Controlling and optimizing company strategy and providing oversight is the primary role of corporate management. However, out of everything that corporate management controls, setting the vision for the quality and caliber of staff hired makes the biggest impact. It has the top spot; it is management’s most important function.

In global business there is no greater potential ROI than the quality of staff hired. In my personal opinion, I do not think that there is any other decision that could possibly yield a 1000 to 1 ROI as each individual hire can yield. It is surely not achieved by changing office supply vendors, moving locations, or entering new markets.

But besides numbers, there are assets produced by diligently adding only the highest quality staff available, including:

1. Better productivity. Do more with less is the new mantra in today’s business world. Top performing employees learn quicker, see the shortest distance between two points, and understand how to put effective, efficient processes in place. This all adds up to doing more with less.

2. Less stress on the organization. By hiring the cream of the crop, more can be delegated to each employee and therefore reducing the burden on staff. Stress is removed from the few high caliber players and spread across the organization. In typical organizations, 20% of the staff does 80% of the work and everyone is stressed. With a higher quality staff, stress is diluted.

3. Ability to plan more effectively. Once senior leadership understands the ability of a high-performing staff, they don’t have to be bashful with the challenges they plan and delegate. They quickly understand the performance capability of a high quality team.

4. Better quality product. High performers do things efficiently but also do them creatively and accurately. This generates heightened expectations around the product and applications development arena. Higher quality products and applications produce profitability.

5. Better bottom line. No matter whether you are dealing with a profit center or a cost center, high performance staff will cut costs or create revenue in multiples of the average staff.

6. Able to do the undoable. When the business runs into unexpected challenges, the high performers “do what it takes” and create unique solutions, never thought of prior. This creativity produces ROI above and beyond expectations.

7. Lead and manage with less effort. Leadership is often compromised by spending a large amount of time providing oversight. When managing a top performers, oversight can take a back seat to creating vision and strategy and the whole company wins.

With better quality staff, the ability to build a high performing organization becomes a reality. No Manager, Director, VP, or member of Sr. Leadership can be an A player without a team comprised of A players and staff that has a trajectory towards A-level work. A company filled with B+ and A players works very much like a well-tuned engine. It exceeds expectations, produces more efficiently, and demonstrates effectiveness routinely compared to one with a more marginal talent base. Great examples are Apple and Google, their results and growth are always attributed to the quality and caliber of staff.

At Honer and Associates, we understand this, contact us today. We can help you find the top performers necessary to build a higher performing organization.

Most organizations unconsciously hire. Setting specific goals for the quality of hiring isn’t given any attention, and without goals for hiring high-quality talent, management teams are left with a typical – although not optimal alternative- to hire qualified talent, possessing appropriate skills, that can do the job. In other words, they interview and hire candidates experienced with necessary skills to do the job that sell themselves in an above average manner.

An unconscious hire is gauged by skills. The job description is the main tool. It lays out what skills and years of experience the person has to have to do the job. So if the job description says that a candidate needs “4 years of this skill” and “7 years of that experience”; these become the focus of screening and interviewing content.

This also indicates a lack of conscious planning within the talent acquisition strategy (if a talent acquisition strategy exists). The job description is a document that addresses the micro part of the role and answers the question: What skills does an employee use when they perform this role? It does not discuss (in much detail):

• The scope of responsibilities
• Problems to be solved and goals to be accomplished
• What success looks like, near and long term
• The defined hurdles and challenges
• Attributes and competencies necessary to perform at a superior level and exceed the status quo.

What the candidate “has to have” gets much of the attention – skills that mirror the role and the number of years, type of experience necessary to do the job,etc.

Making a high-quality hire requires giving conscious thought to what a high-caliber or high performing individual looks like. Ask and identify what a successful track record would include, the experiential options that line up for the role, competencies necessary, and the definition of a successful candidate. These are the musts for an effective position profile.

Be proactive; detail the responsibilities of the role – figure out what needs to get done over the next 12-18 months. In addition, picture the environment in 12-18 months given successful performance by the candidate in this role.

Hiring high-quality talent depends on determining the caliber of individual candidates. To select the highest-caliber person – and the best fit for the position – determine what success looks like and the competency required to be successful, beyond years of experience. Spend time identifying the candidate’s past performance profile, their individual caliber and not what skills they possess. Trust that a motivated, high-caliber candidate will learn what skills they need to know to excel in the position, especially if they have done that in the past.

Give thought to how the level of experience for the role is established. Does it happen by going through the role and determining the position’s degree of difficulty? What are the responsibilities and events that must get accomplished? What type of experience, track record, and competencies would a candidate need to excel? Put an accurate (and conscious) position profile together spelling it out. Completed successfully, hiring can be more conscious, proactive and beneficial to all concerned.

At Honer and Associates, we understand how to consciously hire, and we can assist you in finding the high-caliber people for your key positions. So contact us today!

Cultural fit is an over-used, yet vastly misunderstood, term utilized by corporate America.  Companies all over work very hard during the hiring process to determine whether or not a candidate is a “good cultural fit” for their company and/or department.

However, it is not up to the company to determine this.  It is the candidate.  The only way that the company or hiring manager can know is if the candidate tells them.

You see, a fit between company and the employee is something that only employee can know.  Only the person himself can know how well he can mesh with the already established structure.

High-caliber candidates fit in any organization.  The real question is whether, or not, they are motivated to fit.  If the person is motivated, then there will be a cultural fit.

This is why there needs to be one last planned meeting to judge motivation (and therefore fit).  During this meeting the company has to be in full-disclosure mode, giving the candidate as much information as he needs to determine his level of fit.  A candidate can only do this if he gets a good feel for the environment, management style, challenges, hurdles as well as things that need to get down.

This meeting is extremely important in judging a candidate’s motivation level.

The key for the company is to select high caliber candidates.  Lower level candidates cannot control their environment as much; they do not have the luxury of picking and choosing their job assignments.  High quality candidates do.  If they are motivated to come on board, then they will be motivated to adapt to the corporate culture.

Remember, the candidate has much more risk than the company does.  If the potential employee is an active candidate, then he is looking for a job.  If the person is employed, then he has something to lose…his current situation.  Therefore, it is extremely important to determine the candidate’s motivation in changing positions – of even entertaining the idea of changing positions.

If you attempt to avoid this situation, and only focus on active candidates, you are preselecting yourself out of a good portion of the talent pool.

At Honer and Associates, we can help you find the high-quality candidates you need.  We are experts at determining the motivation level of all candidates, and can help you devise a hiring process that is guaranteed success in brining on the best and brightest to your organization.  So contact us today!  We look forward to hearing from you.