How to hire the ideal resource ?

Recently, I had come across an article by Amrita Tewari and just felt the urge to write down my thoughts on possibly the most perplexing question. "How to hire the ideal candidate ?"

Here is what I follow in the pre-hiring process:

Step 1: Having a very clear idea on who is your ideal candidate.
Getting this step right itself should take a lot of brainstorming sessions and some failure cases.

Step 2: Giving a very clear description to the HR. It takes a couple of detailed calls to make the HR be on same page.

Plus, it’s very important that the hiring manager gives a feedback on each of the candidate who was interviewed. A smart HR will incorporate these feedbacks and pull up better candidates in the succeeding batches. 

Before rolling out the offer letter, it’s essential to answer all these questions

i)              Does he / she have the capability ?

ii)             Does he / she have the right attitude ?

iii)            What really is their interest ? Why is this job important to them ?

The answer to the 2nd question is very difficult to pick. However, the last question is the key, there is no point in having a highly capable resource who lacks interest.

The brutal reality is that, even when these rigorous steps are religious followed, there is no guarantee that you will pick the right resource. But you would have greatly improved the chances of picking the ideal resource.

Post hiring:

i)                 Make the candidate feel comfortable but ensure that a professional equation is maintained.

ii)               Set clearly defined objectives. Be it their quarterly goals or even for their training session.

iii)              Set up a well defined process. It’s important that the resources get tuned to it within the first 3 months.

iv)               For all you know, the resources will not achieve their monthly or weekly objectives / goals. However, there will also be certain tasks that they will be able to perform on. Ensure that both positive and negative feedbacks are given in a timely manner. A word of caution, resources are quiet likely to turn sensitive to negative feedback. It’s important to pass on the message in a subtle but effective manner.

v)               As days goes by, the true colours of the candidates show up. In 3 months time, the manager should get a reality check and a definite answer to all the 3 questions prompted internally before hiring.

Here are the top 3 scenarios

(i)            An ideal resource should start firing in 3 months time. Appreciate yourself for a good job done. Ensure to keep the tempo on.

(ii)           The resource is able to deliver a few tasks but is not really up to the mark on a bunch of other objectives. This is a very tricky situation wherein you are unsure on what to do with the resource. Quite possible that when the resource works on the weakness, he / she could turn out to be an excellent resource. But there is a flip side as well.

It’s upto the judgement of the manager to take a call on pursuing with the resource.

(iii)          Well there are bad apples in any basket. It’s very important to let go off the bad / misfit resources as early as possible.

An attribute that I had realized pretty late in my career, it’s extremely critical to have a few rough edges. Successful corporates were able to scale the heights because they had mastered the art of love-hate relationships.

You can choose to be a nice guy in a bar but not in a battlefield.