Kitabı oku: «HR Profiling», sayfa 2

CHAPTER 2
RULES FOR MAKING A POSITION PROFILE

In terms of recruiting a properly compiled profile is the foundation on which further work is built. The foundation should always be paid special attention. So we will continue talking about the profile and we’ll offer the reader some basic recommendations.

1. Defining the development strategy of the organization as a whole.

Defining an organization’s development strategy is the first rule. In different companies the same position often differs in terms of functionality. Common sense suggests that there is a difference between an organization that has just begun its journey, and a long-existing large company, where everything is stable and clear. Accordingly, the profiles differ, even if they are compiled for the positions with the same name.

In large, stable, profitable companies, the work is built systematically and nothing particularly new needs to be done. It would be enough to follow a certain order, perform a set of actions and algorithms associated with the position. In a «young» or small company, an employee is both a «a chief cook and a bottle washer». He is in charge of various number of functions, including those that were not talked over. A start-up organization needs initiative, creative people, ready to do what they have not been taught. This is really important at the initial phase of company formation.

When it’s a relatively long-existing organization, no one is intruding in another workers’ sphere, into someone else position’s functions. Employees work bell-to-bell, from 8.00 to 17.00, and they are pleased with everything. This kind of companies welcome people who know the entire sequence of further actions, understand their area of responsibility, and then strictly follow clearly defined procedures.

When there is no clear and tested algorithm, a «procedural» person will not become effective in a position that implies creativity and multitasking. The smaller and the younger the organization is, the more competencies are needed, and the more requirements there will be for the candidate. So it makes sense to find out what kind of company you are recruiting for.

2. Formulate each competence very specifically.

Be clear about each competency description and what it includes. Avoid pompous titles that allow many interpretations.

Here is an example from our personnel profiling training. The participants were asked a question: «What are the qualities that a sales manager should have?» In general, the participants’ answers were as follows: communication skills, stress resistance, loyalty to the company, expertness, organizational skills, responsibility, clear speech and diction, learning ability, ability to listen and identify client’s needs, skills for reaching the decision-maker, client-focused approach.

The participants were offered to give detailed description to each competency. And it turned out that different people meant by this or that competence completely different things.

Explanation of competence depends on the specific position a candidate is applying for (car sales manager at the car dealership, sales manager for incoming calls, customer service manager, etc.). Let’s look at how to decipher each of these competencies.

Communication skills. Deciphering this competence may include both similar and completely different traits. For example, the ability to persuade, listen, identify needs; desire to communicate, well-bred speech, politeness, clear diction, persuasiveness, eloquence.

If requirements to the candidate include all above, but in fact he will be using only 2—3 characteristics, it will groundlessly make the profile more burdensome. Thus, you complexify your work, but that’s not all. If you specify redundant skills, this may cause low employee motivation.

Imagine the candidate for the position wants to communicate with new people, and he was given a block of client management where he cannot realize his plans. The candidate was expecting the position would give him a chance to use his strengths, but faced with the fact that his «trumps» are not in demand.

Suppose you recruit a person for the position of sales manager for incoming bids and an active sales manager. In both cases, sociability is paramount. But what exactly is included in the concept of sociability? In the case of an active sales manager, this is a desire to communicate, eloquence and the ability to convince. The sales manager for incoming calls processes applications, therefore the ability to persuade and the desire to communicate is not so important, but the ability to identify needs and well-bred, polite speech is a must.

It can be as follows: the candidate claims to be a sales manager, he loves and knows how to communicate, but his speech is not quite clear and competent, he does not pronounce a couple of letters and lisps a little. But the way he gives information is extraordinary! He does it expressively, he motivates and gets people interested. And this is more important than competent speech and clear diction.

So when compiling a profile, it is necessary to understand what particular position the candidate is applying for and what skills are really important.

Stress resistance. How can we understand that a person is stress resistant? Stress resistance implies patience, flexibility and the ability to quickly respond to different situations, which is develop through practice. The experience speaks about stress resistance. Sometimes some twenty years old guys come for an intervew and they say: «My strong quality is stress resistance!» Immediately the question arises: «When and how did you manage to understand that you are stress resistant?».

Loyalty. Talking about loyalty we also mean performance and manageability. To verify this, put the candidate to the task that must be performed before he comes to the interview. See whether the task was accomplished, whether the candidate asked questions, whether there were any attempts to shirk responsibility or shift performance of the task to another time.

