Management’s simple truths – 2: HIRING

Top notch hiring is a great asset for companies that outperform their competition in any given market. One of the first lessons I got from my mentor earlier in my career was very clear on this, too:  “Christoph you will become a real manager  only after your first experience in direct hiring a person.” (And then I learned some years later  that the experience to have to fire people , that occasionally happens in business and is often neglected in the “leadership lessons to follow” and other ingredients of the business’ pop culture , is one of those that could definitely make you a leader) . So let us focus today on the hiring and especially on that what is essential when we talk about interviews.

Decision makers in poor quality companies often forget the crucial role of a good interviewer in the hiring process. On the other side, great companies’ leaders and HR managers know that for the interviews to be a reliable selection tool it requires a lot of skills and experience.

Basically, looking back on times when I hired people as manager and considering my current almost 12 years as Board Advisor and executive headhunter, my recommendations would be : 

1.    Interviews need to be structured and there should a structured set of questions for all applicants for the job.

2.    Both line manager and the HR representative need to be good interviewers.

3.    Good interviewer uses a mixture of questions and knows how to use behavioral or situation interview for the best prediction of the applicant to hire.

4.    Well-organized interviews start already with scheduling the meeting in a sufficient time before the interview to make sure preparation and research is possible for both sides.

5.    A wise interviewer knows however that a too deep research about the candidate and too much “theoretical knowledge” about him or her prior to the interview might bias the interviewer’s evaluation and create a tendency to hold a stereotype.

6.    A top level interviewer is completely aware about the fact that the order in which information is elicited during interview will influence evaluation.

7.    A professional recruiter knows that short-listed executive candidates are not necessarily always best performers in the interviews (as they focus on their current job and do not jump from one interview to another to pick up lessons in interview process). Therefore they often give managers who perform not particularly well in one discussion the benefit of the doubt and include them in the further selection process. 2 interviews, a test or an assessment and a reference check normally are fair tool to finds the best people for the role in place.

8.    Key to success in executive hiring turns out often to be a professional collaboration with an executive headhunter that synergizes best the professional selection process by the headhunter with  the high level of interview skills by the company’s HR managers (more on this I will share in another part of the “Management’s simple truths”  series.)

I chose just some hints and the list is of course by far not complete.

For people that make hiring decisions I would recommend to regularly update their knowledge and methods . A good way for it is reading of relevant books, of course.

Here are some books with basic know how (not necessarily however dealing with executive recruitment but good for the start ) , you might find valuable ,  :

How To Interview People: A guide to choosing the best person for the job every time, Heike Guilford

The Consultative Recruiter: The Key to Faster Fills, More Candidates & Happier Hiring Managers, Katherine Moody

?Christoph Szakowski, Managing Partner at LogCon East, an international boutique consulting group serving its clientele with Board Advisory, Executive Recruitment and M&A consultancy. We focus on the sector of business we know best – the logistics and transportation worldwide. Companies I have been working with as a consultant take advantage from my attitude to deliver great value that makes my client more competitive, stronger in their talents pipeline and executive ranks and strategically better prepared in a tough market. I comprehensively work with the Boards and HR-managers to select the best hiring and development strategies and implement them in the most efficient manner. As LogCon East we concluded almost 1000 recruitments within logistics industry since our beginning more than a decade ago. Contact me to schedule a discussion on your plans for 2021 and beyond. I am quadrilingual with Polish, German, English and Russian and flexible to talk over all kinds of challenges and ambitions you have. I will always tell you the truth and in line with that my values are and what I think. We learned that the best way in business is to collaborate reliably and honestly from the beginning. There is no obligation to collaborate but there is always a change to make things different and better than before.