I recently gave a presentation to a group of business and community leaders on how to select talent to grow their organization. Given the expense associated with recruiting top performers and the high cost of making poor choices, you would think that those responsible for hiring would follow a systematic process that results in high quality hiring.

Yet, I am continually amazed, when reviewing staffing practices, how frequently I find the lack of workforce planning, inconsistent procedures, ineffective interviewing, indecision or a quick decision based on gut feel rather than good data. On the other hand, here are twelve best practices for selecting top talent.

Dont shoot from the hip. Have a well-thought-out recruitment and selection process in place. Prepare in advance for interviews. Take hiring seriously.

Identify the interview team. Ensure everyone who will interview the candidate has been trained on interviewing techniques. Interviewing well is a learned skill.

Develop a role expectation or job description. Its important to have everyone on the same page about what is required. If one person thinks a certain personality type is needed while another thinks differently, then there will be problems deciding whom is the best candidate.

Ask behavioral, open-ended questions. Use position requirements to guard against would do vs. have done. Its usually not very helpful to ask candidates can you do x? Most likely will say yes because they think they can. Remember, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Instead, ask something like, Tell me how you handled dealing with x?

Decide who will ask the candidate what questions. Its usually best to divide the questions based on interviewer competency. For example, let finance people ask the finance questions.

Take notes and be consistent. I guarantee that you will either forget what the first interviewee said or mix his/her responses with subsequent interviewees if you dont take notes. Ask each candidate the same questions so that you can compare answers and more accurately compare candidates.

Make the candidates feel comfortable. Sure, if you make the interview feel like an interrogation youll know how they respond to questioning under pressure but its unlikely theyll tell you much revealing about themselves because they will be on the defensive.

Dont talk more than 20% of the time. Allow enough time in the interview for the candidate to ask questions. The number and caliber of their questions will tell you a lot about how they think.

Be aware of selection bias errors. These include hiring a person because he is the freshest in your memory or he made a good first impression or he is or is not the picture of what you had in mind for the position, e.g., male/female, color, height, school, country club, accent, dress, etc.

Avoid self-imaging hiring. Its very tempting to pick someone because they think or act like you. That doesnt make the candidate a terrific choiceit depends on the match between the person and the position.

Dont over inflate the company. For example, if your company is struggling, dont gloss it over. There really are people who would prefer to take on that type of challenge than to work for a mature predictable company.

Do extensive reference checking. Make sure the candidate has actually done what they say they have. Use prepared behavioral questions to verify have done vs. will do.

Marcia Zidle

Marcia Zidle, M.S. N.C.C., the ‘people smarts’ coach, works with business, government and community leaders to quickly solve their people management headaches so they can concentrate on their #1 job – to grow and increase profits. Her services include:

• What Really Works Handbooks – resources for managers and supervisors on the front line
• Power-by-the-Hour Programs – fast, convenient, real life, affordable courses for leadership and staff development
• Your Strategic Partner – support to leaders who are in positions of high expectations, high visibility and high payoff.

Marcia is founder of Leadership Hooks, a business coaching company, which helps executive teams, operations managers, business owners and agency directors to move their organizations from seat-of-the-pants to feet-on-the-ground leadership.

She brings over 20 years experience from a wide variety of workplace settings, countries, and industries including: health care, financial services, professional practices, automotive and light manufacturing, energy, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, event management, education, non-profits, local and state government.

Finally, Marcia's ‘claim to fame’ is experiencing expatriate living with her family in Scandinavia and Australia. She has traveled in over 30 countries throughout Europe, the Middle East, Far East, and South Pacific. She welcomes invitations to speak internationally so that she can add to her growing list of interesting places to explore.