Candidate Selection Strategies Come from the CIO – Either Consciously or Unconsciously

August 30th, 2013

Strategies need to be clearly articulated to be successful.

Who, within a company, should decide the selection criteria that a company’s hiring process is based on?  CIO? HR? Hiring manager? Technical staff?

When making information technology (IT) hiring decisions, the CIO is the only one who is able to set hiring standards and lay out the interviewing framework and process. Without CIO sponsorship and support, overall candidate selection becomes splintered and senior- level leaders are left to do their own thing.

Although, this splintered approach occurs in a majority of the information technology departments, it is neither consistent nor effective enterprise-wide.  To put together a consistent, effective, organization-wide approach requires top-down vision adhered to by the entire information technology organization.

By setting the strategy, standards, framework, and processes, the CIO can dictate or influence quality of hiring.  This, in turn, can take an employee referral, skill-based, mediocre candidate selection process and turn it into a well-oiled talent acquisition machine. The goal is simple, to put processes in place to eliminate bad hires, non-hires, and move to performance-based selection. Once the staff figures out how to determine the caliber and past performance of the candidates through effective interviewing, confidence takes over and performance-based hiring becomes contagious.

The fastest way to turn a laggard performing organization into a best-of-breed organization is by changing the caliber of staff and consistently exceeding management’s expectations. And the shortcut to accomplishing this daunting task is to change and fine-tune the talent acquisition and selection strategies and tactics. The quality of staff will quickly change for the better, when staff is hired based on past performance, depth of experience, motivation and supported by data vs. hired because they interviewed well, were likeable, or they were known by another employee. This change alone will allow the CIO to make more impact on the business than any other change in direction or process.

At Honer & Associates, we have focused on finding the best IT professionals for our clients’ hiring needs.  We have refined our process over the last 30 years.  Assisting companies in their candidate selection process is our trademark.  To discuss this topic or others necessary to hiring quality talent, feel free to contact us at your convenience.