At the heart of the recruitment process is an eternal challenge — effective interviewing. Strategic Interviewing, addresses this challenge with a systematic, disciplined and logical approach. Many HR readers will find this to be a welcome roadmap toward sound interview practices. Others will find it uncomfortable in its focus on common weaknesses and its call for doing the groundwork necessary to raise the bar on interview effectiveness.
Two recent books take a look at the bigger picture of finding, developing, retaining and maximizing the performance of employees as they move into, around and out of the organization. Talent Flow offers a comprehensive model for understanding and improving the organization’s human performance level, with attention to retention issues and more. The Leadership Pipeline specifically looks at the supply and readiness of candidates for senior level positions.
Finally, we take a look at the new resource Powerful Employment Policies.
Strategic Interviewing
By Richaurd Camp, Mary Vielhaber and Jack Simonetti, Jossey-Bass (2001). At bookstores or available from Wiley Canada, 1-800-567-4797, www.wiley.com
Part of The University of Michigan Business School Management Series, this book aims to help practitioners overcome two common interview mistakes: subjectivity in asking questions and interpreting answers, and not knowing the kind of questions to ask that will predict employee performance.
The approach is a disciplined one, based on the understanding that interviewing is not a conversation, but rather a difficult process. Frequent shortcomings in interviewing include failure to reliably and validly assess the candidate’s ability to do the job, excessive talking by the interviewer, weighting of negative information more heavily than positive information and making a decision too early in the interview.
An effective interview balances three important, seemingly contradictory goals:
•accurately measure whether the candidate can do the job;
•influence the candidate’s job choice; and
•assist the candidate in making an appropriate job choice.
Strategies for managing the process include setting clear goals for each interview, training and motivating managers to conduct accurate measurement, realistic job previews and evaluating the interview process effectiveness.
Performance expectations need to be defined, in terms of goals, job barriers and competency requirements. These form the basis of the interview. Problems occur when interviewers gather too little or too much job information in the preparation phase.
A chapter is devoted to developing job-related questions — along with the answers you would consider effective and ineffective — in order to avoid the traps set by inexperienced interviewers or by “professional interviewees.” The authors emphasize throughout the book the difference between a candidate’s ability to answer interview questions skillfully and their ability to actually perform well in the job being considered.
Readers will find a variety of effective interview questioning strategies, but many may find it uncomfortable to see examples of ineffective questions, many of which have conventional HR wisdom and wide practice behind them.
Causes of poor interviews are also covered: poor structure, environmental distractions and multiple back-to-back interviews. To counter these problems, the authors provide a comprehensive interviewer guide approach and guidelines for handling the interview process and content.
Key to success is the linking of interview data with a behavioural decision and avoiding the common problems that lead to bad decisions:
•relying on personal reactions and impressions;
•using the candidates to set the level of standards; and
•using incomplete or non-job-related data.
A structured framework for candidate assessment is presented, along with a chapter addressing implementation of the strategic interviewing model — where to begin, introducing it, overcoming resistance and indicators of success.
Overall, the goal is to have an interview process driven by performance expectations rather than by the candidate’s resume. The approach applies to technical and non-technical jobs and all organizational levels.
Throughout the book, the perspectives are given from senior HR executives at a large bank, an accounting firm and the International Monetary Fund.
Talent Flow
By Joseph Rosse and Robert Levin, Jossey-Bass (2001). At bookstores or available from Wiley Canada, 1-800-567-4797, www.wiley.com
Here’s a big picture perspective on an approach to recruiting and retaining people and strengthening their performance: a talent strategy to support your organizational strategy.
“The aim for organizations today should not be to retain employees so much as to sustain a positive flow of talent. If better performers are staying longer and poor performers are moving on faster, you are sustaining a positive talent flow, and over time you will develop a high-performing workforce.” Conversely, if the talent flow is negative, performance will decrease.
The message is founded on three facts:
•people will inevitably leave your organization;
•hiring errors will inevitably occur in every hiring process; and
•some good performers will inevitably become poor performers.
Managing the talent flow presents the challenge of dealing with these realities: improving the rate of entry of good performers, minimizing counterproductive change between good and poor performance, and optimizing the exit of good and poor performers from the organization.
Turnover is described as “only the tip of the iceberg.” Even more worrisome is “adaptation” — the ways employees respond to job dissatisfaction. Adaptation can take positive forms like problem-solving to make things better or negative forms like retaliation, avoidance, exit or capitulation (staying unhappily in the situation).
A turnover triangle is presented with three dimensions:
•Individual factors which often receive too much attention, and are actually the hardest for employers and managers to deal with.
•Environment factors, the external social and economic realities, which cannot be ignored but also cannot be directly controlled.
•Workplace factors, the many variables contributing to workplace satisfaction and dissatisfaction. This is where the employer can make the biggest difference.
HRD professionals and performance consultants will find interest in a model called the “talent needs analysis” in which three categories of behaviours are identified: critical talents you need, talents you don’t need and behaviours that don’t matter. The talent flow matrix then matches specific people to the identified behaviours in order to assess overall strengths and weak areas.
