Monday, November 30, 2015

What are Managers Comparing Between Candidates??

There is already so much pressure when you walk into an interview, competition is always high. You are more than likely to be compared with other people interviewing for that same position! THIS is what managers are mainly comparing. KEEP this in mind when preparing for your dream job!

-Worlco


4 Questions Managers Ask to Better Compare Equally Qualified Candidates


A bona fide sweets enthusiast will have no trouble selecting the chocolate lava cake, extra sauce, over the cheese plate on a dessert menu. But what if there’s a lava cake, a strawberry rhubarb pie with ice cream, creme brulee and beignets, this time with gelato? Each dessert option is well-suited to be your next post-meal obsession — and for very different reasons. All of a sudden the decision becomes a little trickier.
Just as some (this writer in particular) belabor the age-old, cake-versus-pie conundrum after dinner, hiring managers, too, are put in a similar position when they’re down to their top candidate choices.

Select, don’t settle

Hiring the right candidate for your open role is easy when you have a clear winner in the interview process (lava cake will beat cheese plate any day of the week). But what do you do when you're torn between equally qualified job candidates? Flipping a coin might seem tempting, but settling doesn't just put a less-than-ideal person in the position, it can actually lower employee engagement.
Gallup discovered 82% of hiring processes didn't pick the person with the right talent, resulting in lower employee engagement. Another problem with choosing the incorrect candidate is the impact on employee turnover. Add the wrong person into your employee mix, especially at management and executive levels, and you could be looking at the cause of 80% of your turnovers.
So how do you make the final decision, ultimately arriving at the lava cake (or creme brulee, depending on your taste) of job candidates? Ask yourself these four questions.

1. Which candidate is better suited to meet performance metrics?

Ask candidates to provide or discuss performance data in the interview. 
Getting to the cold, hard facts and figures helps you determine whether a candidate can meet the performance metrics you're expecting.


Let's say you're hiring for a position that will be judged based on a specific metric, perhaps the number of sales qualified leads handed off from marketing to sales. If one candidate can prove she has consistently set and met goals around SQLs, and another can simply use sales qualified lead in a sentence, well, the proof is in the pudding, as they say.

2. Do you know the "secret weapon" skills a top candidate should have?

Sometimes job descriptions end up being a laundry list of skills and qualities loosely related to the position, failing to encompass what the job actually demands. Think about the difference between writing "seeking a big-picture, strategic thinker" versus "sending one or two emails per week to a segmented list" as job responsibilities. Both are great to mention and seek out, but the latter is more day-to-day while the former borders on nice to have.
Or, perhaps worse, the job description doesn’t make mention of the "secret weapon" skills that a candidate really needs to succeed in the role. For example, consider writing: "Ideal candidate can talk with both engineering and data science teams, then translate into engaging stories."
Talk to employees working in the department or holding the same position to find out what the most important skill sets are in handling the workload. Or, if you’re hiring the first person in this role, reach out to someone from your network who has hands-on experience in the same role.

3. Are you dealing with a cultural mismatch?

Culture mismatch is a major factor that separates a candidate with great potential from an actual great employee. According to Leadership IQ, 46% of employees fail before 18 months with a company. These failures are rarely due to the wrong skills, as only 11% fall into that category. It’s important to remember that technical competence is not the only factor to focus on in an interview.


Make sure potential employees align with your company’s culture, including workspace — whether it’s a traditional cubicle sprawl or an open floor plan — as well as have the right temperament and emotional intelligence. The candidate who fits in better with your existing culture will more likely be one of the 19% who achieve unequivocal success.

Save room for future hiring needs

In a perfect world, you'd have room for all the desserts. However, in the real world of hiring, you have to pass on some — but that doesn’t mean you can’t revisit your options in the future.
Let other candidates know that it was a tough choice and that you’re planning to keep their resumes on hand for new positions that may open up. You’ve already handled a big chunk of the screening and interviewing process, so there's no reason to throw all that work away.

Find #4, and the full article, here!

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