Babies

A young engineer arrived for his scheduled interview. The interviewer's responsibility was to confirm the candidate's technical skills. There was one problem: The candidate arrived carrying his baby in a bassinet.

He apologized to the interviewer, explaining that at the last minute the sitter for his child canceled. He offered to come back another day, but he did not want to inconvenience the interviewer at the last minute.

The interviewer said it was not a problem. During the interview the candidate had to take a few breaks to take care of the baby, but the interviewer did not mind.

If you were the interviewer, what would you have done? Should the person not be hired because the child may interrupt their work schedule in the future? Based on this situation, would the candidate fit into your company culture?

You have to make your own decision. The interviewer and I agree:

1. The baby actually was a blessing in the hiring process because the situation enabled the interviewer to see a different aspect of the candidate's behaviors and values. This is a huge benefit because it was an opportunity to get the candidate talking "outside of his script" so the interviewer could get to know him more personally.
2. The interviewer was still able to confirm all the technical skills of the candidate.
3. This brought up a potential work issue in advance.

This is a true story. The interviewer recommended the candidate be hired. For some reason, the company decided not to hire the candidate.

Meeting Ideas

Virtually everyone I know shares two things in common: (1) They are hiring this year; and (2) they are extremely busy. If this describes you, then you will benefit from reviewing and improving your hiring process. Every person you hire who works out saves you $50,000 or more (1x annual compensation) and the time to re-hire a replacement, or several replacements.

Let me know if you want to talk about your hiring process. Here are the 10 steps of my hiring system to discuss with your team:

1. Systematic Power: How can we be more systematic in the way we hire people?
2. Team Member Strategic Plans: Are we fully defining the job before hiring?
3. Promote the Opening: How can we promote our openings so we attract better candidates?
4. Interviewing: How can we better structure our interviewing process to discern great candidates vs. actors?
5. Talent Assessments: How can talent assessments, like the Success With People Talent Assessments, help us in our hiring process?
6.  Background Checks: Never hire someone without doing a background check. Discuss this. If you do not have a company doing this for you, then find one.
7. Reference Checks: How can we gain more insight about our candidates from our reference check conversations?
8. Making The Offer: How can we do a better job of winning top candidates in the way we make offers?
9. First Day: How can we improve our First Day experience so new team members are productive more quickly?
10. Never Stop Selling: What should we be doing on an ongoing basis to convince new hires they made the right decision to work for our company.