The six mistakes of hiring

"Did you see Sunny (name changed) what Subhransu has done?", told my HR manager Ms. Sunaina (name changed) to my manager Mr. Sunny a long time back when I used to be a people manager in a previous organization. She was pointing out something which I should have done differently.

I had become a people manager very early in my career. I was only 7 years into the corporate life and not fully well versed with all the intricacies of people management. I was a "star" performer in technical career path. But people management was a completely different ball game!

"Sunaina, we hire people for their strengths, not for their development needs. Have you seen the great stuff Subhransu has been doing?", replied Sunny to Sunaina. As Sunny recounted this to me later that day advising me what I should have done differently, this line has stuck with me since the last 15 years. "We hire people for their strengths, not for their development needs".

Hiring along with coaching and team building remains the top three things for an organization in my view. Hiring the right talent, engaging them and retaining them are at the core of people management. As much as we want to hire the most perfect people with all the strengths we are looking for and none of the development needs we absolutely want to avoid, hiring the right people in a practical sense is a very challenging exercise. Over the last 15 years as I have been involved with numerous organizational hirings in various capacities, I have reflected on what has worked well and not for me. There are six important things that I want to point out from my personal experiences which I feel we must avoid for hiring the right people. Here they go.

1. Decide as a single member panel: When I did one of my first hirings as a people manager, I wasn't fully aware of the hiring intricacies. It was the heady days prior to the big recession of 2008. The hiring market was hot and organization was looking to ramp up the headcount very fast. With hiring at break neck speed, it was not always possible to adhere to all the processes. For the crucial onsite technical round, I decided to interview as a single member in place of the usual practice of a multi-member panel. I was in a hurry, candidate was available and other panel members were busy. I decided to hire the candidate after the technical round and passed her onto the next stages with my manager and HR manager. With all the hirings going on, even my manager and HR manager decided to trust on my judgement and cleared the candidate after brief interactions. That candidate turned out to be a liability for the organization. The big lesson I learnt was never to go alone in the panel. It is priceless to have different members looking at the candidate from different angles and making a collective decision.
2. Be in a hurry to close the position: In one of the other positions in an earlier organization, we were looking to close a position as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, we were not getting any good profiles and all candidates seemed below par. Exhausted, me (as technical leader of the group) and my manager decided to dilute some of the very basic requirements of the job position to fill-up the position as quickly as we could. We of course were able to soon find a good candidate for the diluted requirements. We were happy with the pragmatic decision we took. But soon it turned out that the new hire was more of a problem than the headache of not being able to fill the position.
3. Use hiring to show off your knowledge: As much as it is important to have a multi-member panel for hiring, it is equally important to have the right panel members. Sometimes we have included members who are too immature and not ready to be a hiring panelist because of unavailability of original panel members. The "not ready" ones tend to use the interviews to show off their knowledge in front of their managers and other senior members and derail the interview process. It's extremely important to have senior and mature members for the hiring panel.
4. Decide while being emotional: As human beings, all of us go through varied emotions and this can have a big influence on the critical decision of hiring. Particularly if you are the hiring manager or a very senior member whose words carry big weightage in the panel, it's very crucial to keep aside the emotions you may be going through personally or professionally for the moment. Hiring is one decision which is almost impossible to correct once made and it goes without saying that being in a balanced state of mind while deciding on the hiring is a minimum requirement.
5. Join the panel mid-way through: Being the member of a hiring panel is a big responsibility towards the organization. Organizations are made by the people they employ and it's a recognition for you to be in the panel. Give hiring the attention it deserves. Make yourself available for the full duration and in case it's absolutely not possible to attend for the full duration, convey your inability to the hiring manager in advance to allow her to find the right replacement. A bad hiring will cost the organization much more than your 30minutes.
6. Focus too much on the development needs: Every candidate will have some or the other development need. It's counter productive to focus all your energies only on the development needs. While it's important to focus on it, it's important to see both the sides, strengths and development needs. I have encountered panel members who have been obssessed on the development needs of the candidates. Are the development needs really important for the job position? Can the development needs be addressed through training and mentoring? Does the candidate have the right attitude to go beyond her development need? These are important things to consider.

There are of course many other points we should keep in mind while hiring since it is one of the most important organizational activities we do. What do you think? I would be interested to know your views.