Similarities of the candidate’s values and the already established team of the company can also be seen as loyalty. We had a customer who wanted to recruit a lawyer. The customer was flexible to the available opportunities, so to say. And one of the questions for the candidate sounded as follows: «How do you feel about the fact that sometimes you have to maneuver in the existing legislation to achieve the goals of the employer?». The candidate replied: «I will not do things that I consider to be wrong». A good specialist, but did not meet the case.

Expertness. Expertness is not only experience, it is knowledge of the product and the existing market. It is also the appropriate level of education and skills in a particular area. But the expertness of the antiques seller and the expertness of the car sales manager are completely different. In the first case narrow, specific knowledge of the product is paramount. And by the way, this knowledge is not necessarily acquired in the process of receiving a formal education. In the second case, it is the experience and understanding of what, why and who to sell to. Here knowing every detail of the components of the car is not the crucial point.

Planning skills. Let’s see what is it about. The ability to plan and strictly follow a plan is not the same thing. There are people who are focused on results, but there are also procedural people who are focused on the process (more on this in the chapters on metaprograms). There are people who are able to plan out every hour of their lives and strive to follow the plan in everything. A chance that a procedural person will constantly look for new ways to sell a product is greatly reduced. If the position implies the desire to search for non-standard solutions, approaches to difficult customers, then the procedural person will not cope.

Let’s recall a good phrase: «Plans are useless, planning is priceless.» What is important is the planning process itself and the possibility of adjusting the plan along the way and not just following the established plan.

Responsibility. What do we refer to this competence? The desire to see things through to the end. Orientation for results. Performance. How can one measure it while communicating with a candidate? Responsibility is often associated with «FROM» motivation; this can also be added to the profile of the position. However, for the manager the «FROM» motivation is a minus.

Learning ability. Learning often does not imply experience. In general, the younger a candidate is, the more capable he is to learn.

Client-focused approach. We advise to specify this competence at the level of actions: to love working with people, to prioritize the client’s interests and take them into account while making decisions. Attitude to people, and in particular, to clients, is partly revealed at the stage of the conversation with the candidate.

Abilities to reach the decision maker. In general, this competence is quite clear. It is the experience that a candidate has in this matter is important.

3. The profile shall include priorities.

It is not enough to give detailed description of the competence characteristics, it is important to do something else with all the listed competencies as well.

Suppose you have ten competencies in the form of specific characteristics that are preferable for a candidate. It is unlikely that your position profile will have the same importance ratio for each feature. Some competencies are more essential for you than others. Accordingly, the profile should prioritize and indicate that you personally consider paramount. What is more important, the ability to listen or the ability to convince? Competent speech or charisma? The ability to speak politely is useful, but is it so significant compared to the ability to convince?

So, you write down a competence, describe it, determine the «weight» of each characteristic, and then choose which candidate, under otherwise equal conditions, is more suitable.

Let us analyze the position profile of the previous example, but with a limited set of competencies for the sake of brevity. For example, stress resistance, clear diction, loyalty, sociability, responsibility. Let us assume that sociability is paramount. Then we decide what is more important: stress resistance or responsibility? Flexibility, the ability to work in different conditions, the ability to adapt and change behavior can be attributed to stress resistance. Thus, stress tolerance is the second priority competence. The next quality is responsibility. In this case, responsibility is the ability to undertake tasks and perform them properly and on time. Responsibility also includes performance and most often it is «FROM» motivation. Given the fact that most managers work on the result with the motivation «TO», the motivation «FROM» is less preferable than interpersonal skills and stress tolerance. Therefore, the responsibility will be ranked as a third priority. Further, we assess what is more important: loyalty or clear diction? If it is important for us that the employee is manageable, then we put loyalty in fourth place and clear diction in fifth place.

Now imagine that there is a candidate and you understand that he is positive, expressive, and conveys information in such a «juicy» way, that you are ready to turn a blind eye on the fact that he does not pronounce some letters. Then we eliminate the last priority competency from the list.

This is the way how you can determin what you personally are willing to turn a blind eye on, in case if the candidate is generally suitable and meets the position’s key competencies.

