{"id":32591,"date":"2010-04-13T10:07:16","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T09:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/blog\/?p=32591"},"modified":"2010-04-12T10:09:57","modified_gmt":"2010-04-12T09:09:57","slug":"hiring-is-hard-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/hiring-is-hard-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiring is Hard Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn a perfect world, you would take pride in the fact that you hired someone who is better than you. Hardly anybody has that attitude, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a quote from noted entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki, who talked about hiring<\/a> in an interview for The New York Times<\/em> \u201cCorner Office\u201d series.\u00a0 His contention:\u00a0 A players hire A+ players, while B players hire C players.\u00a0 The best people are self-confident, while lesser people \u201chire down\u201d to ensure they will look better than their employees.<\/p>\n

Kawasaki also notes that people tend to see their own specialty as extremely difficult, but suppose that all the other jobs are really easy.\u00a0 So engineers may demand brilliance from engineers, but at the same time may not think it matters much who\u2019s in charge of marketing or finance.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to combat those tendencies in persons, but at least you can take a look to see if there\u2019s a lack of balance in job descriptions.\u00a0 For example, someone may put a lot of thought and detail into the description for a job they see as important, while barely sketching a job they don\u2019t think of as difficult.\u00a0 Similarly, a B player might downgrade education qualifications and experience if they are looking for a non-threatening hire.<\/p>\n

It would also be worthwhile to review the Careers site with the same aim in mind.\u00a0 Are all positions at all levels treated fully and fairly?\u00a0 Are all career paths, departments, and product lines accorded equal treatment?<\/p>\n

Another important aspect of the hiring process is highlighted in the Recruiter Daily article Make Better Candidate Recommendations<\/a>.\u00a0 Recruitment trainer Ross Clennet favors behavior-based, structured interviewing techniques, and contends that recruiters should be able to offer specific , fact-supported assessments rather than impressions drawn from unstructured conversations.<\/p>\n

In case \u201cbehavior-based interviewing\u201d doesn\u2019t ring a bell, there\u2019s a nice summary<\/a> at About.com\u2019s Job Searching portal.\u00a0 Short version:\u00a0 It’s an approach that focuses on questions about \u201chow the interviewee acted in specific employment-related situations,\u201d and it\u2019s based on the idea that \u201chow you behaved in the past will predict how you will behave in the future.\u201d\u00a0 Example questions might include \u201cCan you tell me about a time when you used logic to solve a problem,\u201d and \u201cDescribe a situation in which you had to implement an unpopular decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

This method has passionate supporters and<\/em> detractors.\u00a0 Many interviewers use a combination of structured and unstructured questions, combining specific information with intuition.\u00a0 But in terms of relevance for the corporate Careers site\u2014information about steps in the hiring process and tips on interviewing make excellent website features.\u00a0 Not only will the online info help candidates, the company is likely to benefit from clarifying its hiring approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn a perfect world, you would take pride in the fact that you hired someone who is better than you. Hardly anybody has that attitude, though.\u201d That\u2019s a quote from noted entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki, who talked about hiring in an interview for The New York Times \u201cCorner Office\u201d series.\u00a0 His contention:\u00a0 A players hire A+ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,25],"tags":[6272,2931,386,387],"class_list":{"0":"post-32591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-best-practices","7":"category-careers","8":"tag-behavior-based-interviewing","9":"tag-corporate-recruiting","10":"tag-hiring","11":"tag-interviewing","12":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nJob Descriptions: Hiring is Hard Work<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Job descriptions matter, online as well as off, but it can be difficult to avoid natural bias and achieve balance\" \/>\n<meta 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