I once worked for a computing company that was acquired by a businessperson who ran a business unrelated to computers. He then hired someone overseas to run this business as general manager, bypassing the existing team with field and industry experience.
The new entrant lacked experience in our local market and a deep understanding of the local consumer psyche. Coupled with inadequate management practices, he quickly brought the business to ruin. Fortunately, I left way before the business crashed to the floor.
All too often, in my consulting with clients, I noticed that some businesses gravitated to filling vacancies rather than taking the time and labour to find the right people. Invariably, the candidates that got hired shipped out rather unceremoniously after some time, sometimes even abruptly.
Finding the right people is about personality, commitment, and curiosity. If you have the right personality, can commit to making things happen, and are naturally curious about everything, you will likely be able to conquer any challenge that comes your way.
Curiosity is unrelated to age so that you can have a younger candidate with preconceived notions about everything without curiosity or an older candidate with plenty of curiosity and openness to new ideas and learning.
Profile early
"How, then, do you discern personality, commitment, and curiosity? You need at least three things: the candidate's application correspondence, a profiling test, and an interview (or more)."
Yes, even in today's fast-paced world, I recommend businesses continue to ask candidates to send in application correspondence through email. The reason is simple: you can immediately tell if these candidates care about their written communication and have some persuasion or interest. In the age of AI, do remember to run the correspondence through hosted AI detection tools such as Copyleaks to see if these candidates put in the time at all.
Second, we can test candidates for profiling if they meet the minimum requirements for decent correspondence. For all the candidates I have profiled and selected, I have seen a high percentage of them able to work with teams collegially and fit corporate requirements.
There are many profiling tests out there, including MBTI (Myer-Briggs Type Indicator with 16 personality types) and derivatives such as TypeFinder®, Enneagram (with nine personality types), Big Five (with four personality traits), and the DISC (with four behavioural styles).
I have utilized MBTI quite successfully, and it should serve as your secondary screening tool to determine whether these candidates can effectively integrate into your business and collaborate with your current team. The caveat is that you should ideally profile your entire business before you continue to profile new candidates so that you know how best to find people who can work well with your existing people. Truity is an option to consider when using MBTI or Enneagram tests. If you are a sizable business and aim to do much more than profiling, the Predictive Index talent optimization platform can also be a beneficial option.
Your last firewall
The third stage is to have all shortlisted candidates face an interview panel. Don't rush to hire and offer. Instead, assemble a panel of diverse department leads with varying backgrounds and experiences, enabling the candidates to demonstrate their behaviour in front of real people and potential colleagues.
Ask questions and test candidates on industry-relevant topics. If you are a hospital, just because someone has the academic credential does not prove competence. If there are simulation facilities available, put them through it.
Commercial pilots undergo testing in flight simulators to assess their competence and composure under pressure. If you are seeking developers, consider administering tests related to coding or debugging. You can assess candidates' skills and knowledge for both soft and technical competencies using iMocha.
Self-starters?
Once you hire the right people, they should be self-starters who require minimal guidance, can independently learn, and possess the resourcefulness to solve problems. This is where businesses can develop and maintain their own LMS (learning management system) to engage employees with up-to-date information and knowledge. The LMS can include tests and exams, multimedia content like slides, narrations, and videos, and it also allows you to track the internal knowledge your employees possess.
The open-source Moodle platform is excellent as an LMS for creating content, engaging your employees, and monitoring their progress. You can integrate LearnPress, a plugin, into your existing WordPress website. One of the easiest ways to create learning content is through Zoom Workplace (or equivalent) sessions, where you can turn these into audio and video segments.
For slides, although you can create traditionally through MS PowerPoint or Apple Keynote, the age of AI has also offered tools such as Beautiful.ai, where you can choose a template from a library, create each slide with a prompt, and output to the PPT format for cross-platform and desktop use.
Empower and set free
One of my best memories is working for a leading American bank in the 1980s as the publications lead in their regional training centre. My boss set the basic goals he needed and gave me complete latitude to gather resources and get things done. I found motivation and even took on additional responsibilities to manage the mid-range server at the centre.
"Leaders show direction, give ample freedom and resources to employees, and then get out of the way. Empowering employees and trusting them to accomplish tasks is the fastest and shortest path to collective success."
