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What is Purpose?
By Ray Bixler, Posted May 26, 2010
Webster defines purpose as “something set up as an end to be attained.”
Simon Sinek, entrepreneur and author of the book Start with Why, wrote that the very best companies know why they do what they do. They have a purpose – a reason for existence that transcends profit. Driven by purpose, they create a movement and consequently get the most discerning and loyal customers. Customers “Don’t buy what you do,” says Sinek. “They buy why you do it.”
Knowing that it matters, how does purpose play out in the lives of recruiters and talent acquisition leaders? Well for one, a company’s hiring process has a purpose, right? Its purpose is to help an organization source, interview, and select the best candidates possible.
When selecting and qualifying job candidates, recruiters leverage everything they can get their hands on, from screening tools to video interviews to assessments to behavioral-based questions. All of these methods can help, yet the most important one, which is asking an applicant’s references for candid job performance feedback, rarely works when done via the phone. In the end, most recruiters settle for getting an applicant’s employment verified, and then they move on with their hiring decision.
Is that truly the purpose of the reference? The answer is “no.” The purpose of the reference is to get a candid evaluation of a candidate’s previous job performance from those who have worked with the candidate, not just dates of employment verified. Now that there is a revolutionary web 2.0 Pre-Hire 360® tool available, which has been scientifically validated to improve an organization’s quality-of-hire decisions, isn’t it time to give the most important part of the hiring process, reference feedback, a purpose? |
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Meeting the parents
By Ray Bixler, Posted March 18, 2010
How do you check your children’s friend’s references?
My 11 year old son recently came home from school on a Friday asking if he could have a sleepover at Danny’s house. Danny? Danny who?
This was the first time my wife and I had ever heard of a boy named Danny, so we didn’t offer up a quick, “Yes, you may.” We tried to get as much information about Danny from our son, yet if any of you have ever tried to get information from an 11-year-old boy you know it’s not easily done. “Who is Danny?” “A buddy.” “How come we haven’t heard you talk about him before?” “I don’t know.” “What’s he like?” “He’s cool.” “Where’s he live?” “Down the street.” “Is he in your class?” “Yes.” “Can you reply with more than two word answers?” “Huh?” Arrrggghhhh!
So what to do? Maybe we’re conservative parents, yet having our son sleepover at the house of a boy whom we didn’t know was not going to work, so we suggested that he spend some time with his new friend the following day with maybe a sleepover sometime in the near future. This, of course, was not received enthusiastically, yet we got the “grunt” sound that means “ok” in our house.
For those of you who think our reply was appropriate, I ask you, “Why did we care and what was the purpose of us suggesting something other than a sleepover?” For us, we needed to meet Danny’s family.
Whenever one of our kids starts a friendship with someone new, we like to meet their parents, even if it’s a brief hello when we drop off our son or daughter at their house. We try to quickly determine … “Do they seem rational … do they communicate well … is their home somewhat organized … do their kids speak to them in a respectful way?” Of course there’s more that we try to gather than this, yet we do feel it’s necessary to make a quick read to determine if a new friend of our child comes “from a respectful and stable home.” When I asked one of my peers if they thought we were being overly concerned parents, she offered me this story:
“I once met a parent who dropped off her kid (then 14) at our house for the first time and she said “I don’t know how you guys can manage these sleepovers; when kids come to our house, I just take a sleeping pill and close my door.”
Needless to say, she thought we were doing the right thing.
So how does this play out in the business setting? When I hear that certain organizations have stopped checking applicants’ references, or they only get employment dates verified, I think to myself, aren’t they taking chances going into this new employer/employee relationship? In this day and age, especially now that there are terrific online reference-checking tools that dramatically improve the quality of information a company can receive on an applicant, why would anyone hire an applicant without “meeting the parents” first? Is the applicant organized? Do they communicate well? Are they respectful of others? Yes, in the business setting “the parents” are former managers and peers, yet not offering these former managers or peers the opportunity to candidly offer their insight on an applicant’s behaviors should really no longer be acceptable as a business practice when new services allow “the parents” to directly provide such insight. |
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From Basic Instinct To Thoughtful Decisions
By Ray Bixler, Posted February 11, 2010
Evolutionary psychologists make a convincing case that we humans are hard-wired with instincts that govern much of what we do. That may be well and good for selecting our mates, but I challenge the wisdom of allowing instincts to control who we hire.
Many corporate recruiters defend their practice of using the phone to interview a candidate’s references, because they feel this enables them to sense innuendos. Their “instincts” tell them when a reference is not telling the whole story. The notion is that a change in intonation or a “pregnant pause” could mean that the reference is trying to send a message without putting it into words.
Or, it could mean that the reference is distracted by what’s going on outside the window. Maybe he’s searching for airfares. Maybe she’s signing checks. Do you really want to base a critical decision, such as hiring your next top performer who can impact your company’s bottom-line, on “instinct?” Granted, it could be a notch above using Mattel’s Magic 8 Ball®, but not by much.
“Just as medical decisions are better for patients when they are based on sound evidence, this same idea ought to be applied to management.” (David Kessler, MD, Dean of School of Medicine & Vice Chancellor for Med Affairs, UC-SF). Fortunately, we now have the means to elicit reliable and valid feedback from references via a Web-based survey. With SkillSurvey Pre-Hire 360® it’s all there—the use of best practices to gather quantitative and qualitative feedback, with no need to rely on instinct or innuendo.
Up Next: Job Interviews and The Pursuit of Happiness |
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Entering The Fray
By Ray Bixler, Posted January 12, 2010
Technorati™, in its State of the Blogosphere report from 2008, estimates that in every 24-hour period, another 900,000 blogs are posted.
Knowing that, I had to wonder: Do I really want to join in—particularly when my goal would be to actually add value by sharing something new and meaningful? It’s a tall order that made me pause.
After staring at the glow of my LCD screen, I concluded that SkillSurvey’s solutions are unique and worth discussing in the broader context of current hiring practices. In my travels and conversations with Human Resource and Talent Acquisition executives I pick up a lot. I get a first-hand look at best practices within organizations. I hear what leaders are struggling with, and I see trends in the making.
With regular entries to this blog, I plan to give voice to those concerns, trends, and solutions so that others can profit by them. I hope you’ll stay tuned and tell me what you think!
Up Next: Of pregnant pauses, Magic 8 Balls®, and hiring decisions… |
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