Find Great People Align HR FGP Technology

There is nothing more important to a company’s success than hiring great people. When it comes to hiring, a team is only as strong as its weakest link. Every hiring manager wants to avoid costly mistakes in bringing the wrong people into their organization. A good way to avoid these mistakes is to hire people objectively based upon prior accomplishments and successes.

The difference between traditional hiring criteria and performance based hiring is the having of the skills versus the application of those skills in the doing of activities.

Companies will typically hire based upon a candidate’s having skills. The skills are years of experience, degrees, certifications, software, hardware experience etc. They become a laundry list of items the company feels a person needs to possess to be successful. These are skills they have gained throughout their career and over time. Do these skills guarantee a person will be successful? When an organization promotes someone internally, the predictability of future performance is usually very accurate. Why? The company is dealing with a “known quantity.” They know the employee’s having skills, but more importantly, what they do with those skills, which is referred to as the “doing skills.” They are specifically evaluating the internal candidate’s past performance--proven ability, drive, leadership, talent etc. when making an internal hiring decision. Why not use the same criteria to evaluate and hire talent external to an organization? The difference between traditional hiring criteria and performance based hiring is the having of the skills versus the application of those skills in the doing of activities.

Fundamental Principles

The way a company builds a foundation for Performance Based Hiring is to adopt four fundamental principles and start creating a culture focused on hiring “great” people. This information comes from “Hire With Your Head” by Lou Adler.

• Performance Profiles: If a company is going to hire great people based on previous performance, they must first define superior performance for the positions within their organization.
• Objective Evaluation: After a company has identified a benchmark of performance traits, behaviors, experiences and skills for the position, they then objectively evaluate people based upon previous performance--best predictor of future performance.
• Wide-Ranging Sourcing: The company treats potential employees as a customer not a subordinate. If you are evaluating superior talent, you have to sell them on the opportunity as much as they are selling you on what they can add to the organization.
• Emotional Control: It is very easy to become subjective when evaluating potential new team members. Under performance based hiring, the company must remain objective and measure performance first, then personality. This is a behavior that has to typically be taught to the hiring managers within the organization.

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