What Happens When You Update Your Hiring Practices?

sales-hiring-assessments-01The short answer: you will find great qualified job candidates.

Yet, many of you are lamenting, “I don’t believe that … there aren’t any qualified candidates looking for a job.”

Look again. They are out there! They will not waste their time applying for and interviewing with companies using out-dated hiring systems and practices.

The bad news is, if you keep hiring the way you’ve been hiring, you’ll keep the same results and miss out on the good ones.

Q4 will arrive soon. Now is the time to review why your qualified job candidate pipeline has shrunk and how to improve it for 2019.

7 Critical Selection Factors to Improve!

  1. Cost of Hiring Mistakes. It’s important to know the true cost of making hiring mistakes. This information will impact decision-makers to make the right changes needed.
  2. Objective Data. To improve your decision-making process use good objective data. It ensures that you are hiring for job fit, are aware of the skills needed and can plan for future workforce needs.
  3. Due diligence. Conducting background, education, theft and reference checks are important. To uncover honesty and integrity issues not found in public records, use qualified core value assessment tools.
  4. Job Postings. Well written and attractive job ads are the key to finding active and passive job seekers! Hire an outside company or have your marketing team put together the job ads. Keep your ATS up-to-date, easy to use and mobile friendly. Remember, you only get one opportunity to grab their interest.
  5. Biases. Selecting applicants and making job offers based on gut reactions or other biases will limit your applicant pool. And, not in a good way. Examples include:
  • 50+. These workers are amazing. They show up. They don’t job hop. They get the work done. Yet, their expertise is often overlooked.
  • 25-. These are our future workers. Hiring and training them now will support your company’s workforce in the future.
  1. Onboarding. This critical practice should begin the minute they apply. Engaging them immediately keeps their interest high. Use chat and other electronic messaging to stay in communication. And, remember keep it user-friendly.
  2. Key Words. For every job post, your key words should be reviewed and updated. For example, the key word CPA will overlook qualified job candidates for accounting positions.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2018

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Jeannette Seibly has been recognized as a catalyst and leadership expert for the past 25 years. As an executive coach, speaker and author, she provides straight talk with dynamic results. Does your company need to upgrade how you hire your employees? Are you open to making the needed changes? Don’t wait or it might too late. Contact Jeannette now for a preliminary confidential conversation.

How to Recover Quickly from a Bad Hiring Decision

imagesU4QT41U3No one likes to admit they made a bad hiring decision. However, as a hiring manager, it’s always possible you will fail to hire the right person for the right job.

What makes it harder is that you’ve invested lots of time and energy into a long and arduous interview process. However, hanging on to a bad hire isn’t going to change the person! While there are times it will not be a clear-cut decision to reassign someone or let them go, it’s important to never sacrifice your business, great employees or customers by keeping someone who cannot or will not do the job.

First … Get Real about Your Decision

  1. Admit it. Denial isn’t helpful and will hurt you and your company’s reputation the longer you hang on to the bad hire.
  2. Create a professional development plan. For example, if someone has limited outside sales experience, have them shadow several top salespeople. Then, the sales manager should go with them on calls. Well-defined sales indicators (e.g., number of calls, appointments, presentations and new customers) and a qualified assessment can uncover where to focus coaching efforts.
  3. Talk candidly with the person. Many times, she or he did their best to land the job interview without truly understanding the job requirements. This is a good time to review expectations. For example, cold calls are a norm for outside salespeople — something good salespeople enjoy and others despise.
  4. Evaluate them for a different position within the company. Use or review the qualified assessment to determine what you missed when interviewing the candidate. What did you assume? What did you ignore? Did you make your decision based solely on the interview without including the assessment results (which should be 1/3 of the hiring decision)?
  5. Talk with HR and/or legal before terminating them. When you fire someone, make sure to include a key employee during the exit process as a witness. Be sure all passwords and proprietary information are collected immediately. Keep in mind that no exit interview is required.
  6. When termination may be the best solution:
  • – The employee misrepresented his or her skills.
  • – The employee has excellent skills but is a terrible team player.
  • – The employee does not follow basic company policies, despite warnings.
  • – Theft or drugs are involved.
  • – It would cost more money and time to invest in the employee than your company can realistically afford.

According to Insperity, the average U.S. employer spends about $4,000 and 52 days to hire a new person. A bad hire will diminish management, co-workers and customers’ confidence and hurt your P&L. Find out the real costs you incur when a bad hiring decision is made by using the Hiring Calculator. This will help you understand the need to improve your hiring practices.

