Hiring Employees - Ask and Lead to SUCCEED - Leadership Q&A

Questions we covered:

00:00 - Intro

00:12 - What do you think of assignments or tests for applicants?

00:55 - What are important points on the onboarding list?

02:31 - How to hire superstars?

03:51 - What to include in the probation period?

05:36 - What is the difference hiring a manager vs an employee?

Transcript:

Q&A Hiring Employees

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Succeed another q and a where we go deeper into hiring employees. 

[00:00:08] Let's go into the first questions I got. 

[00:00:11] What do you think about letting applicants do a test or an assignment?

[00:00:16] My perspective is I'm not really a big fan when it comes to formal tests. 

[00:00:20] One thing is because I suck personally at them 

[00:00:23] and sometimes they're not really helping you to advance.

[00:00:25] I'm more the human part of that. I like assignments if you structure them properly  to understand if this person fits into the company culture. If this person is capable of doing specific tasks that you need that person to do inside of the organization, then to put a couple of smaller assignments in front of that person.

[00:00:46] And if you do the smart, you can already include teamwork in this. 

[00:00:49] So you see if this person is able to work within the team structure.

[00:00:54] What are the most important points for onboarding employees? 

[00:00:59] I will try to answer that high level. 

[00:01:02] I always start with a onboarding checklist. 

[00:01:04] Do you have an onboarding checklist in your company? 

[00:01:07] Is this onboarding checklist up to date?

[00:01:10] Number one is introduce this person to other humans in your organization, 

[00:01:14] because that will directly build connections with the team members and focus on relationship.

[00:01:20] It's not too much about what is the work, how you need to perform. 

[00:01:24] It's more about, Hey, who are you? What are your hobbies? What is your family situation? Because that creates personal bonds with the team members and you see straightaway an uptake in performance With all team members, but as well, specifically with the person.

[00:01:40] Then of course, obviously where you are heading, where you are heading as a department, where are you heading as an organization? 

[00:01:46] What is the strategies, 

[00:01:48] what are the roadmaps, 

[00:01:49] what are the goals? 

[00:01:50] Then of course, the basics, which is ways of working. I always like to have a buddy system where someone takes care of the person and onboard them properly. Working together maybe for two, three months to create a relationship where they can properly talk deeper. 

[00:02:07] They don't want to ask the stupid questions like, when do we get salary paid? 

[00:02:10] All these questions, you would most probably in the beginning, not ask your manager, but if you have a buddy set up, then they're willing to do that. 

[00:02:17] And of course a key part of that onboarding checklist should be what are the expectations to that person?

[00:02:23] What are the expectations from the manager, 

[00:02:25] from the management? 

[00:02:25] Depending on the structure, depending on what this person is doing, be very clear with that. 

[00:02:31] How to make sure to hire superstars only. I'm not sure if hiring superstars only is the right thing.

[00:02:39] Let's start with diversity 

[00:02:42] for me it's diversity of thoughts, 

[00:02:44] diversity of backgrounds, 

[00:02:45] diversity of understanding of the world, understanding of what you're doing.

[00:02:49]  You need to look into what is the missing puzzle piece in your organization or in your team. And then hire specifically a person that fits into that structure and it providing the know how And the inputs for that specific job. 

[00:03:05] But as well provides the personality that fits into that specific job.

[00:03:09] If we take superstars from that context of. Building a diverse team, building a diversity of thought inside of your team environment, then it's really 

[00:03:19] someone who wants to develop 

[00:03:21] someone who is eager to learn and grow inside of the company.

[00:03:26] Someone who is willing to do the extra mile. 

[00:03:28] I 

[00:03:29] try to understand are they willing to do this job just to earn money or are they willing to do this job to be successful in life, to be successful in their career, to be successful as a human being. 

[00:03:43] And if they're willing to be successful. Do you feel that inside of the job interviews, if you ask the right questions and if you put a focus on that? 

[00:03:51] What to include in the probation period? 

[00:03:54] From a leadership perspective I think you should have a start talk.

[00:03:58] You should have a mid talk and you should have an end talk inside of that probation period. 

[00:04:03] And I know that's different timeframes and different organizations. Doesn't matter which timeframe. 

[00:04:07] Inside of this start, talk for me two main things.

[00:04:12] Expectations. What are your expectations as the leader to that person that is just getting started. 

[00:04:18] What are the goals you want to achieve inside of this timeframe? 

[00:04:22] What are the tasks you want this person to be successful in and how do you measure that?

[00:04:27] How does success look like for you as the manager, but as well for you as a team, 

[00:04:32] you and that person that is just getting started. 

[00:04:35] Then of course, obviously in the mid talk, which should be halfway through. You have a calibration meeting. 

[00:04:41] Where are you? 

[00:04:42] What is going well, what's not going well? 

[00:04:44] Let's navigate towards where we want to go, and maybe add a couple of tasks. Add a couple of clear goals specific to help that person in the onboarding process, but as well help you as the leader to collaborate deeper with that person. 

[00:05:00] And then the end talk for me is all about.

[00:05:06] How did it go? 

[00:05:08] What was good? What was not good? 

[00:05:09] What are the things that are still open, and how do we move on from here? 

[00:05:13] And what I like very much to do is I'm documenting the three talks, but I do this together. So in the best way, it's always if the employee is writing it while you're talking things through. 

[00:05:27]  And that helps dramatically in an onboarding process, specifically when you look into what are the different steps inside of the onboarding process.

[00:05:35] What is the difference between hiring a manager or an employee? 

[00:05:40] Let's start with the employee. For me key part of hiring an employee is 

[00:05:46] company fit. Does this person fit to the company culture? Is this person having the same values, like the company is expecting to have. 

[00:05:57] Team fit?

[00:05:58] Does this person fit into the team where the person needs to work in?

[00:06:02] Job skills? 

[00:06:03] What are the skills, particularly for their job that are missing for the team, that are missing for the organization that will help the organization to grow, help the organization to move on. 

[00:06:16] And then a big thing, which a lot of organizations don't do, but I highly recommend 

[00:06:21] is future potential of that person.

[00:06:23] How can this person grow inside of the organization and be successful as an employee? That's not necessarily always a manager career 

[00:06:33] up the ladder. It's also how can this person contribute with the knowledge and develop as a human being inside of the organization, going deeper into specific expertise.

[00:06:44] If we look into leadership obviously the same things like the employee but even more important is the company values, 

[00:06:51] because as a leader you need to be the good example in whatever you are doing. 

[00:06:55] If you are not representing the company values, the company on long-term perspective is in danger because every leader that is not reflecting the company values is driving the company into a different direction, which is not always healthy. 

[00:07:11] And then obviously leadership capabilities. What are specific leadership capabilities you require a leader in your organization to have? 

[00:07:20] People first mindset. Is this a people person or is this a performance process person? For me, you should only hire leaders that are people persons, because a leader is there to support the team going into a direction that helps the organization to grow, helps the organization to perform, helps the organization to win. 

[00:07:42] If you have a person that is not focused on people, you have the risk in not succeeding with the total team.  

[00:07:51] People first mindset,

[00:07:52] that means listening as well. A good leader is capable of listening, understanding, reading the situation, understanding the big picture of the people involved, and then guiding the team into the right direction. 

[00:08:05] I think these are the key points when we look into differences between hiring a manager people reporting to that person and hiring an employee that is capable and doing a job but is not supposed to lead people. 

[00:08:19] If you have questions to any leadership topic, please send them my way wearesucceed.com there's a contact form where you can just send us the question and then we build them in future Q&A sessions. Thank you very much for today and see you next Saturday.