Best Hiring Tip of All Time

"Ideal" candidates (those on the left in the graphic) rarely become great hires (the right) since the factors used to find them are unrelated to ability, motivation and fit.

That's not the tip. That's just an observation.

Bridging the gap starts by finding great prospects not great candidates.

The big hiring tip: Find people who have achieved similar results in comparable situations who make average first impressions and don't have the "ideal" mix of skills, experiences, academics and competencies. These are exactly the people you want to hire since they'll also see the position as a potential career move. You'll think they're diamonds in the rough but you'll quickly discover they're polished professionals. This is called "win-win." These people are "performance qualified."

When you first contact these people do not ask about compensation. Just ask if they'd be open to explore a situation if it represented a potential career move.

Then describe the biggest hiring challenge the person will face for a minute or two.

Then ask the person to describe his/her single biggest related accomplishment. Spend 15 minutes getting the who, what, where, why and how. As part of this ask for details about all of the factors on the right side of the graphic. These are the best predictors of on-the-job performance.

That's all you need to know to determine if the person should be seriously considered or not.

Then ask if the person would see the opening as a potential career move.

That's how you start hiring remarkable people not "ideal" candidates.

This book will help you get started. This short mobile training course will enable you to make "great hires" every time.

Lou Adler

Performance-based Hiring Learning Systems