Second, Review and Improve Your Hiring Decisions

After firing Candidate #1 and before contacting Candidate #2, take a candid look at your current hiring process. (Hint: One great idea is to bring in an objective facilitator to strategically review your hiring process and, if necessary, build a new one.)

Consider the following:

  1. Use an ATS system that pushes job postings to many sites to attract more qualified candidates.
  2. Review the job description and rewrite it to attract better candidates.
  3. Share the rewritten job description and get agreement before restarting the hiring process.
  4. Use qualified job fit assessments to better understand candidates’ natural strengths and weaknesses.
  5. Deep-dive into candidates’ responses to better understand the quality of their skills. (Note: Just because they have skills doesn’t mean they will use them.)
  6. Conduct complete due diligence and use a qualified core value assessment. Remember, over 70 percent of resumes contain inaccuracies. For example, it’s critical to validate the name of previous employers and job titles, actual base salary and actual dates of work, etc. Read Hire Amazing Employees for additional insights.
  7. No one wants to admit their personal biases override common sense. But studies have shown we make decisions within 4.3 minutes of meeting a candidate and spend the rest of the interview validating our biases. Stay out of this trap.
  8. Prepare for the interview. Winging an interview today is simply rude, and many job applicants will say no to the job offer if you are unprepared.
  9. Conduct several interviews with more than one top candidate. Candidates today are savvy and will often say what you want to hear rather than the whole truth. For example, asking, “Are you familiar with QuickBooks?” and having them say yes does not mean they know how to use it. Instead, say, “Tell me about your proficiency in using QuickBooks.” Then, deep-dive into their responses to determine actual skill strength.

Acting wisely and quickly will improve your hiring decisions and make the difference in attracting and retaining great employees.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2017

Need a speaker or facilitator for your company’s executive group? Have issues to address? Conflicts to resolve? Contact Jeannette Seibly. She will provide confidential, laser-focused coaching that works! 

Jeannette Seibly is celebrating 25 years as a business coach, advisor and consultant. Do you have a hiring system that needs to be updated, really updated? Are you willing to make simple and effective changes? Check out her website , or contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation.

High-Impact Hiring Practices for Amazing Results

strategic hiring4We all love to celebrate amazing hires. These exceptional candidates make our day. Yet rarely do we take the time to strategize about how to find more of them.

When creating CRM systems (customer relationship management), managing sales teams or producing quality products, we take the time to review specific changes that are required to ensure the right results: in other words, what worked and what didn’t work. How can we use the same process to positively impact our hiring and selection practices? In short, by learning how to improve our selection practices rather than relying on gimmicks, false promises and cute ads.

First, Get Real about the Costs

Many companies believe that if their turnover is less than the industry average, they are doing well. The truth is, turnover still impacts the bottom line, leads to the loss of top talent and is a red flag to qualified candidates. Additionally, it also negatively impacts current and future customers because turnover can translate to a less-than-satisfying experience. Use our New Hiring Calculator to get the real picture about your hiring costs!

Second, Review Less-Obvious Concerns

Inexperienced Interviewer. Experienced job applicants need good and honest conversations about what to expect from the position, company and career opportunities … not canned answers.

Lengthy Application Process. Shorten the process and feature your company’s benefits and job requirements. Include short video clips about why the company is a great employer.

Bad Interview Questions. Failing to ask job-specific questions and deep-dive into candidate responses will create a false impression and lead to candidates turning down job offers.

Focusing Only on the Money. Remember, today’s employees are very interested in training for career advancement in addition to a competitive paycheck. Talk about both.

Poor Job Fit. According to a Gallup poll, over 71 percent of employees are working in jobs that don’t fit them. Use incredibly accurate qualified assessments for hiring, coaching and managing. These effective tools can improve job satisfaction and your hiring success.

Third, Include These Practices to Positively Impact Results

Define an Exceptional Hire. Ask yourself and your team, “What does an amazing hire look like today? In three months? Six months? A year from now?” Now, rewrite the job description with those answers in mind. Ask your marketing department for their input when you create an exciting and enticing job posting to advertise this newly conceptualized position.

Make Promises. Ask yourself and your team, “Why should applicants want to work for us? How will this job help their career now and in the future? What specific training and development can we offer them?” Now, keep those promises!

Create a 180-Day Onboarding Plan. The plan should include on-the-job training, meetings (one-on-one and in groups), company and trade conferences, etc. Keep this list short and on point. Remind applicants during the interview process and the 180-day onboarding period to listen, learn and ask questions. rather than talk too much.

