Recruitment

Would you like to massively improve your recruitment success

with the LAB PROFILE - a skill you can learn?

Would you be interested in a tool that will enable you to prepare more effective person specifications, write job adverts that only attract the right people and improve or transform your interview technique?.

 How many times has the person you recruited not lived up to expectations?  Once? Twice? More than that?  Yet it is difficult to know where the process goes wrong. 

But when you think about the characteristics of the person you really need for the job, I suspect you find it quite hard to be specific.  So like most companies you do the best you can and then throw in some generic qualities such as:  good communications skills, must be a good team player, strategic thinker, close attention to detail, works independently; creative, enthusiastic, etc., etc,. But then when it comes to the interview you tend to focus on their knowledge, skills and track record, trying to figure out how they have really performed in the past.  However, this still feels like a throw of the dice.

 Getting recruitment wrong is expensive

 Recruitment is expensive, even when you use a really good agency like SPR to help you get it right, but if you get it wrong the cost is enormous.  Many companies prefer to believe they can train their way out of a mistake or hope that the person will get better in time, rather than start the whole process over again – better somebody than nobody seems to be the rationalisation.  So if you don’t want to fall into this trap the question becomes how do you recruit more effectively without it costing the earth?

Getting recruitment right isn’t expensive

Over the next few months I will address this very question.  I will be tackling this from two angles:  how do you know who you should be looking for, i.e., the person specification, and how do you make sure you select the right person?  It is important to point out we will not address skills or knowledge, both of which can be learned  and can increase competence.  However, without an inherent motivation and working style that suits both the job and organisation, skills and knowledge alone will never make for excellent performance.

So it is these vital motivational and working traits that are part of someone’s make-up, that allows them to be excellent.  But people have to be motivated in a way that matches the needs of the job.

How do you find this out without going through expensive assessment centres or psychometric testing.  Well this may surprise you but you know the answer already.  The answer is in understanding how we use language, both verbal and non-verbal.  The language a person uses is a key to unlocking what really motivates them and how they need to structure their world to support that motivation. Let me give you an example of how this works:

Do you know someone like this or maybe this is you?

They can’t relax, they always want to be doing something, they seem to be driven (non-verbal language). When someone comes up with a new idea they want to start straight away.  They use language such as “let’s do it”, “start now”, “get going”, and “just do it” (verbal language), very action oriented verbs.  They will be frustrated with colleagues who prefer to plan and think things through before they act.  Their style is very proactive.

If you are that person who prefers to think things through before acting then you may will feel you are being bulldozed into taking action before you are ready.  You will tend to use language such as: “reviewing”, “considering”, “reflecting”, “planning”, “weighing up”, lots of infinitives, your style is more reactive.  

 So how can you use this new knowledge in recruitment?

 Writing the Person Specification

 When you are putting together your person specification you need to decide if you need someone who gets things done, initiates, takes action, makes decisions very quickly or alternately, someone who is a little more thoughtful, someone who is prepared to think things through, weigh up the options, consider the implications.

 Whether your need someone who is proactive or reactive you need to write your person specification and job advert in language that will appeal to the type of person you are looking for; speak to them in their language.  As our patterns of speech are habitual, ie, we generally do it without thinking, all this happens on an unconscious level.   Remember we are not talking about skills and knowledge; we are talking about something much more fundamental to the nature of the person.

 Screening Applicants

 Once you’ve written your specification and your job advert, the next step is to verify that the applicants do in fact have the motivational and working traits to be successful in the job.  The best way to do this is to listen to the language they use when answering a series of questions.  In this type of screening interview you are not listening for content, you are just listening for language.  This type of listening is a skill that can be learned.  

In the example I gave above using proactive language, if you were recruiting for a Business Development role, the chances are you would be looking for a highly proactive person, someone who gets out there, make contacts, and gets things done.  Now, when you ask them to describe a time when they made something happen, you are not just listening for what they are saying (the content) you are also listening for how they tell their story (the language).  The proactive person will use short sharp sentences using action oriented verbs and you will almost feel the energy coming from them as they tell their story.  A more reactive person will tell the same story in an entirely different way; they will tend to use longer sentences, be more thoughtful in their approach, discuss the implications of what they were doing.  This is a big difference.  Highly reactive people will not go out and make things happen; they prefer to talk about it rather than do it; appropriate in its place but not in a Business Development role.

 14 Language Patterns at work

 When examining motivational and working traits in a work context there are 14 key patterns that you can look for; depending on the particular job some patterns are more or less useful.

Over the next few months I will be looking at each pattern in turn.  You will find out what each pattern tells you about a person, the language patterns you will hear them use, and how you can use their language to easily influence them. I will also tell you the questions to ask, the answers to which will give you the information you need to identify their language patterns.   

At the end of this series of articles you will be able to construct a person specification that really reflects the job that you need doing; write a job advert that will only attract those people who are right for the job; and then screen out those people where there isn’t a good fit!

Article 1 - Towards or  Away From - Do you need someone to achieve goals or solve problems – find out how to tell the difference.

If you are recruiting soon or want to know more information call Gill Best, Language and Behaviour (LAB) Consultant, Caelum Coaching and Consultants on 0161 4916476, 07830 161880.