Competitive edge hiring in a down economy

San Diego Business Journal, August 25, 2003 by Judith L. Enns

With daily announcements of corporate downsizing taking place somewhere in the United States, a focus on hiring new or additional mission critical company leaders may not seem quite logical. On the contrary, there are good business reasons to aggressively pursue only the star-caliber talent your business needs to break out of the tense, unrelenting economic climate constraining many companies.

Reason 1

In tepid business times with shrinking margins there is little or no room for error in hiring new people or promoting current performers into key positions. Turnover per hire typically costs one and a half to three times annual salary. With revenue stagnating, "near miss" hiring, especially when developmental paths and mobility are restricted, is too expensive. Adding mostly competitive edge, proven results players only needs to be a company's recruitment and hiring premise.

Reason 2

Downsizing has left many companies with weak leadership bench strength. Training and education budgets to develop leaders have been cut leaving the pipeline of up and coming managers and directors empty. The loss of critical employees to competitors has further decimated the internal pool of candidates, so looking externally for leaders is necessary. Further, when the down cycle inevitably turns upward the company prepared with fast track, rapidly promotable people can then respond quickly to improved markets.

Reason 3

The window for hiring great people is now open. Excellent employees, some from your own competitors, are now in the job market. A smart objective is to make competitive hires before the window closes and to craft targeted developmental opportunities to retain these top-level employees. Top performers expect mentors, acceleration in their responsibilities, immediate education opportunities, high visibility assignments and good managers to keep them engaged. Plans for hiring competitive edge talent should include talent retention.

With no margin for error in hiring, companies need excellence in their selection processes and comprehensive evaluation of critical position candidates. Following are several recommendations for competitive advantage hiring.

* Create a success profile for new hires based on the success behaviors, cultural fit factors and results generated by current high performing employees. Identify what value-added qualities each offer and determine what attributes need to be mirrored in new employees. The adage that past behavior predicts future performance has merit here. Being open to successful candidates outside your industry and even the functional area for which you are hiring increases your pool. Industry-switching candidates can bring a fresh perspective and strong motivation to learn your industry.

* Keep clearly in mind the functional and cultural competencies required for leadership jobs now and for the future when considering candidates. Candidates who would immediately generate sales, bring customers or technological brilliance now may not be a strong cultural fit long term. Since lack of values, vision or cultural fit is the most common reason for key employee separations, interviewers should be charged with writing questions to probe these company dimensions.

* Use multiple assessment methods and interviewers to get a complete picture of candidates' strengths and motivation. One basic tactic is to apply 360 degree interviewing and ask peers, superiors and subordinates to meet with candidates to uncover depth and breadth of functional expertise and fit factors. Multiple face-to-face interviews, in-depth reference checking and assessment instruments applicable to the company culture in combination improve the selection process. Evaluate candidates on hard and soft performance success factors. Executives in "C Seats" should ask themselves:

Can I build a personal relationship with this person?

Do we like each other?

Does the person tune in to what keeps me up at night?

Would I look forward to meetings with this person?

Does the person go with my energy and focus?

Does the person bring creativity, experience, resources and connections not found on my current team?

The results of strategic, competitive edge hiring for key positions are higher morale and higher productivity. New hires bring energy into work teams that may be demoralized by reductions and slow business, not to mention that these new key performers will assist your company in regaining and maintaining its competitive advantage.

Judith L. Enns, Ph.D. is regional managing director with HR Solutions-Southern California. For more information please call (619] 260-2120 or visit www.hrsolutions.com.