EVALUATING YOUR SELECTION CRITERIA

Harvard Business Review has reported that 65% of all hiring decisions are based on assumption and intuition.  Guess wrong, and it can cost upwards of $7,000 to replace that bad hire, according to the Canada Human Resources Centre’s online ‘turnover calculator’.   

So how do you make crucial hiring decisions and ensure you recruit the right candidate the first time? Not surprisingly, it starts long before you schedule the interview - it begins when you evaluate the criteria you’re using to select the right person. 

Everybody is Doing the Evaluating 

Every job applicant will tell you what you want to hear, so your challenge is to know what mix of skills, talents, values and behaviours your company needs to achieve your business goals.  

 

At the same time, every job applicant has their own set of criteria they are using to evaluate you as a potential new employer. 

 

From a candidate’s perspective, being able to manage their own career offers control over three important factors that contribute to their quality of work life. 

 

“The secret to high performance and satisfaction—at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world,” says Daniel Pink, author of DRIVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.  He says an employee’s true motivation and performance comes from three elements; having a sense of autonomy, mastery, and purpose.          

 

Assuming that you are looking for highly motivated employees who want to do their best for your customers, your business and themselves; your selection criteria needs to reflect these ‘engagement criteria’ to deliver on both sides of the recruitment table

The Four Stages of Evaluating Selection Criteria

There are four key stages to evaluating your selection criteria. 

1. Plan

What does success looks like for your company and the candidate?  Do your homework – ask everyone on the team what “great results” would look like for the individual, the team and the company.  This step gives you the big picture of what to include in the position description and in any marketing material you post/print about the job.

 

In addition to reflecting the specific requirements of the position, the rule of thumb in developing selection criteria is that it needs to be fair, objective and measurable. For example, requiring a degree in a specialized area may exclude great candidates without a degree who have valuable experience performing all aspects of the position to a very high level.

 

Two questions to ask as you plan your selection criteria:

1. What needs to be better after we fill this position?
    
2. What combination of strengths and talents do we need to ensure our company’s success?  (I.e. technical skills, someone to push the envelope, an aspiring leader, or a great follower)