Assign an Internal Mentor and an External Coach. An internal mentor can help a new employee or executive navigate the written policies and unwritten expectations of your company. An external coach can confidentially allow them to vent concerns and not hurt their chances for future promotions or job assignments. Both can guide them to make better decisions, work effectively with and through others, and achieve intended goals. These are important skills for all employees to develop.

Use Qualified Assessments. Using objective data will accurately show you the inherent strengths and weaknesses of a candidate. Knowing these details will expedite selecting and onboarding job candidates for great results. Remember, while people may have the skills, they may not wish to use them! For example, selecting an applicant as a bank loan officer requires more than previous experience. Are they good at working with people, are they proficient with numbers and do they have an interest in networking? If not, they will not normally succeed.

Customize Individual Career Pathways. Clear pathways should begin immediately upon hire. Use the data from the qualified assessment and what the employee wishes to achieve when designing them. Provide alternative career paths and compensation packages that include two options: managing others or being an independent contributor.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2017

Need a speaker or facilitator for your company’s executive group? Have issues to address? Conflicts to resolve? Contact Jeannette Seibly. She will provide confidential, laser-focused coaching that works!

Jeannette Seibly is celebrating 25 years as a business coach, advisor and consultant. Do you have unresolvable issues that you need to transform? Are you willing to make simple and effective changes? Check out her website , or contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation.

Want to Attract Better Candidates and Great Employees?

strategic hiring

Companies today are experiencing difficulties attracting the better candidates they want to hire. As a result, great employees leave because of their frustration with the employer’s turnover, disruption of services and other issues. These issues can be easily avoided by using first-rate hiring systems and selection practices. The question is, are you doing all the right things to strategically improve your company’s results (regardless of the size and revenues of your company)?

Strategically Fine-Tune Your Systems for Better Hiring Results

Did you know that top talent is 3 to 6 times more productive than your average employee? Experiencing actual results and the positive difference great employees provide will have you wanting to hire more of them! Unfortunately, many companies today are failing to attract and select the right people because they rely on gimmicks, post poorly written job ads and use non-qualified assessments. It’s a costly problem that can be resolved by strategically reviewing how to attract better candidates and retain great employees.

Ask yourself the following questions:

Do You Know Your Numbers? Get real about the company’s numbers! Unfortunately, many companies do not effectively track the cost of turnover, administrative and training time, and the impact on their customers (to name a few of the tangible and intangible costs of bad hires). Believing you’ve done all you can do when your company’s turnover is less than the industry average is foolish. It only hurts your company’s bottom line and its ability to attract better candidates and retain great employees!

Who Are You Really Seeking? Clarity can help you attract and select better candidates. Focus on what you really need now and in the near future. Too often we simply dust off the job description when someone leaves. Take the time (it doesn’t need to be a long, drawn-out process) to brainstorm and uncover what the company really needs. Hire a facilitator and select a couple of top employees to objectively uncover the traits, job responsibilities and other competencies that will make a true difference in growing your business.

Do You Have the Right Online Presence? Take time to review third-party sites for postings about your company from former employees, then, address them. A company’s negative online reputation is often caused by disgruntled employees, bad bosses and non-competitive pay! This can limit the ability to attract better candidates!

Do You Use the Right ATS? Finding the right job candidates, including passive job seekers, requires that you do your homework. Not all automated tracking systems (ATS) are created equal (like anything else in life). Avoid bells and whistles (aka gimmicks), since they can actually inhibit better candidates from applying.

ATS enhancements you want to have:

  • Use a fast and easy application process that works on mobile devices … if you lose applicants now, they rarely return.
  • Use systems that push job ads to job boards and provide search engine optimization—do not rely on your company’s name and website to draw traffic to you.
  • Better candidates want to know more about the company. Include quick and short bullet-point information about the company, very short (1- or 2-minute) product videos and video testimonials from great employees (remember, applicants today have shorter attention spans).

Are You Posting the Right Job Ads? Applicants today are attracted to on-the-job training, rapid advancement and a competitive salary, so include this information in all job ads. Candidates will overlook your company when job ad titles are misleading, boring or jargony—it’s why companies receive too many non-qualified applications. Remember, it’s important to use the company’s name and address, since blind ads do not attract potentially great employees.

Are You Using Qualified Assessments? Getting to know the real person is critical to hiring great employees who fit the job and company culture! While assessments have been around since the beginning of humankind, most are not compliant with the Department of Labor’s 13 requirements for pre-employment and promotion use. Relying on information from non-qualified assessments only shows you how candidates want to be seen NOT who they really are. When you use smoke and mirrors to hire, you cannot expect to hire top talent!