4. Each competence, specified in the profile, should have its own «measure».

How can each competency be measured? In this matter we can rely on projective questions, the identification of a metaprogram profile, knowledge of the basic psychotype and additional trends in the profile. When composing a profile of a position, you should have an approximate picture: MP, variants of psycho-types, possible answers to projective questions, personal qualities, values profile, a map of motivators.

Thus, the algorithm for compiling a position profile is the following:

1) Determine the stage of the company’s development.

2) It is important to describe each competency specifically.

3) Set priorities.

4) Understand how you will measure it.

Recommendation: Do not add to the profile those characteristics and knowledge, skills and abilities that are not mandatory in this very position, because it will unreasonably «make heavier» the profile, recruiting process and filling a vacancy. Imagine the ideal employee in a particular position and think what is a must for this position. After this, delete from the profile all that is not strictly necessary. This will facilitate your work and give a chance to those candidates who are really suitable.

CHAPTER 3
WHAT IS THE BASIS OF THE PERSONNEL PROFILING MODEL OF THE INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF LIE RESEARCH (IALR)?

When recruiting staff a large number of details should be taken into account, from the position’s profile to the analysis of the psychological characteristics of the candidate.

Fortunately, there is a tool that allows to optimize the time without wasting it on communicating with unsuitable candidates. This is a preliminary stage, which includes evaluation, filter, analysis of resumes and questionnaires, both incoming and the ones that you yourself are looking for, for example, on hh.ru, superjob.ru, etc.

In the fourth chapter we will analyze in detail how to act at this stage. But before proceeding to the appropriate section of the book, we will show what our personnel profiling model is based on.

So, the IALR personnel profiling model consists of six points:

1) Operational psychodiagnostics of IALR.

There are quire a few classifications that help typologize a person, from dividing all people into four temperaments to the signs of the zodiac.

We distinguish 8 psycho-types, taking into account the peculiarities of the nervous system and basic emotions. We will talk about this from two points of view: which candidate is effective in a particular psycho-type of a particular position and which risk factors are peculiar to him. Risk factors can be predicted and thus the potential of their occurrence can be reduced. We will also look at the criminal profiles of people to understand what the candidate is capable of within the organization.

It is impossible to repair the whole house using only one hammer, since any classification has its limitations. One classification might not be useful for all tasks, besides sometimes it might not be applied at all. Therefore, we also rely on the human metaprogram profile.

2) Metaprogram profile (MP-profile).

The MP profile is a fairly stable characteristic, but still changing throughout life. It is something that we can develop and «stretch». And in the «stretched» metaprogram profile, we can work in opposite contexts equally productively. Understanding a metaprogram profile gives us many advantages. We start with finding out what is the basis for making decisions of a certain person, what motivates him, how he will interact in a team and with other people. By the end we know which positions are best for appointing the candidate. Besides, knowing the metaprogram profile allows to «measure» risk appetite and the level of loyalty of a person.

3) Projective techniques.

It is such a simple and powerful tool, that it allows to save a lot of time, which is spent on identifying real motives, motivators and personal characteristics. If not to use projective methods, then at the first meeting with the candidate we will hear socially acceptable and socially expected answers. In other words, people will try to look good in your eyes, and for a number of questions will give answers that are not entirely truthful. With the help of projective methods we instigate the person to respond unconsciously, based on the characteristics of his personality and experience. With some methods you are most likely familiar, for example, with the technique of Svetlana Ivanova. In this book we will touch these methods. We have also included a number of questions that are not related to the works of this author.

4) NLP tools.

Of course, we can’t do without NLP! In personnel work we use NLP tools when we set (attitudes) installations; when we examine who the person is and what are his representative systems to perceive the world. Here we also include a pyramid of logical levels, thanks to which we will be able to describe the employee’s loyalty level. Any communication is a manipulation, and in order to get answers to our questions we must act professionally and take responsibility for it.

5) Information collection techniques.

An important component in the personnel profiling model is information collection techniques. We apply these techniques not only in relation to people who are being recruited for a particular position, but also in relation to our potential partners in order to understand who we will work with.

It happens that the position you invite a person for is quite important. The decisions of the person on this position might influence the overall development strategy of the company (for example, in the position of a top manager). To understand what kind of person he is, what dark sides and pitfalls he has, whether he has any contacts with competitors, whether there are court decisions and other unpleasant hidden facts, we need to use additional information gathering tools. We use open information resources, databases, and social networking sites. Using this tool, we might, so to say, play softball «spy games». And before we see the candidate, we already know something about him.

