How do you recognize top talent?

One thing I've found helpful is to define unique criteria that resonate with our team. For instance, at Hypercontext, we value "strong opinions, loosely held". We want people who fight for great ideas but can also recognize when they're wrong. My best tip: Test for these traits in interviews. We often provide feedback during a practical interview and evaluate the reaction. To accomplish that, check out the book "Who: The A method for hiring". It provides a great framework for hiring around these criteria. Remember, it's crucial to ensure your team understands and is passionate about the 'why' behind each criteria. Collaboratively come up with them, test them, and use them consistently in hiring and performance reviews.

To start, a organization needs to establish it's values, values that are going to be the base of your cultural roots. After this , it's necessary to align this values to competencies and habits, understand how do the people You are interested in look and behave. Finally everything else comes along, your recruitment processes, interviews, asessments, etc .. if You understand your cultural establishment, and develop your processes in this basis, people will feel engaged and motívation will be an outcome expected.

Set Clear Criteria: Establish specific criteria for what constitutes "top talent" in your organization. These criteria should align with your company's values, goals, and performance expectations. Monitor Performance: Regularly track and evaluate employee performance against the established criteria. This can be done through performance appraisals, project assessments, peer feedback, and manager evaluations.

1. Track Record of Achievement: Look for individuals who have a history of achieving exceptional results. This could be demonstrated through consistently exceeding goals, taking on challenging projects, or receiving recognition for their contributions. 2. Continuous Learning and Growth: High performers tend to be avid learners who seek out opportunities for professional development. They might have a track record of attending workshops, earning certifications, or pursuing further education to enhance their skills. 3. Adaptability and Problem-Solving: Top talent is often characterized by their ability to adapt to changing circumstances and find creative solutions to challenges.

hi , it would be hard challenge for recruiter , but totally any bodies should be perfect in social and official relationship with their coworkers. then we have surveyed him/her resume for company satisfaction according of their training & info and his / her related background .

Never underestimate reference checks. It's not a formality, it's the decider. Case in point: two A+ candidates for a content role. Both aced the interviews, had impressive resumes, and nailed the assessment. The reference was literally the tie-breaker. After grilling all references it came to light that one candidate probably needed extra help with some grammar that we just couldn't provide. The other didn't. Guess who got the job and turned out to be phenomenal? My tip: during the first call with every candidate, ask what their past boss WILL say they need to improve on WHEN you call. Note the response. Then, literally just ask the same question to their past boss during the reference. Do the answers align? If not, red flag.

Too many people are hired based on CV but fired based on behaviours. The key to getting this right is to get away form matching CV's to JD's and start matching people to a problem instead.

??While credentials offer a snapshot of a candidate's qualifications, it's paramount to delve deeper. Seek out the intangibles – a candidate's passion, problem-solving acumen, adaptability, and interpersonal finesse.?????????? By venturing beyond the resume, we unearth the potential for remarkable accomplishments that might not be immediately evident on paper.

Behaviors are key to fitting into any organization. I think having conversations are more beneficial rather than question and answer sessions. This gives you an idea of who they are rather than getting rehearsed answers.

Ongoing discussions about the career path for instance, having a robust Succession Planning which provides tremendous opportunity to retain talent, fill the skill gap esp. in the current environment. Look for employees who proactively take the initiative to lead projects, mentor others, or contribute innovative ideas. These are the people you want to keep in the business and keep your culture alive. Externally, I generally look at the applicant’s passion, energy, enthusiasm and dedication in addition to their experience and expertise. Also, how their values aligns with the Company values, good cultural fit contributes to long-term engagement and success.

Soft? They're the hardest skills. Here's a good one to work on: Openness to feedback -- How you invite, receive, and rewards feedback about you We actually look for this during hiring. In practical assessments, we pit soft skills head-to-head with others. Founders are tasked with digging into a soft skill for the final interview. Also, you can improve soft skills! We all know you need 10,000 hours to master any skill. Yet rarely think about soft skills when we say that. One company I know makes giving feedback part of their onboarding process - even to the CEO! When an employee nails it, the CEO goes off like a firework with excitement and recognition. Bottom line: Soft skills can be taught. They're just hard to master.

