Let’s look at defining the Key Performance Indicators or even better defining how performance objectives focused recruiting can be used in the recruitment screening process. Many hiring managers and recruiters for that matter have a misconception that these are used only after the hire or limited to executive leadership roles.
To understand why performance objectives focused recruiting is effective, let’s look at a why it should be utilized as enhance both job postings and the screening process. Typical job descriptions delivers poor results, negative advertising, and lousy applicants. Generally they bespeak of a little company branding, responsibilities, requirements to apply, and a brief overview of benefits.
What does work is to use defining the performance objectives focused recruiting in the job description and developing ideal candidate profiling of a position. The issue is most Human Resource departments, corporate recruiters, and external recruiters lack any sense of understanding of how to analyze how a potential candidate may perform or what they will do to meet those defined objectives.
Performance Objectives Focused Recruiting NOT Requisitions
One of the gurus I learned from to define performance objectives focused recruiting is Lou Adler. Here is a link to his site. The best description of the SMART techniques come from Lou Adler’s point of view as I believe he states it best.
What do you want the new hire to achieve with “x responsibility”? Take each required skill and ask what are the objectives of using this skill and how well the candidate may meet those objectives based on accomplishments and similar tasks performed by using SMART techniques.
- Specific – details of what needs to be done (task, challenge, project, or problem)?
- Measurable – amounts of change / % of change required
- Action – what will the person in this role actually do?
- Results – what needs to happen to accomplish the major objectives?
- Time – how long will it take from start to finish for this objective to be reached?
Once you have defined the near-term performance objectives, move onto the long-term objectives that will bring real added-value to the company.
Candidate Profiling Performance Objectives Focused Recruiting
After discovering how to map those objectives you need to develop the ideal candidate profile. Next we will examine how a retained search firm performs these tasks including:
- when and who should be involved in defining the team profile (not the corporate profile but the actual team the new hire will work within)
- analyzing behavioral traits of ideal candidates measured against the team profile to determine effect of new hore on team dynamics
- refining how performance objectives focused recruiting uses team fit and candidate profiling to target and identify the candidates who can meet or exceed the management objectives.