The other side of the coin from attracting, retaining and managing talent is also addressed in chapters on managing talent outflow (performance-based termination), managing layoffs, and termination within the law (U.S. context).
The Leadership Pipeline
By Ram Charan, Steve Drotter and Jim Noel, Jossey-Bass (2000). At bookstores or available from Wiley Canada, 1-800-567-4797, www.wiley.com
This book has its origins in the innovative succession planning work done at General Electric in the 1970s. The focus of that work was on the transition from business manager to division executive level, and the related changes in skills and perspectives required.
The premise of the books is that an organization’s leadership pipeline may run dry, it may become clogged, or it may flow with low quality output as candidates for key positions. Results suffer, costs increase and people don’t develop properly.
Readers will find a survey of what’s involved in six leadership passages, from:
•managing self to managing others;
•managing others to managing managers;
•managing managers to functional manager;
•functional manager to business manager;
•business manager to group manager; and
•group manager to enterprise manager.
From the publisher: “The Leadership Pipeline shows today’s knowledge-driven companies how to keep their leadership ‘pipeline’ filled to ensure a steady stream of skilled leaders throughout the organization. The authors show companies how to cultivate current employees into leadership positions rather than going outside for expensive ‘stars’ who will probably quickly jump ship before reaching their full potential.
“Here is a framework for identifying future leaders by assessing their competence, planning their development, coaching them, and measuring the results of those efforts. Using stories from their experience inside top companies, the authors provide tools and techniques for creating an effective company-wide leadership development and succession planning process.”
Examples draw heavily upon experiences at GE, along with other companies including Ford and Citicorp.
Powerful Employment Policies
By Lauren Bernardi, Aurora/Canada Law Book (2000), 3-ring binder format with diskette. Available from the publisher (905) 841-6472, 1-800-263-2037
Do you really need employment policies? Are they legally binding? How should you implement and enforce policies? How do you maintain a policy handbook?
These questions are answered and extensive policy content and guidance are included here. Some key areas covered:
•recruitment and selection, hiring procedures, orientation and probation;
•job descriptions, performance evaluations, training and development;
•human rights and harassment; and
•discipline and termination.
Terms and rules of employment sections include scheduling, attendance policy, standards of conduct. A section on compensation covers pay benefits and expenses.
A manager’s reference manual is also provided, and it too can be customized to specific organizational needs. Managers receive advice in all the above policy areas and on topics like effective leadership, corporate philosophy and code of conduct, employee feedback, discipline, conflict of interest and the employee assistance program.
Sample forms are provided for a dozen needs including reference checking, overtime records and vacation requests.
Ray Brillinger is a senior consultant with the IBM Consulting Group. He provides change management, business transformation and organization effectiveness services to client organizations. He can be reached at (905) 316-8733 or [email protected].
Two recent books take a look at the bigger picture of finding, developing, retaining and maximizing the performance of employees as they move into, around and out of the organization. Talent Flow offers a comprehensive model for understanding and improving the organization’s human performance level, with attention to retention issues and more. The Leadership Pipeline specifically looks at the supply and readiness of candidates for senior level positions.
Finally, we take a look at the new resource Powerful Employment Policies.
Strategic Interviewing
By Richaurd Camp, Mary Vielhaber and Jack Simonetti, Jossey-Bass (2001). At bookstores or available from Wiley Canada, 1-800-567-4797, www.wiley.com
Part of The University of Michigan Business School Management Series, this book aims to help practitioners overcome two common interview mistakes: subjectivity in asking questions and interpreting answers, and not knowing the kind of questions to ask that will predict employee performance.
The approach is a disciplined one, based on the understanding that interviewing is not a conversation, but rather a difficult process. Frequent shortcomings in interviewing include failure to reliably and validly assess the candidate’s ability to do the job, excessive talking by the interviewer, weighting of negative information more heavily than positive information and making a decision too early in the interview.
An effective interview balances three important, seemingly contradictory goals:
•accurately measure whether the candidate can do the job;
•influence the candidate’s job choice; and
•assist the candidate in making an appropriate job choice.
Strategies for managing the process include setting clear goals for each interview, training and motivating managers to conduct accurate measurement, realistic job previews and evaluating the interview process effectiveness.
Performance expectations need to be defined, in terms of goals, job barriers and competency requirements. These form the basis of the interview. Problems occur when interviewers gather too little or too much job information in the preparation phase.
A chapter is devoted to developing job-related questions — along with the answers you would consider effective and ineffective — in order to avoid the traps set by inexperienced interviewers or by “professional interviewees.” The authors emphasize throughout the book the difference between a candidate’s ability to answer interview questions skillfully and their ability to actually perform well in the job being considered.
Readers will find a variety of effective interview questioning strategies, but many may find it uncomfortable to see examples of ineffective questions, many of which have conventional HR wisdom and wide practice behind them.
Causes of poor interviews are also covered: poor structure, environmental distractions and multiple back-to-back interviews. To counter these problems, the authors provide a comprehensive interviewer guide approach and guidelines for handling the interview process and content.
Key to success is the linking of interview data with a behavioural decision and avoiding the common problems that lead to bad decisions:
•relying on personal reactions and impressions;
•using the candidates to set the level of standards; and
•using incomplete or non-job-related data.
