Advice > PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
Add Horsepower to Your Hiring Process A
ny hiring decision can be a gamble, and a lot can complicate the process or go wrong between receiving resumes, interviewing applicants, making an offer, and assessing the first 90 days of employment. When dealing with people, always expect the unexpected. Many times, I have been shocked by a candidate’s actions. Once, after confirming the 10 a.m. interview time via phone and an accepted calendar invite, the candidate called me at 9:30 a.m., asking when he could “stop by.” After I confirmed we had a 10 a.m. meeting, he was still 10 minutes late. The example is a mild one among head-scratching weirdness. Often, hiring managers make hiring decisions based only on a candidate’s resume, while others rely on their biased opinions plus the little they can garner during phone/in-person interviews. Much the way diesel engines provide more power, better torque and towing capacity than gas engines do, job candidate tests add more decision-making power to the selection process. Diesel engines last longer, and the primary goal of hiring top talent is to retain them. Nothing is worse than losing a top employee who gets the job, enjoys the job, and is competent to
do the job. Using data to understand employees will go a long way toward keeping your top talent from leaving. Sure, retaining staff takes more work, but all good things do.
Take Out the Guesswork
Will the applicant work well with the individual mix at your dealership? Is the candidate a team player, or will they work better on their own? Does the candidate have grace under fire or a short fuse? Does your top sales management candidate truly possess the assertiveness to lead your sales team, or will they cave to every crazy demand? When the position for which you are recruiting could benefit from a specific personality type, focusing on the traits you need makes sense. Do not miss a valuable opportunity to gain insight into a candidate that is difficult to discern via a resume, especially when so many resumes contain more fiction than truth. Compatibility with your business’s needs and values is one employee success predictor. Compatibility data can help determine whether the person fits in with your company culture. Although you do not want all
workers marching in lockstep, they should mix well. For example, when hiring a leader, you might seek an assertive, resilient, fast-paced person who is comfortable motivating people. Doing so ensures tasks will get done while maintaining staff engagement. Conversely, if you are seeking a service technician, assertiveness may not be as important. You likely are pursuing someone detailed, compliant and analytical. The only way to improve reliability and boost your hiring success is by using as much data as possible to evaluate each candidate. No single tool should suffice in your process. An interview is powerful but not as powerful as using a phone screen, two or three interviews, job shadowing, skills testing, assessments, reference checking and background checks. The more you know, the better you will feel about your selections. Using a single method to hire is like trying to power a Type A motorhome with a moped engine.
Communication Style Is Important Some people work well by tackling the limited information they are
given. Others require more detailed, thorough instructions. Some will not act on requests unless they see and understand the reasons to do so. Some jobs require an ability to work boldly, even when information is scarce, while others require an ability to stop progress to collect and confirm information. Think about the difference between a salesperson and a service technician. Service technicians cannot afford to guess when working on a customer’s engine. Salespeople, however, might guess a consumer’s RV preferences using clues ascertained as they walk the lot with the customer, even if the potential buyer is uncertain what they want. By understanding a candidate’s communication style and dependence on structure, you can decide if the person best fits the open position. Likewise, knowing an employee’s preferred way to work and to receive information keeps operations running smoothly. Employees can then have a quantifiable impact on efficiency and productivity. The test is no substitute for employee training. However, determining a candidate’s ability to understand concepts and deal with complexity can better your odds of finding someone who will respond well to training. Every candidate claims to have problem-solving skills. The vast majority are correct. However, you need to ascertain how well they solve problems. By doing so, you will immediately know if you are working with a sharp thinker.
Take Personal Bias Out
Sometimes, you just click with a candidate. You wish the applicant would be the right fit because you can see yourself socializing with 66
RV News | January 2022
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