Intentional Hiring

There are as many hiring practices out there as there are managers. In order to excel at hiring the right people we must continuously improve our process and the way we think.


When asked what their intention is in recruiting, the most common answer managers give me is to hire the "best people." Here is where the first problem starts. If there are 10 people interviewing and they are all below our desired level of competency, we are better not to hire any of them unless we can afford to place them in an intensive training program.


Second, I suggest that hiring the "right person" is better than hiring the "best person." "Hiring big" is a practice where an employer hires people who are much more skilled and experienced than needed for the job presently available. Where this can be beneficial to have overly talented people, it can work against the company when those new hires get bored.


When hiring-big the job is "small" compared to the persons current talents. Combine this with a need to sell the job and this fact may be lost resulting in a new employee expecting to be challenged end up being bored and frustrated instead.


The Innovator's Dilemma discusses the need for a new business development to be within an organization that will be excited by the potential size of the business. Likewise, new employees should be hired into roles that will provide challenge and growth opportunities. This is why we strive to hire the "right person" for the job.

What should we do if we find a big-candidate when we are hiring for a small role? If you feel the person is strong and a self starter and you'd like to find a role for them, consider hiring them into the role of finding their own job within the company. Explain where some of the opportunities are and that they should spend the first 30 days meeting groups and discussing opportunities. Then decide the group and role they are most passionate about.

This strategy can also work very well for businesses that are working on very secretive projects. Since few details of the work can be disclosed to an interviewee, the person must be sold on the "kind" of work being performed. Once the person is hired, let the person meet the teams, see the work and the business vision, and choose the group they want to work on.