Help Me Understand How Hiring Managers Hire

Consider the following. Who has the greatest ability to impact a company’s bottom line both positively and negatively? Tough one?  Not really.  It’s the hiring manager.  Each new hire makes their company weaker or stronger. 

Think back to when you stacked paper cups to build a pyramid. The higher you got, the greater the chance part of the pyramid would collapse.  You had to be patient and ensure that each cup was free from defects or your tower would be weakened prematurely. 

Now imagine if you had paper cups that were both perfect and slightly damaged.  You had to add whatever cup came next.  You quickly placed the perfect cups, but hesitantly placed the damaged cups.  You knew the damaged cups would make your tower vulnerable. 

Consider the hiring process.  There are candidates that are high performers, those that are not, and everything in between. Their resumes often look stellar.  The hiring manager needs to determine which candidates are solid, and which are flawed. 

Hiring managers have a short window to talk to the selected candidates and decide their future (which ultimately affects the company’s future).  Is the candidate a cup that will help you build a tall, stable pyramid, or are they hiding defects that will weaken your pyramid? Think Enron! Only time will tell.  It doesn’t have to be that way though.

The above scenario can be swayed in the company’s favor if hiring managers learn how to conduct a performance-based (behavioral) structured interview.  In hiring, employers don’t have to “accept whatever cup comes next.”  They can be selective!  The key is knowing how to probe deeper to uncover flaws as well as successes that can be substantiated during the interview. 

The answer lies in using a “structured Interview” that focuses on what the candidate must do very well.  The interview questions must guide the candidate in describing actual events, (how he or she did something that’s critical to what the hiring manager needs them to do).  Astute hiring managers want and need proof!

Some candidates will give rich detailed examples of their past performance, while others will be ambiguous, shallow, and brief.  Structured, performance-based interviews make it easier for managers to select the candidate who provides rich, detailed examples that they can do the job, will do the job, and will fit with your culture, team, and management style.  

Good interviewing is a “learned skill.”  If an organization has high turnover or average or below-average performers, the problem lies with untrained hiring managers who most likely relied on biases or made a gut instinct decision that turned out wrong.  A small change is all that is needed to make hiring managers hire based on past performance and recognize their hiring biases.  The key is knowing what changes to make.