How did they respond or do when faced with challenges, specifically adversity. Easy to thrive when things are going smooth, the true measure one's quality is when person is surrounded by challenges, look for qualities when faced with odd situations, how they overcome, actions they took, things they did and didn't do, the risks they took and failures they faced.

Soft skills are the new hard skills! No.1 thing I look for here is people with an internal locus of control. You can spot when people tell their stories whether they naturally take ownership or externalise their journey and are more of a passenger in their career. We cant control things like redundancies, market shift etc but can can control how we learn from those experiences and present them. Those who more naturally take ownership are absolutely gold to work with.

Soft skills and values are more important than any hard skills, so guarantee that you check what is important to the company as what will be important during the years. Sometimes, the experience or tests will not bring all information about soft skills, try to make a open conversation and you will find how this person works.

In order to build diversity I think we need to focus on culture add not culture fit. The ideal blend is to hire a team that align on values but have cognitive diversity (think differently).

I disagree with the notion of 'fit'. Instead, look for culture 'adds' and bar raisers - those who challenge the status quo and enhance the team. I've found it helpful to create a few documents before you start talking to anyone. Candidates will bias you, so do this before that happens: - Define the role clearly (don't copy/paste from google) - Outline what success looks like - What their first 90 days' goals will be? - how you'll know if they're crushing it in a year. Once that is ready you can start interviewing. As you hire more people, you need to get better at hiring. Assign someone whose job is to veto a hire based on these documents and ensure each new addition raises the bar of the company.

Check what are the main tops that are inegociable for your company, only these should be add to a fit test, otherwise you will be finding everybody with the same experience and vision.

Look for a pattern of resilience and ambition. This isn't always about where they are right now (the y-intercept, if you're into math), but their growth trajectory (the slope). Here's the actionable bit: - Look for signs of self-driven growth in their past. Did they outgrow their peers? Did they push themselves beyond comfort zones? - Check for instances where they were in over their heads but fought through to success. It could be in sports, academics, early jobs. - Don't just rely on current skills or achievements. The steepest growth curves often come from those who may not be at the top yet. Remember, potential is not just about capability, it's about the hunger to grow and improve.

Vigilantly monitoring potential enables us to distinguish the gems from the ordinary, ensuring that our selections drive optimal progress and triumph for our team. Furthermore, potential grants us the ability to transcend technical expertise, allowing us to discern the harmony between individual aptitudes and the core values of our organization

Mid to senior level potentials contribute ideas and energy beyond their current scope of responsibilities (own dept/division). Organizational goals become their true north. They stay truthful to Organizational Rules of Engagement i.e. Company - Division - Department - Unit - Team - Self.

This is especially important when looking for entry level employees. For my organization, we know that entry level staff won't have the skills required, but we look to see if they are trainable, will ask questions and will be a self-starter. The soft skills are so much harder to teach.

Is there a standard approach to CVs? No. Too often profile statements are full of generic soundbites or business jargon whereas the person needs to present who they are, it is an opportunity to sell their brand. Skill sets - often there is alack of understanding of the difference between attitude, behaviour, skill, knowledge and experience Career history - too often this is a series of JDs presenting role and responsibilities rather than showing how you added value in the role. For each role ask the simple question when you started and when you left what was different. Think in terms of impact, value, result, achievement, difference and how you used you skills in this area.

Research has shown that it takes an expert to identify an expert. I believe this to be true for top talent. Corporations should adjust top talent identification accordingly.

One thing you need to remember is that every candidate is different, not everyone will be able to express themselves best in the same method. If you use multiple selection tools in identifying candidate, you will have a better chance to unleash the potential of all candidates.