discrepancy is only natural – especially during this high-pressure time.

During the time when I offered a team-building program to my clients, I profiled over 14,000 people whom I worked with one-on-one for nearly a year. During that time, I discovered there were many employees and managers who were in the wrong line of work for the personal talents they possessed. Their profiles revealed personal stress; some of them reported that they had had this stress for many years.

People grow up in environments that lead them to believe the lifestyles of their parents or guardians are right for them. However, this is not always the case. Most of us develop a set of skills that reward us from an early age, but as we grow, our first sets of skills are no longer valuable; therefore, we develop new sets of skills. Furthermore, we begin to form behaviors that either match our skills or do not. If behaviors and skills do not match, a person becomes stressed until the behaviors and skills become coordinated, at which point the person becomes balanced and productive.

The trick for the hiring manager and the candidate is to match the candidate to the position. One would think that candidates should know if positions they apply for are right for them, but this is not the case for many hires. When employees or managers are in work environments that do not match their personal talents, their stress levels go up little by little every day. The candidate’s resume may state that his or her work history is similar to the position you need to fill. However, if you do not have accurate information about what personal talents they possess, then you will not have a match. Rather, you’ll have a hope and prayer that the hiring will work out for the both of you.

How to Fix the Problem

Job descriptions are not enough. Getting the job description to speak to the key accountabilities will provide you and the candidate with a level playing field. You will know what you need, and the candidate will know what is expected. The job description defines the technical skills needed for the position, and the benchmark defines the personal talents necessary for the employee to be successful in the position.

Benchmarking a position calls for three to eight company stakeholders (i.e., employees who have a stake in the company’s success) to come together and form a consensus view for the following questions.

• What is the purpose of the position, beyond what the job description calls for?
• What are the key measurable results you are looking for from this position, beyond what the job description calls for?
  
• What are some of the current changes taking place in either the marketplace or the company that affect this position, and what happens if this position is not filled?
  

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