Hiring Winning Sales staff

The quality of the people who work for you is one of the most important factors in the success of your business, but recruiting can be a hit and miss affair. All too often we hear clients complaining that they went to a lot of time and trouble to hire someone only to find that he or she did not live up to expectations.

A recent article on getting recruitment right first time has stimulated further discussion and business partner John Finlay of Onward Consultancy offers further advice.

The "traditional" interviewer often relies on the candidate’s likeability and oral communications skills in making a selection decision. While these are desirable qualities, they are not the only indicators or predictors of critical success factors. Focused Selection interviewing addresses both of the challenges posed by traditional interviews.

It defines the competencies necessary for success. It provides a technique, behavioural interviewing, through which the interviewer can effectively elicit information about how well a candidate has demonstrated these competencies.

Behavioural Questions and the Focused Selection Interview
Focused Selection (behavioural interviewing) techniques are based on a principle of psychology — past behaviour is a more reliable indicator of a person’s future behaviour than are his/her intentions or predictions about future behaviour. In a Focused Selection interview, the interviewer asks for specific examples of how the candidate has demonstrated competencies that are necessary for success in the job.

A behavioural question asks for:
• the details of a specific situation or event,
• the candidate’s actions or behaviour, and
• the outcome of the situation.

A behavioural question is not:
• the candidate’s opinion.
• what the candidate thinks or says he/she will do.
• how well the candidate thinks he/she has done.
• how the candidate assesses his/her own strengths, weaknesses, or performance.
• how the candidate believes others would assess or describe him/her or his/her performance.

For further information regarding interview techniques and free 45 minute discussion around the recruitment challenges you face, contact john@onwardconsultancy.com or visit www.onwardconsultancy.com.