6) Methods of non-instrumental (toolless) lie detection.

Think of the answers that candidates gave on he question «Why did you choose our company?» From this point on, «sugar honey» would begin: «Because your company is the best,» «Because I want to work with professionals,» «Because you are the largest suppliers in the market,» etc. Now imagine what can actually be hidden behind these words and what are this person’s true motives and reasons for employment. «I have to wait a couple of months, and then I will definitely go to another organization, they offer higher salary and tastier food …”, or «Well, it’s near my house». Or the worst case: «It is because I’ve agreed with your competitors that I would be feeding them intel.» During the interview at least 20% (which is the very minimum!) of the information will not be true.

To analyze the answers to a number of important questions (including reasons of dismissal from previous jobs or harmful addictions), tools for assessing the reliability of information are needed.

CHAPTER 4
PRELIMINARY STAGE – RESUME ANALYSIS, QUESTIONNAIRES

Whether you use the services of a recruitment agency or hiring candidates yourself, any way, a candidate for the position fills out a questionnaire. At the stage of selecting such questionnaires or resumes, there are several points for analysis, on which one can say whether to invite this person to an interview or not. Let’s go through the points that are usually included in the questionnaire.

Full name, contacts.

Primary input data, at first glance, do not give anything for profiling a questionnaire. But in fact, sometimes even significant information may be hidden here.

For example, look at the name of the mailbox. The man himself chooses a name for this purpose and shows the peculiarities of his character, convictions and so on. For example, rasist@yandex.ru or seksi-ledi@mail.ru. It is no coincidence that the candidate named the mailbox this way.

Data about the mail might also be needed when we analyze information about the candidate using various information sources.

Once we were looking for a candidate for a managerial position and we would analyze his general managerial experience and areas of activity. One of the candidates’ questionnaire indicated that he has been on the leaders positions since he was 15! It was further stated that until the age of 48 he held only similar positions. The profile was missing a photo, but there was mail registered on mail.ru. We used this information to look at the «leader from birth» and through the social networking site MoiMir we saw the candidate’s questionnaire. It turned out that he was 58 years old. So it means that the information in the resume was changed / distorted / hidden. Naturally, we did not invite this man, who was like the kings of the Middle Ages – rulers from adolescence.

Education

The lack of education, which is supposed to help in mastering the profession, does not mean that the person is not suitable. Right away the «sales-managers with a God-given talent» with only a secondary education come to mind. And vice versa. An appropriate education, though increases the candidate’s chances, is not a hundred percent indicator of his effectiveness in office.

Our colleague Tatyana shared her story about this. She just got a job at the local representative office of a large trading company as a personnel director. The company had strict recruitment requirements. And so Tatiana received a call from a girl who asked her challengingly: «So what, you only take people with higher education?». Tatiana invited her for the interview. The whole biography of the girl was «one big minus»: she had a residence permit, a rented apartment, a 2-year-old daughter, no grandmothers-grandfathers, working experience only at the checkout counter in the store. Secondary trade education. Despite all these, Tatiana really liked the girl, she went to the supervisor to arrange an interview with her (of course, she retold her entire biography). The supervisor made a «cuckoo» sign, but agreed to talk. After talking with this girl the supervisor finally decided to hire her. The company had a trial period of 3 months. This girl had the shortest trial in the company’s history – 3 weeks. And over the next 3 years of her work she would fulfill the plan by 120%. Even the regional directorate was proud of her.

In general, when analyzing one should pay attention to educational institution the candidate graduated from, which faculty he studied, which specialty he mastered, in what city, how long did he study, whether it is a specialized or non-specialized education (whether it is necessary for this very position), and which skills and knowledge it provides.

Family status

Some employers also look at this factor and take into account the fact that a man of 45 years old has not been married and has no children.

It is not uncommon for young girls to seek employment in large company with an officially declared salary and a good social package with only one goal – to work for a while and go on maternity leave. When ordering verification clients often want us to ask the candidate this question: «Are you going to get pregnant in the near future?». Here, of course, we explain that there are things that you cannot plan, and the answer to such a question will be useless.

