De-mystifying Success in Hiring Stacie Seaman Shrinking World Solutions, Inc.

Employment Outlook for IT Unemployment in IT running around 2.9% Software is eating the World = greater demand in all technical areas Greater demand will drive greater competition for the best employees.

Winning and Losing with Hires The entire company wins with a good hire. A bad hire leads to: Lost productivity - understaffed Training – lost investment Loss of Credibility inside company Lower Morale Poor Community Reputation Replacement costs for a bad hire can vary from 20% to 200% of annual salary. Shrinking World Solutions, Inc.

Why We Fail to Hire the Right People Hiring for experience and expertise over talent Hiring in a hurry Hiring by gut feeling alone The “Search for Superman” syndrome Hiring in your own image “Politically Correct” hiring Shrinking World Solutions, Inc.

Why We Fail to Hire the Right People Underestimating the power of employee referrals Not thinking “Outside the Box” Hiring against type Hiring with no proof of performance Failing to describe the job as it really is Overlooking the inside candidate Confusing selling with evaluating Not creating high enough hurdles Shrinking World Solutions, Inc.

The Behavioral Interview Edge Research shows that most hires are made based upon gut feeling and whether the interviewers like the person and feel comfortable with them. Unfortunately most research shows that you can only trust your gut when it comes to hiring about 50% of the time. The effectiveness of a behavioral interview depends on the skill of the interviewers but estimates range from 60% to 9x better at predicting success than traditional methods. Shrinking World Solutions, Inc.

The Behavioral Interview Edge “The interesting thing about the behavioral interview is that when you ask somebody to speak to their own experience and you drill into that, you get two kinds of information. One is you get to see how they actually interacted in a real-world situation, and the valuable "meta" information you get about the candidate is what they consider difficult.” ~ Lazlo Bock, Google’s senior vice president for people operations https://www.interviewedge.com/articles/Research-Validates-Behavioral-Interviewing.htm Shrinking World Solutions, Inc.

Past Performance Predicts Future Behavior

Examples of Performance Skills Initiative Analytical Problem solving Change adoption Leadership Positive Attitude Communication Skills (verbal and written) Teamwork Accountability (takes ownership for performance) Coping Tolerance of Ambiguity Decision Making Assertiveness Policy and Procedures Alertness Goal Setting Commitment to Task Organization and Planning Creativity Adaptability Reading the System Team Building

Past Performance Predicts Future Behavior Key points of Behavioral Interviewing developed by Paul C. Green, PhD: Ask open-ended questions Gain behavioral examples Use rapport building questions Allow silence Control the interview by redirecting the conversation Seek contrary evidence Evaluate the interview

Tips for Behavioral Interviewing Before the interview begins, explain to the applicant that you will be taking notes on every question. If you ask a question that the applicant needs to think about for a minute, allow silence. Let him/her know that it is okay to take a moment to think about the answer.

Consultation & Training Services I’m offering consultation and training on hiring best practices. Training for you and your employees on behavioral interviewing techniques Serve as a consultant in your recruiting effort. This includes developing the Job Description, choosing essential Technical Skills and Performance Skills, choosing the interview questions, assembling the Interview Team, and conducting the interviews. A free subscription to Hiring Guru is included. As part of this launch, we are offering Introductory Pricing. Contact me at stacie.seaman@shrinking-world.com for more information.

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