Recruiting the Best Candidate for the Job

Tracy Briseño

Customer Account Services Manager

Ames Public Library

Ames, Iowa

Background on my hiring experience

I’ve been a manager for 6 years I have been the hiring manager for:

• Hourly shelving positions (many)

• ½ time clerk positions (15 times)

• ½ time and ¾ time library assistant positions (3)

• Full time Operations Coordinator position (1)

• Currently involved in a Director search

Why

Bad fits cause problems/issues for:

• you as a trainer

• your new hire

• your team

• internal customer service

• external customer service

• your organization all together

Why do people fail?

Hiring for Attitude• Coachability

• Emotional intelligence

• Motivation

• Temperment

• Technical competence

Tracy’s experience• All of the above plus

• Expectations mis-match

• Not the right fit for the job

Mismatch of expectations

• Hours

• Time of day

• Weekends

• Job responsibilities (both directions)

• Physicality of the job

• Promotional opportunities

Position Description

Before you post – review your job description

• Does it speak to the overview of the position as well as the day to day tasks

• Does it speak to the level of authority

• Does it speak to the things that might be unique to your library

• Do the qualifications and experience required match your needs

• Is it at the correct level and # of hours

Posting

• This is your opportunity to speak more to culture

• This might be an opportunity to reach out through different avenues to target specific kinds of candidates

• Think through your posting – would someone move for this job or are you looking to hire locally?

• Is it appropriate to use social media

• What are the perks of this position that might attract a candidate?

Hiring For Attitude

Characteristics of low performers

• When you think of the people you spend the most time cleaning up after, coaching, disciplining, or throwing up your hands about, what do they do or not do?

Characteristics of high performers

• Who can you trust with a ambiguous goal, big challenge, or do you want training everyone else? What do they do consistently that makes them stand out?

Evaluating applicants

Do they speak to your organization or your job?

Does their availability match your position?

Do grammar and spelling mistakes disqualify individuals?

• Some of my top performers made errors on their application for promotional positions

• Could the error speak to using a second or third language?

• Could perfect applications be filled out by someone other than your applicant?

Purpose of different questions

Supplemental

• Supplemental questions should be tightly focused with a clear purpose. They should help to compare candidates or ensure necessary skills.

• Gives you information about how your candidate thinks

• Questions that can be researched a bit or thought through for longer periods of time

• Helps you to narrow based on fit for your organization

Purpose of different questions

• Phone interview

• Helps to exclude people from the next step

• Tough situational questions work because you hear on the fly how they would handle the situation

• Should have an opportunity for a great answer, a good answer and a bad answer

Interview Prep

• Create your behavior based questions to match your organizational culture and suss out high and low performers

• Determine if a test of some sort is required to ascertain hard skills proficiency

Interview Questions

• They must relate to the job

• Avoid illegal questions – Are you planning to get pregnant in the next year?

• You must know (and agree among your hiring team) what a good answer looks like and what warning signs look like.

• Lead with a general statement that describes your work atmosphere

• Boss question

• Scenario questions

Interview Questions

• Avoid useless questions - What’s your favorite animal? What was the last book that you read?

• No leading questions – In our culture of teamwork, everyone must work together for us to be successful. Give me an example of when you worked in a team and were successful.

• No hypothetical questions – What would you do if faced with a challenging customer?

Language

High Performers

I/Me

Past tense

Active voice

Positive emotions

Low Performers

You/(S)He/It

Present/future tense

Passive voice

Negative emotions

More negation, waffling, absolutes

Score immediately!

• While they are fresh

• Before you see another candidate

• Before bias or ratings creep can come into play

You hire your problems

Concerns you see in past performance, application, or interview process are likely to crop up again. Are you willing to work with those problems or are they deal breakers.

A note on internal candidates: You have more information at your disposal –use it!

Examples: Jane Doe 1 – many sick days

Jane Doe 2 – abrasive personality

Reference Checks

• Check with previous employers – don’t just call their hand selected individuals

• Ask the same questions each time – probe if necessary

Offer

• Be clear and upfront about expectations, salary offer, and any concerns.

• Give time frame and ask them to keep it quiet for the time being

1st day

• Start out on the right foot

• Tour & introductions

• Training preparation materials

• Overview of training plan

• Clear job related expectations

Questions?