Test Your Hiring IQ

The purpose of any selection process is to discriminate (albeit fairly) among job candidates. Your goal is to select the right people, with the right skills, at the right time for the right position. Have you hired anyone recently? If so, how well did you do? How many of these ten questions can you answer 'yes' to? Did YOU:

Avoid hiring in a hurry just to get a body on board

Know what you really needed - not what looked good on paper?

Get the word out to a variety of sources so that the best candidates could apply?

Pay attention to the right things during the interview - the required competencies?

Prepare for the interviews ahead of time and do your homework about what to look for?

Ask focused questions to draw out the candidate's skills, knowledge and experience?

Develop a system to compare candidates so as not to get into legal hot water?

Have real proof that the candidate can do the job - get behavioral examples?

Make a timely decision and not procrastinate for fear of making a wrong choice?

Use both your head and gut in determining the best candidate for the position?

Scoring:

8-10 'yeses' indicates you're the tops. Keep up the good work.

4 -7 'yeses' is OK. Brush up in certain areas.

0-3 means you have work to do. Make this a top priority to develop your staffing skills.

Great hires are always the result of good preparation, good information, and good decision making. You can probably teach a turkey to climb a tree - but it is easier to hire a squirrel.

Marcia Zidle, the 'people smarts' coach, works with business leaders to quickly solve their people management headaches so they can concentrate on their #1 job to grow and increase profits. She offers free help through Leadership Briefing, a weekly e-newsletter with practical tips on leadership style, employee motivation, recruitment and retention and relationship management. Subscribe by going to http://leadershiphooks.com/ and get the bonus report "61 Leadership Time Savers and Life Savers". Marcia is the author of the What Really Works Handbooks resources for managers on the front line and the Power-by-the-Hour programs fast, convenient, real life, affordable courses for leadership and staff development. She is available for media interviews, conference presentations and panel discussions on the hottest issues affecting the workplace today. Contact Marcia at 800-971-7619.

More resources:

RELATED ARTICLES

What Every HR Manager Should Know About Hiring Productive Employees
The characteristics of job applicants have a strong influence on whether or not they get hired. Their characteristics also indicate the level of their productivity.

Future Business Success - What Does Good Look Like?
When you know you need to shift up a gear, in any area of your business (or your life for that matter), it's really important to have a vivid representation of what you are seeking.Some call these "Goals", others "Visions" and yet more describe it as a "Mission".

Employee Discipline: How to Nip Problems in the Bud
Are you uncomfortable with delivering disciplinary action, even involving employees you know deserve it? You're not alone. Disciplinary action is one of the least favored tasks a supervisor must occasionally perform.

On the Road to Assertiveness
Learning to be assertive takes time, courage and the ability to recognize the situation for what is really is.You want to get something done, and you need another's help.

Turbo Charge Your Career With The Most Powerful Leadership Tool Of All: The Leadership Talk Part 3
To develop and deliver a great Leadership Talk, you must understand that every Talk has three important parts. (1) Audience Needs.

What is Six Sigma?
Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process focused on satisfying customers by delivering nearly perfect products and services. In today's competitive market, consistently maintaining satisfied customers is essential to growth and success.

More Problem-Solving Success Tips
The ability to solve complicated problems quickly is more important than ever in today's tough economy.From the time we're little kids, we're taught to solve problems by trial and error.

Déjà Vu MCI to Qwest International Inc: Can this Corporate Marriage Survive?
Current Situation:As of this writing, the MCI Board of Governors has given Verizon Communications Inc. one week to sweeten their $7.

6 Steps to Effective Communication
Effective leaders are known for being excellent communicators. Here's what to do.

Overcoming Resistance
Virtually any type of organizational change involves role transitions of some type. In light of role transitions, it is almost natural for employees to resist major changes in the workplace environment.

The Red Phone - Management Consulting in 30 Seconds or Less
Modern business faces complex problems; management often calls upon highly-specialized consultants to help them address these difficult problems. If you're ever called to help identify these most pressing issues, one of the easiest and quickest ways to start is to talk about the "Red Phone".

What Every Manager Should Know About How to Conduct Successful Meetings
Do you announce a meeting and find either no one shows up on time, they come with their own agenda, or the meeting goes on and on? If this is true in your case, then worry no more.Here are six steps to help you develop successful meetings:1.

The Leadership Imperative: Making Your Leadership Your Life
Nearly all leaders I've encountered are underachievers. They're getting a fraction of the results they are capable of.

Change Behaviors, Change Performance
Every organization is looking for the holy grail of performance enhancement, that one thing that, if it were changed even slightly, would push the productivity of a company way beyond the current level.Over the years there have been many solutions offered to the performance conundrum, from process improvement and process re-engineering to rightsizing and quality initiatives.

Five Defining Characteristics of Great CEOs
1. Personal insight.

The Best Way to Keep Track of Meetings
How should you keep track of meetings?Have you ever wanted to run away from a meeting? I worked for one of the top five companies in the US and they seemed to hold meetings to plan meetings. It absolutely drove me around the bend! I would try and multi-task like all the other participants and secretly hoped they would not call on me for any information.

Lets Flourish and Prosper!
Some say that in business as in sex: if it is good, it's great and if it is bad it's still pretty good. This does not happen to be true.

Business Innovation - Organizational Structure
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas.

Magnificent Meetings - 5 Tips for Success
Your impact at meetings will determine in a big way how well you do in your career. In other words you will rise as high as your communication skills will let you.

Dialogue: the Four Dialogic Principles For Successful Communication
"But you don't understand!" exclaimed the manager, "this new initiative is vital for our team. If it doesn't work we could all be out of a job!" "Uh-huh.