What Do You Talk About in Your Interviews? The purpose of job interviews is to talk about the job requirements, your company’s goals and the candidate’s ability to excel at the job and in your company. The biggest challenge is that many hiring bosses don’t take the time to improve their interviewing skills and rely on biases and inappropriate interview questions before making job offers. As a result, today’s top talent will simply say no to working for these bosses.

Is Your Due Diligence Thorough? Improving your hiring successes requires collecting the right objective data. While collecting public data from background checks is important, relying solely upon it creates avoidable hiring mistakes. Statistically, 75 percent of resumes and applications contain inaccurate information (and you only have about a 15 percent chance of discovering it during the interview). In addition to conducting background checks (these should include every state in which the applicant has worked), include qualified core value assessments (which measure values such as honesty and integrity), education and employment verifications, and employer and professional reference checks to uncover non-public information.

Remember, great employees are out there! Your success in attracting better candidates requires improving your company’s hiring systems and selection practices. Ask and answer the above questions so you can do the right things in a strategic and cost-effective manner.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2017

Does your company need a strategic review of your hiring systems and selection practices? Contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation regarding how to get the best answers to the above questions. With over 35 years of experience in hiring, she can pinpoint and resolve issues to positively impact your bottom line!

Jeannette Seibly is laser sharp at identifying the leverage points that will take a business and its team to the next level of performance and success. She has been a business advisor and executive coach for over 24 years; along the way, she’s guided the creation of three millionaires and million-dollar results for employers across the United States. Also, she is a PXT SelectTM Certified Professional and Authorized Partner. Check out her website, or contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation.

Rev Up Your Bottom Line Using Qualified Hiring Assessments

It’s 2016 and many companies are focused on increasing sales, saving money and improving profitability while finalizing budgets and plans for the year. They will spend a lot of time evaluating equipment and systems to ensure the best ROI. However, they will almost always fail to take the same amount of care when selecting and managing their most important asset—their employees!  As a result, they’ll miss many opportunities to hire the right people, and often lose top talent and customers due to their mistakes, costing them time, money and market share. No matter the size of your company, the biggest mistake is whether or not you are using the right tools to hire the right people.

Cost of Poor Hiring Practices

Many managers know their turnover rate. And, many don’t. Some are proud that it is below industry standard. However, they may not have quantified the financial impact of turnover on their bottom line, or they may be in denial that they can do anything to improve it.

When you take the time required to actually see the real cost of a bad hire, promoting the wrong person or losing a talented employee, you will realize you must objectively assess potential job candidates for job fit, core values and required skills. Using qualified assessments (instead of hiring by gut alone) will significantly lower theft, cost of turnover, workers’ compensation, unemployment and other employment/liability claims when used appropriately.

Why Should You Select Qualified Hiring Assessments?

There are over 3,000 publishers of assessment products in the market. Most assessments do not comply with the Department of Labor’s guidelines for pre-employment use (See: Testing and Assessment: An Employer’s Guide to Good Practices, Department of Labor*). High-quality and qualified tools will have technical manuals (not just a letter from a law firm) to ensure each assessment meets the validity and reliability specifications for pre-employment and selection purposes. Ask for the technical manual and refuse to use an assessment for pre-employment purposes without one. This is one of the key factors in lowing turnover since using a less-than-qualified assessment rarely makes a difference.

Qualified Assessments Are Incredibly Accurate

Not only is using the right assessment of legal importance, using tools that actually have the highest validity and reliability will measure people accurately and objectively—a requirement for predicting future success. People are like icebergs: they only let you see what they want you to see – what you don’t see is more significant than what you do see! The best assessments provide you with the ability to become a laser-like coach while improving your selection process and reducing costs.

Remember, any tool, system or process used during the hiring or promotion process must comply with pre-employment requirements.

When you select the right qualified assessments and use them as directed, they work and will positively rev up your bottom line in 2016 and beyond.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2015-2016

*Contact SeibCo for a copy of the DOL regulations @ http://SeibCo.com/contact

Source: Hire Amazing Employees, Chapter 11, “Assess for Job Fit—Use Qualified Assessments,” http://BizSavvyHire.com

Jeannette Seibly has been a business advisor and facilitator for over 23 years; she guides the creation of new solutions for business challenges and is the author of Hire Amazing Employees (http://BizSavvyHire.com). Check out her website: http://SeibCo.com or contact Jeannette at http://SeibCo.com/contact.

Emotional hiring can be dangerous!

