Performance versus Skills Based Recruiting Approach

Let’s face it, even in tough economic times good people are hard to find. Spend your time making better hires. My job as a 20 year veteran in the search business, is to help find good people and put them in opportunities at which they can excel. It is my belief that the best chance of making a good hiring decision should be centered on a Performance-Based  recruiting approach rather than the skills-based approach. This is true because the Performance-Based  approach is focused on hiring candidates who have shown success in performing roles similar to what is expected in the new position and not just a candidate’s ability to win the interview.

For the past 15 years the hiring managers that I’ve worked with have hired predominantly on a skills-based approach. The skills-based approach makes candidate selections based on a list of the skills that a  candidate has and not necessarily the candidates ability to do the job. This is a fundamental difference between the two approaches.

FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN APPROACHES

Skills-based approach — hiring based on skills acquired matching job description skills

Performance-based approach – hiring based on the candidates ability to do the job.

I believe the skills-based approach is used because it is the traditional approach,  makes it easier to screen potential candidates, and because the recruiter and hiring manager don’t know of other options. The risk of using the skills-based approach is twofold: 1) you may hire candidates with great skills but who are unable to successfully perform the job functions, and 2) you may miss candidates who could be great performers but didn’t interview because they lacked required “skills”.

Shouldn’t the costs associated with making a wrong hire and the overall benefit of making a great hire cause hiring managers and staffing organizations to consider a more efficient option? The Performance-Based approach is a more efficient option because the entire process is focused on delivering candidates who have performed and are likely to continue to perform the new positions required tasks. The concept is that past performance is a good indicator of future success. The performance-based approach delivers talent where the whole person is greater than the sum of their individual skills. When the hiring decision is based on the candidate’s ability to do the job good things happen. You can begin to build your organization with Peak Performers who have the confidence and ability to deliver what is required of them.  This is one way to build a Great Company.

The Performance-Based  recruiting method.

1. Create a Performance-Based  job description. Identify the critical success factors of every job and write it from a performance perspective. Your Performance-Based  job description now becomes the template by which compare your candidates.
2. Build a deep enough talent pool of appropriate talent.
3. Screen candidates based on their ability to perform the critical success factors
4. Conduct a short initial Performance-Based  phone interviews
5. Conduct more detailed Performance-Based  face-to-face interviews
6. Create short list ranking based on the ability and motivation to do the job
7. Complete thorough reference checking and background verification
8. Hire the best fit candidate and keep the others in your pipeline

The most important task of every manager is to build or improve their team to help him or her achieve their objectives. Every single hiring opportunity is a chance to improve a performance capability. The Performance-Based recruiting process will help you hire performance oriented talent where a skills-based recruiting approach may not. Performance-Based  recruiting requires more effort and intellect than the skills-based approach because it requires judgment on a candidates ability to do the work. A good recruiter can greatly simplify this process for a busy hiring manager by doing all of the leg work and preparing the results in an organized and easy to follow presentation.

If you want a better chance of increasing the performance of your team try to make your next hires utilizing the Performance Based Recruiting approach. PeopleStaff is available to help guide you through the process and work on your behalf.

Your comments are appreciated.

Books to read:  Hire With Your Head. A rational way to make a gut decision.  by Lou Adler.