Manage 2 Win

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COMFORT ZONE

David Russell

One of my clients, Solid Networks, is a top infrastructure player in Northern California for Cisco.  It may interest you that part of their interviewing process is focused on getting job candidates to feel comfortable and thus open-up more with their people.

This is very consistent with what I teach about organizing your interview process to get candidates to talk "outside of their script" so you really understand how they behave on the job.

Their idea works this way:

1.  Promote your openings and collect resumes.

2.  Invite qualified candidates to visit your offices for an after-work reception.

3.  Have your employees mingle with the attendees WITHOUT their company-branded shirts on.  They do not lie to someone who asks if they work for the company, but they try to talk with people as just another attendee.

THE GOAL is to get job candidates to be candid and real in their interviews, not pitching you and posing an unnatural behavior you will not see if they are hired.

Stop hiring Dr. Jekyll and getting Mr. Hyde.

Try this idea one time to see how it works.  It is great for companies that are considering hiring more than one person at a time and where your people want to participate in the process.
  
Remember...


Be an Intentional, Systematic, Servant Leader.


MEETING IDEAS
I explained the idea above, so your meeting idea is to discuss how best to implement the idea for your test event.  Here are some tips that may help your event be a success:

1.  Have it at your offices , not another location.  You want to introduce your job candidates to their working environment.

2.  Decide how much , if at all, you want to qualify the candidates before inviting them.  It is simply a resume review, or do you want to do a phone interview first?  Or nothing at all?

3.  Appoint one person to manage the event.  Clean-up the place.  Get good food - not fattening, sugary garbage.  Barbecues are great.  Some companies like to have beer to loosen the tongues of job prospects whereas other firms realize the alcohol may encourage their people to talk too much.  Do something that is consistent with your culture.

4.  Meet with your people to explain your "ground rules" - the behavioral expectations you have for them at the event.

5.  Measure the results of the event by how many insights did you get that would not otherwise have so easily occurred that resulted in a new hire, or something equally valuable - disqualifying job candidates due to their candor.