Working experience and previous jobs

An important point. We are interested in finding out at what places the candidate used to work, and whether they were similar to one another. For example, if a person began working as a laborer, and then he became a shop-worker in the same company, then a shop foreman, and eventually the head of a company, then we can see consistency and procedural character.

The opposite case: the resume shows the frequent change of places, the candidate worked in many companies but not in one did he stay for a long time. What is the matter here? We will list several reasons. First, it can be the meta-program «Differences», when a person does not want to work in one place for a long time, he wants to develop and is longing to go forward. The meta-program «Opportunities» should not be excluded, especially when places of work do not cross over and official duties do not overlap. Besides, a risk factor might be a reason (alcohol, conflicts). If a candidate has changed 3—4 places in 10 years it is not so bad, 2 places are actually excellent. This suggests that a person is stable, appreciates orderliness in his life and is not used to changing places of work so often.

Additionally, consider the spelling in the questionnaire. For example, a person applied for an assistant manager position, but in five lines he made three mistakes. In fact, what does the position of assistant manager imply? Attentiveness, commitment, multitasking, responsibility, nuanced approach. For instance, his responsibility might be ordering tickets, organizing transfers for partners from other cities, monitoring services operation to complete the tasks set by the manager and much more. But if a person wrote a resume and did not even recheck it, then there is a high probability that he will continue to make mistakes in the future. For example, time of the meeting important partners will be wrongly appointed and it will negatively affect the work of the manager and the company as a whole.

Hobby

Hobby is a remarkable thing. Up to this very point in the questionnaire everything is usually structured, a person writes things that he wants to be known. For example, skills, knowledge of languages, etc. Here you can write anything of these, it is impossible to check it just relying on the questionnaire. But the hobby speaks of that part of the personality that the candidate is trying to conceal. What do you think a hobby like collecting might say? If you think about it, this may speak of patience, desire for deeper understanding, or when a person wants to know something – he begins to «dig» and hunt down the topic. This may also speak about diligence and goal orientation. This hobby often indicates that the person is ready to follow procedures and processes.

Once we analyzed a resume for the position of development director, in which the candidate wrote that his hobby was collecting orders, medals, badges, any lapel pins and working with archives to study family history. It is not difficult to guess that we did not invite the candidate to this position, because his hobbies are connected solely with the past.

A versatile multi-faceted person with different interests will suit us for creative professions. Such type of hobby as extreme sports (for example, rodeo, rock climbing, rafting, etc.) speaks about adventurous nature in a way, about risk appetite. It is important to consider what position you are hiring the person for. For positions that require risk (for example, when working with new directions) this hobby is rather a benefit. If we select a candidate for the position of a risk manager, where a person must predict, foresee all negative aspects, such hobby might tell us that a candidate has some undesirable personal traits.

Additional information / portfolio

In the resume candidates also often add additional information about themselves, including various certificates, awards, credentials. It might say that such a person is longing to learning, self-development, he is quite active, able to present himself and his abilities, and most often such people are ambitious. This information will give a clue as to the candidate’s area of interest: whether certificates relate to different fields and areas, or each certificate is a logical continuation of the candidate’s training in one area, which reveals the desire to study the subject deeper. Also, if the candidate has included all this in the resume, it is possible that he wants to show how he will cost the labor market.

Concerning strong qualities, which candidates use to describe themselves, there is an excellent saying of by L.N. Tolstoy «The more the person is satisfied with himself, the less satisfying things can be found in him.» It is difficult to assess yourself. To convey your assessment objectively is not an easy task, too, since everything is relative. If you ask a 19-year-old girl from the village if she considers herself to be goal-oriented, she will answer «Yes» because she graduated from the 9th grade, unlike her friends who dropped out of school in the 7th grade. All of us once achieved a goal, even a small one, but to assert that all people have this strong would be hastily and biased.

And here I want to recall the experiment of Bertram Forer. In 1948 he showed the results of this effect. Forer gave his students a special test in order to analyze their personalities. However, instead of the actual individual characteristic, he gave each student the same text written in a generalized language, which is often used in drawing up a horoscope.

Here is the text that students received:

«You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside.

At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others’ statements without satisfactory proof.

You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. Security is one of your major goals in life.

Then B. Forer asked each student to evaluate the accuracy of this description according to their personal reality on a scale from zero to five, and surprisingly, the average evaluation was 4.26.