Talent acquisition functions spend thousands of hours and millions of dollars designing processes to hire top performers, innovators, and game changers. Unfortunately few of those dollars or hours are spent fixing the biggest roadblock in recruiting A-level talent: weak hiring managers. Everyone seems to intuitively know that managers are the …

(Incidentally, the same arguments can also be applied to existing weak employees in cases where layoffs or terminations are being considered.) The Top 30 Arguments against Hiring … “Butts in Chairs” a.k.a. Warm Bodies, “C” Players and Homer Simpson Business Impacts of Butts in Chairs Lost productivity — a new …

One of the worst-kept secrets in recruiting is that source of hire data is inconsistently gathered and rarely accurate. To many corporate recruiters, the validity of source of hire data is a non issue; after all, once the hire is generated, their role is over. However, if you view recruiting …

It would be pretty hard to throw a stone in most HR organizations without hitting someone who manages an antiquated process. Despite significant changes in how people live, work, and play, many HR practices continue on as if they were operating in 1960. For years employment advertising specialists relied on …

Finding a Tiger Woods is the Easy Part A common complaint among both hiring managers and recruiters is that they have difficulty in hiring top caliber talent like Tiger Woods. Some call these extraordinary individuals top performers, while others call them game changers or innovators. Regardless of what they are …

If a 14-year-old walked into a liquor store, for example, they would be told to leave. Someone driving up to a Ferrari showroom in a Bentley would be more likely to be served ahead of a potential customer riding up on an old bicycle. Banks routinely discourage customers with small …

Nearly every firm that has studied recruiting effectiveness has come to the conclusion that employee referral programs are the most effective way to find and hire high quality employees. What makes referral programs so effective is that they “multiply” the number of recruiters that a firm has available. Instead of …

In the Part 1 of this article series, I described the high failure rate of most new-hire processes and provided some basic tips on how to improve the assessment process during the interview. In Part 2, I will highlight some more advanced approaches that managers and recruiters can use to improve the …

No process that involves humans produces perfect results. Even hospitals, with all the quality control systems they implement, still have a measurable failure rate. So it’s no surprise that the traditional selection process that most managers use for selecting and assessing which candidates to hire is no exception. What is …

According to Jerry Seinfeld, 95% of the population is “undatable.” Even after months and years of “assessment,” nearly 50% of the marriages in California end in divorce. But at most firms, 100% of new hires are assumed to be good hires! Recruiting is at best a hit-or-miss operation. Even the …