Business Owners and Hiring Managers Want to Know...

Question:
I'm a hiring manager at a local professional services company. We have three excellent final candidates for a position and are having a hard time choosing the perfect candidate to hire. Other than flipping a coin, is there a more effective way to make a hiring decision?

Answer:
There is no such thing as the “perfect candidate,” but there is a simple way to ensure that you hire the right person for the job. Most hiring managers use traditional job descriptions to measure job competency, but the trend is moving away from this process.  Progressive companies are using performance-based job descriptions that describe the deliverables the person needs to accomplish.  When assessing a candidate, decisions are based on his or her ability and motivation to meet those objectives—not based on experience, skills, education and personality. 

Use the interview to focus on the candidate’s previous accomplishments at his or her former company. Then use the assessment to compare these to the job requirements. Generally, this process begins at the start of a hiring process, but it is not too late to ask the candidates to come back for another interview to ask performance-based interview questions. Your top candidate should emerge after using this methodology.