Many executives are good decision-makers or they wouldn’t have the title. However, many are so busy that they fail to listen during interviews unless the candidate says the right things. Then their impulsiveness and impatience kicks in and they hire people that “feel like the right ones”! Hiring based on intuitive powers may sound great, but in reality it is an excuse for not using a strategic hiring system.  

Anytime you hire someone who doesn’t fit all the necessary job requirements but has the likeability factor, you’re doomed for failure. Frequent job-seekers—people with backgrounds to hide and manipulative types—have honed their interview skills well! They know what to say and how to sell themselves to get a job. They know how to be likeable.

Infuse objectivity early in the hiring process. (http://wp.me/p2POui-nj ) This will significantly reduce the possibility of interviewing these types of job candidates and falling into the emotional hiring trap. Use a structured interview process, qualified assessments, and due diligence. Call those references! (Learn how to hire the right person. Get your copy of Hire Amazing Employees, Second Edition. It could save your own job!  http://BizSavvyHire.com)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Do you believe you’ve mastered the art of skimming resumes?

Many HR professionals and recruiters falsely believe they’ve mastered the art of skimming resumes. The sad truth is they miss out on many great candidates. Although job candidates do have a responsibility to learn how to sell themselves (http://TimeToBrag.com), reliance on reviewing hundreds of resumes with our inherent biases and limited analysis skills will not attract the right people to our enterprises. Learn how to infuse objectivity early in your hiring process and you’ll increase your qualified candidate pool while achieving better hiring results. (See: Easily Infuse Objectivity Early In Your Hiring System: http://wp.me/p2POui-nj)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Easily Infuse Objectivity Early In Your Hiring System

Did you know that requesting applicants to email or mail you resumes is outdated? Or that over 50 percent of resumes stretch the truth? Yet many companies rely solely on this data to select candidates for interviews—a poor selection practice. By doing so, they shortchange the goal of collecting good objective, valid, and reliable data in order to net truly qualified applicants.

Your hiring system speaks volumes: it’s the first impression many have of your business. Failure to utilize current technology has savvy job seekers questioning if you are a leader—or could be—in your industry. Failure to follow-up and communicate applicant status frustrates many. Top performers wish to work with winning bosses and companies that respect their time and efforts.

Using a well-designed applicant tracking system (ATS) is cost effective and allows you to post job ads and showcase your company, products, and services. It attracts qualified candidates, operates without paper, and helps you vet applicants, saving hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars. When strategically planned and followed, an ATS infuses objectivity into your hiring system early on.

Time-saving keys for ATS:

1) Require that an application form be completed. It minimizes truth-stretching (e.g., inaccurate job titles, job duties, company names, dates of employment, and titles).

2) Incorporate pre-screen questions and core value assessments to ensure objective, valid, and reliable data is used to select candidates for the next steps while weeding out unqualified ones.

3) Automatically thank applicants and make it easier to communicate with them. It’s critical to remember your applicants are future clients, vendors, suppliers, and decision-makers for awarding contracts. You want them to have a positive impression of your company. (Read Hire Amazing Employees, Second Edition for further time-saving ideas, available at BizSavvyHire.com.)

All ATSs are not all created equal. Factors to consider when choosing your ATS (taken from Hire Amazing Employees):

  • User-friendly sites can be reached within one or two clicks from the social media site or the job posting. Busy professionals need to be enticed the moment they read your online ad; most will not return—even if they have the best of intentions to do so. Make it easy for them to apply and for you to receive their information in order to infuse objectivity in your decision-making process.
  • Is there a fee for posting your openings on the ATS site?
  • What is the cost for setup and maintenance of the site?
  • Can the application form, job posting, and other pertinent information be customized?
  • Will it notify interested applicants of future positions? (That’s a great way to keep your candidate pool filled.)
  • Do your job openings easily post to job boards?
  • Can you collect EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) information? Tracking may be required if you have any government contracts (or if you are a subcontractor).
  • Is there a human verification process to reduce spam? This process prevents hackers from completing your application form and blasting resumes to you.
  • Is it easy to communicate with candidates inside the system and generate automated notifications (e.g., completion of application, request for interviews, etc.)?

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013 All Rights Reserved

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Jeannette Seibly has been hiring amazing employees for over 34 years. She delivers straight talk with immediate results to business owners and executives of $1MM to $30MM enterprises, achieving dynamic results. You may contact her at JLSeibly@SeibCo.com to discuss your hiring challenges. Get her newest book, Hire Amazing Employees, Second Edition: Improve Your Profits (and Your Work Life)! http://BizSavvyHire.com It includes templates for interviews and reference checking.