A structured framework for candidate assessment is presented, along with a chapter addressing implementation of the strategic interviewing model — where to begin, introducing it, overcoming resistance and indicators of success.
Overall, the goal is to have an interview process driven by performance expectations rather than by the candidate’s resume. The approach applies to technical and non-technical jobs and all organizational levels.
Throughout the book, the perspectives are given from senior HR executives at a large bank, an accounting firm and the International Monetary Fund.
Talent Flow
By Joseph Rosse and Robert Levin, Jossey-Bass (2001). At bookstores or available from Wiley Canada, 1-800-567-4797, www.wiley.com
Here’s a big picture perspective on an approach to recruiting and retaining people and strengthening their performance: a talent strategy to support your organizational strategy.
“The aim for organizations today should not be to retain employees so much as to sustain a positive flow of talent. If better performers are staying longer and poor performers are moving on faster, you are sustaining a positive talent flow, and over time you will develop a high-performing workforce.” Conversely, if the talent flow is negative, performance will decrease.
The message is founded on three facts:
•people will inevitably leave your organization;
•hiring errors will inevitably occur in every hiring process; and
•some good performers will inevitably become poor performers.
Managing the talent flow presents the challenge of dealing with these realities: improving the rate of entry of good performers, minimizing counterproductive change between good and poor performance, and optimizing the exit of good and poor performers from the organization.
Turnover is described as “only the tip of the iceberg.” Even more worrisome is “adaptation” — the ways employees respond to job dissatisfaction. Adaptation can take positive forms like problem-solving to make things better or negative forms like retaliation, avoidance, exit or capitulation (staying unhappily in the situation).
A turnover triangle is presented with three dimensions:
•Individual factors which often receive too much attention, and are actually the hardest for employers and managers to deal with.
•Environment factors, the external social and economic realities, which cannot be ignored but also cannot be directly controlled.
•Workplace factors, the many variables contributing to workplace satisfaction and dissatisfaction. This is where the employer can make the biggest difference.
HRD professionals and performance consultants will find interest in a model called the “talent needs analysis” in which three categories of behaviours are identified: critical talents you need, talents you don’t need and behaviours that don’t matter. The talent flow matrix then matches specific people to the identified behaviours in order to assess overall strengths and weak areas.
The other side of the coin from attracting, retaining and managing talent is also addressed in chapters on managing talent outflow (performance-based termination), managing layoffs, and termination within the law (U.S. context).
The Leadership Pipeline
By Ram Charan, Steve Drotter and Jim Noel, Jossey-Bass (2000). At bookstores or available from Wiley Canada, 1-800-567-4797, www.wiley.com
This book has its origins in the innovative succession planning work done at General Electric in the 1970s. The focus of that work was on the transition from business manager to division executive level, and the related changes in skills and perspectives required.
The premise of the books is that an organization’s leadership pipeline may run dry, it may become clogged, or it may flow with low quality output as candidates for key positions. Results suffer, costs increase and people don’t develop properly.
Readers will find a survey of what’s involved in six leadership passages, from:
•managing self to managing others;
•managing others to managing managers;
•managing managers to functional manager;
•functional manager to business manager;
•business manager to group manager; and
•group manager to enterprise manager.
From the publisher: “The Leadership Pipeline shows today’s knowledge-driven companies how to keep their leadership ‘pipeline’ filled to ensure a steady stream of skilled leaders throughout the organization. The authors show companies how to cultivate current employees into leadership positions rather than going outside for expensive ‘stars’ who will probably quickly jump ship before reaching their full potential.
“Here is a framework for identifying future leaders by assessing their competence, planning their development, coaching them, and measuring the results of those efforts. Using stories from their experience inside top companies, the authors provide tools and techniques for creating an effective company-wide leadership development and succession planning process.”
Examples draw heavily upon experiences at GE, along with other companies including Ford and Citicorp.
Powerful Employment Policies
By Lauren Bernardi, Aurora/Canada Law Book (2000), 3-ring binder format with diskette. Available from the publisher (905) 841-6472, 1-800-263-2037
Do you really need employment policies? Are they legally binding? How should you implement and enforce policies? How do you maintain a policy handbook?
These questions are answered and extensive policy content and guidance are included here. Some key areas covered:
•recruitment and selection, hiring procedures, orientation and probation;
•job descriptions, performance evaluations, training and development;
•human rights and harassment; and
•discipline and termination.
Terms and rules of employment sections include scheduling, attendance policy, standards of conduct. A section on compensation covers pay benefits and expenses.
A manager’s reference manual is also provided, and it too can be customized to specific organizational needs. Managers receive advice in all the above policy areas and on topics like effective leadership, corporate philosophy and code of conduct, employee feedback, discipline, conflict of interest and the employee assistance program.
Sample forms are provided for a dozen needs including reference checking, overtime records and vacation requests.
Ray Brillinger is a senior consultant with the IBM Consulting Group. He provides change management, business transformation and organization effectiveness services to client organizations. He can be reached at (905) 316-8733 or [email protected].
