Tuesday 22 May 2012

How to Hire the Best Candidate


Well yes... you do all the interviews and effectively ask the "tell me about" questions and kaboom you still get a lousy hire! 

Almost inevitably when interviewing for new staff you end up (before you you make the final decision) with a shortlist of say half a dozen to ten candidates.  

I read in an article on hiring managers recently that had a quote as follows:


"The biggest mistake business owners make is to get the best technical expert and assume they'll make the best manager, Paknis said". (A management consultant apparently)  

Now if you have read any number of my past blog posts you would have seen this assertion, or a similar statement quite a few times. It is a true statement. 

So how to decide. Over my years of conducting management and leadership training I have found that the real cultural, leadership, management or interpersonal skills rise to the surface during the conducting of games or exercises. So why not get your six finalists in and get your training manger in to conduct a couple of games to see how well the individuals fit into whatever role you are looking for. One I would suggest is, "Lost at Sea" ...and if you have the players stacked with a couple of astute employees you can find out about how well your candidates fit your culture and their ability to work well with your existing team. 

All this can be done in a couple of hours and will be time well spent. 

More management articles by Ric

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