Too many prerequisites never net ‘perfect’ candidate

Published on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008

Some recruiters are totally hung up on hiring criteria. They have fixed ideas not only about the ‘right’ candidate’s experience, performance, skills, academic background and attitude, but also the image and demeanour to go with it. They consider it imperative that the potential employee should meet all the requirements of the job description and some more too.

These seemingly ‘indispensable’ prerequisites can often drive the best hiring strategy askew. After all, there is no such thing as a ‘perfect’ job candidate.

As you spend days uncovering the perfect employee for the job, you may be overlooking some of the best applicants. They will slip through your net as you concentrate on eliminating everything but the best. And when you dejectedly go back to the ‘almost-perfect’ candidates, they may either have accepted other positions or are no longer even interested in the job!

So, can you afford to keep waiting forever for the haloed candidate to emerge? And, even if the perfect candidate does exist, what is the assurance that he/she will take up the job that you are offering?

As a top retention strategist highlights, “It’s nice to strive for perfection when we hire, but this is easier said than done. It’s nice to have 100 percent, but hard to achieve. On a positive note, the 75 percent candidates can bring productive qualities and skills to your department that weren’t included in your requirements or detected in an interview. With a three-quarter selection approach, you may be much closer to 100 than you think.”

It has often been noticed that even before a company can get over revelling in the hire of a perfect employee, the said person is gone in a wink. Such star employees frequently try to leverage a good job for a similar title in an even bigger organisation.

Then again, there is another potential fallacy that the hiring standards itself may be wrong or invalid. But what if you are focusing on the wrong attributes in the quest for the perfect job candidate. After all, the perfect applicants will not always have the same background as you list in the job description.

Realistic search

It is high time that hiring managers step back and re-evaluate their quest for perfection. Try to make your standards consistent with reality. At least, steer clear of simply concentrating on the buzzwords and create a more practical profile of the ‘perfect candidate’.

Think – is it absolutely essential that your accounts manager should be the product of an ‘Ivy League’ school or you graphic designer must belong to a particular association?

Lowering your expectations will enable you to cast a wider net and incorporate good candidates who would otherwise have seemed ‘not quite right!’

While it makes sense to compile a list of all the attributes you want the candidate to possess, at least don’t hold on to the criteria very rigidly. When everything else bodes well, the candidate is quite acceptable even if his academic background is not quite right or he has a little lesser experience than assumed necessary!

So, do not adamantly insist on a prestigious degree or some specific level of experience. Try to determine whether the candidate is capable of accomplishing the tasks well even if he does not possess the exact skills or qualifications.

Shift the attention from seeking perfection and focus on finding motivated, ethical, experienced and competent candidates. Think in terms of what the candidate must be able to do to be successful in the job, not what he must have.

Concentrate on these four or five qualities and objectives required from an employee. This is called a performance profile.

Also, try to prioritise the list of ‘must-haves’ in an orderly fashion. After all, are communication skills more important than job abilities, smartness more important than diligence or image more important than passion for work?

This is not to suggest that companies should settle for mediocre candidates. But the bad news definitely is that there aren’t very many perfect candidates out there.

Yet, like it has been said, “While holding out for the perfect job candidate may be frustrating, time consuming, and costly, making a mistake in hiring can be disastrous!”

PAYAL CHANANIA

Rise above the paltry grudges, cultivate habit of forgiveness

Published on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008

Nastiness pervades our work environment. It can take the shape of insensitive bosses, rude co-workers or malicious teammates. Your manager may play favourites or cut you out from a well-deserved promotion. A colleague may steal credit for your work or even backstab you. Another team member may delight in treating you unfairly or try to humiliate you in front of everybody.

The petty behaviour is not only annoying, but can also make you feel hurt and slighted. At best, the transgression can be trivial; at worst it can be painful. A quintessentially tit-for-tat culture is present and we are quite prone to think in terms of keeping score and taking revenge. The counter-strikes can range from verbal confrontations and abuses to plotting behind the back for ‘fair’ retribution.

Everyone is so totally focused on taking ‘an eye for an eye’, that the notion of forgiveness does not enter the picture. In fact, people often deem that forgiveness has no place in the ruthless world of work.However, consider this, your anger is truly justified, but the offence will eat away at you, making ‘you’ a victim in more ways than one. Mentally replaying the hurt and dwelling on the wounded feelings will burden you more than anyone else. The preoccupation with holding grudges and seeking vengeance can also take its toll on your work output and mar your career prospects.

As a top management consultant points out, “If people are spending a lot of time and energy playing the payback game, it absorbs energy and time from contributing to a company’s bottom line”.

What’s more, retaliating and getting even can only give momentary satisfaction, while true forgiveness will actually lighten your heart forever!

So it’s in your own best interests to release the anger and take the high road to forgiveness. The healing effect will free you of the fury, resentment and confusion that are compromising your life and work. It can also help cure any misunderstandings that may be fuelling your hurt feelings.

Letting go and moving past the transgression will help you to get on with your work and become more productive.

Especially in today’s circumstances, it is not a good idea to continue fighting it out for petty revenge. What you need to do is rise above the paltry grudges and act as a team by valuing each other and respecting everyone’s viewpoint. It even makes business sense to practice forgiveness as a lot more can be accomplished by working together than being apart.

Not easy

Yet forgiving someone is not really an easy task. It calls for great courage and generosity. Much as we would like to, most of us cannot bring ourselves to truly forgive a person who has wronged us. The pain and misery can often drive a deep wedge, which is difficult to overcome.

Try to make the deliberate choice by thinking in terms of the big picture. Consider why do you want to give someone power over you and your performance? Truly, the best revenge is not to let the unpleasant occurrences affect you and carry on as if nothing has happened!

Moreover, reflect whether the consequences of holding on to the grievances are really worth it. It can create conflicts and stress as you try to avoid contact with the wrongdoer. Constantly plotting revenge can also block your energy. Also try to get the real perspective on the situation. Your primary distress can often arise more from your hurt feelings and thoughts than the actual wrongdoing. What’s more, sometimes the reasons for refusing to forgive may no longer even be valid!

The persistent anger and frustration will also take its toll on your physical and mental health, making you miss work days and can even induce you to change jobs. Therefore, forgiveness will lead the way for healthy relationships and a peaceful life.

Real forgiveness may take some time, but it will definitely free you off the emotional baggage. You just have to remain positive and draw on your hidden ability to forgive.

You don’t have to even explicitly tell the other person that you have forgiven him. What is important is that the pardon should come from inside and reflect on your actions or behaviour. Show that you are not holding it against him. However, don’t let people take advantage of your change of heart. Remember that you are only reconciling with the deed, not condoning or justifying the same. Do not let the person repeat the same offence again.

To quote Mahatma Gandhi’s famous words, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong!”

PAYAL CHANANIA

Leverage success with a SWOT analysis

Published on Wednesday, Jan 07, 2009

It is always said that we need to concentrate on the right priorities to achieve success. But most of us are at a total loss when it comes to what exactly to focus on!

An effective framework for visioning, developing and confirming your goals is through a SWOT analysis – an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Carrying out a SWOT analysis involves identifying internal strengths and weaknesses as well as examining external opportunities and threats, and then seeing how they relate to each other. This interesting insight alerts you to your weaknesses so that no threat can catch you unawares any longer.

With little thought, you can understand your strengths and uncover the greatest opportunities, that you are well placed to take advantage of and thus achieve your goals. Thereby, it enables proactive thinking, rather than relying on habitual or instinctive reactions

SWOT analysis is a flexible concept that can be used in various scenarios from assessing projects or business ventures, making decisions, solving problems, evaluating candidates for a position to marketing strategy formulation. It also shows it efficacy as a valuable career-planning tool.

Therefore, in a business context, organisations can analyse strategic propositions and match their resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which they operate. Gaining a better understanding of how to relate to the external situation will also enable them to carve a sustainable niche in the market.

And, when used to map a personal profile, it ensures that people are working as effectively as possible and develop their careers in a way that takes the best advantage of their talents, abilities and opportunities.

Here’s how to take an inventory of the four components:

Strengths

These are the internal attributes that add value and give you a competitive edge over others (be it companies or colleagues). So, take an objective look at:

• What do you do well?

• What is your USP?

• What advantages you have over others?

• What relevant resources you have access to?

The tangible and intangible assets, skills or resources can range from track record, specialist expertise, good communication, creativity or ability to quickly respond to change in the individual context to strong market share, organisational structure, quality equipments, loyal customers or innovative products in the broader segment. One distinguishing feature for identifying these positive aspects is that they are always useful in achieving objectives.

Weaknesses

Its time for a reality check, be realistic and focus on the harmful gaps in your capabilities. Though these factors may detract from your abilities, they are well within your control. Think in terms of:

• What are you doing badly?

• What should you improve?

• What should you avoid?

Examine them from your own point of view as well as what others see as your weaknesses.

The unpleasant truths may include but are not limited to shallow skills, inability to achieve results, lack of experience, inferior service, damaged company reputation or poor business location.

Opportunities

Analyse external attractive factors facing you like positive market trends and try to uncover greater potential.

Even studying your strengths or looking to eliminate weaknesses can open up a window of new opportunities. They may comprise an expanding job, new markets and other prospects for further development.

Threats

Threats are external obstacles in your path that are largely beyond your control. They are characterised by unfavourable trends like downsizing, obsolescence, price wars, competitors with superior skills/products, shifts in consumer tastes and changing technology. Yet, what constitutes opportunities and threats is largely subjective, as a situation like ‘an unfulfilled consumer need’ can be an opportunity for a company that can meet that need while a threat to those that cannot!

On the whole, a formal SWOT analysis not only increases your awareness of the unique situation you or your firm is in (both in terms of pointing out what needs to be done and in putting problems into perspective). But it will also provide you a roadmap to maintain, build and leverage your strengths as well as deter or eliminate weaknesses so as to pursue, exploit and capitalise on the opportunities even while avoiding, countering or at least defending against potentially devastating threats.

In the words of a top consultant, “It gives a comprehensive concept of internal and external factors and how to creatively and innovatively develop a strategy that is directional, cost-effective and of course executable.’

Individuals can reflect on their own SWOT to find a job that suits their strengths and where weaknesses can be minimised or even overcome, whereas companies can easily identify a fit between their strengths and the upcoming opportunities. This helps them to distinguish where they are today and where they can go in the future.

Therefore, this is an encouragement to still do better and an important step in finding career/company direction!

PAYAL CHANANIA