Performia Interviewing Techniques

 

Beginning the Interview

Here are some basic steps of how to conduct a hiring interview.

Welcome the Candidate:

• Introduce yourself.
  
• Ensure there is a friendly but efficient atmosphere.
  
• Begin with some easy social questions like, "Was it easy to find the place?" or "Would you like some tea of coffee?"
  
• Remember to take notes during the interview, or directly after the candidate has left. Realise that to take notes during the interview will show your honest interest in them.
  
• Explain briefly who you are, how the Company operates and what the job entails.
  
• Keep the interview short, preferably not longer than 15 minutes.
  
• Invite the Candidate to ask questions about the Company and about the work he might be expected to do, if hired. Be very clear and direct in your answers. Observe whether the candidates interest increases during the interview or not.
  
• Pay attention to whether or not they appear motivated.

You really want to find candidates who are willing to make a positive difference in your company. In Performia we have developed some questions that help you to detect this.

Examples of questions:

• Why do you want this job?
  
• Now that you understand more about this job and what it entails, are you more interested or less interested? Once you have received an answer to this, ask Why.
  
• Have you wanted to work in this particular field before now?
  
• What factor or factors are most important in order for you to be happy in a job?
  
• How important is your salary to you?
  
• What ambitions do you have as regards the Technical aspects of your work?
  
• What are your career goals?
  
• What working conditions do you expect to have in your new job?
  
• What personality traits would you prefer your boss not to have?

Performia advice regarding what to be alert for:

• The Candidate’s attitude. Is it superficial or does he or she come across as being motivated for this job?
  
• Does salary seem to be the candidates main motivation?
  
• Do they really show you they are interested in the job?
  
• Does the candidate like the conditions of the job as presented?

Is the Candidate Qualified?

Check out the candidates education and experience.

Review the candidate’s professional background, and for each job they have had, ask the candidate the following questions:

• Why did you start working at ...(company)?
  
• Why did you stop working at ...(company)?
  
• Let the candidate explain a possible "hole" in their career. Stay in control of the interview. Do not let the candidate go off the subject.

Pay attention to:

• The candidate’s previous career. Did he have a job regularly or only sporadically?
  
• Has the candidate left earlier employment before a replacement was found, or without making it easy for the person who replaced them to take over their duties?
  
• Is the candidate critical of previous employers?

Practical Knowledge

Find out if the candidate has the necessary knowledge for the job. Ask technical questions. If possible, give the candidate a practical test, or ask for examples of previous work in that field.
Be Alert to:

• The candidate’s ability to demonstrate competence.
  
• Whether they use practical examples, or only talk "Theory"?
  
• Whether the candidate appears certain when answering questions and giving solutions?
  
• Whether they give answers that seem unnecessarily complicated?

Have They Produced Results?
Important

It is vital to check the candidates' ability to actually produce results. Is the person able to translate his or her knowledge into definite results of value? To find out, you need to know about the persons earlier results. A very effective way to verify this is to check references after the interview.
Here are some questions we at Performia recommend you ask candidates:

• What have you achieved in earlier jobs that you are proud of?
  
• Tell me about projects you were responsible for and how they turned out.
  
• Tell me about results that were expected of you and how they turned out.
  
• How could your results be measured?
  
• What did you do to achieve these results?
  
• What do you think is the most important attribute necessary to achieving results?
  
• How much did you achieve (i.e. how many, what was the statistic)?
  
• Did you work at a steady pace?
  
• How was your productivity and efficiency compared with others?
  
• Who did you report to?
  
• Can that person confirm the information you have given here?
  
• Have you had a job where you did not achieve good enough results? If yes — why?

What Has the Candidate Actually Produced?

• What has the candidate actually produced?
  
• How interested does the candidate appear when talking about earlier results?
  
• Does he or she know how the results were achieved?
  
• Is the person capable of pinpointing definite earlier results?
  
• Does he or she describe the earlier results in a theoretical, or a practical manner?
  
• Can previous results be proven?

These are some basic tips for anyone who needs to conduct interviews with Candidates.

Mr. Marten Runow
Founder Performia International

For more information, please contact the nearest Performia Office.

 

 

How to Write Job Ads

Sometimes we in Performia have observed Personnel managers get so many replies to ads, they dread the task of having to read them all. Even after finally making it through them all, they often end up with very few qualified applicants.

How do you get around this?
Traditional recruitment ads

This is how Recruitment Ads are traditionally put together:

• They promise a job with status, good compensation and additional benefits.
  
• They sometimes point out how conveniently the office is located.
  
• They often describe the job as being interesting, fun, or even easy.

The point here is, you are saying how nice, easy and pleasant this job is. How well the applicant will be paid and so on. Sometimes the Ad does state that you need a motivated person, but this tends to get lost in the main message - which is really only an effort to sell the position.

So who will answer your ad?

What you want is a top performer. You want to have more than one applicant applying for the job. But if you have written an ad as described above you are probably going to receive replies from a lot of Non-performers.
The difference between performers and non-performers

Let us make it very clear:
Q: What is a non-performer looking for?

A: Less work, more money, and an easy life!
Q: What is a top performer looking for? Why will they respond to your job ad?

A: More challenge, a bigger game, more responsibility!
Q: Will a top performer shy away from a job which looks easier and less challenging than their current assignment?

A: YES!
Q: Will a non-performer shy away from a job that seems too much like hard work?

A: YES!

The problem most Managers have is when they compose a job Ad, they feel that if they told the truth, they would only have very few applicants responding. Performia has proven many times that this is not true. We know what performers really want.

Good performers

Good performers are good performers because they like the truth. They want a real challenge. They are not interested in an easy job for easy money.

Top performers already has a job

The other thing to take into consideration about top performers is that they usually already have a job. They are sitting around waiting for the right opportunity. If they do leave a job they will quickly receive a lot of job offers from others in the same industry, who know how valuable they are. If these Performers are looking for work, they want to find it quickly. They prefer to be working.

Why should a top performer change job?

When a productive person is looking for a new position or job it is usually not because they want more money. It is because they want a bigger challenge. So if they see a job-ad containing a challenge, they will respond. They are probably doing just fine at their current job, but they might be bored or they might feel they have accomplished what they set out to do. They might feel that they need to move on.

So who are Non-Performers?

They are either unemployed or failing in their current job and therefore feel uncomfortable. They might be under a lot of pressure and can’t handle it by getting products.

So what is a non-performer looking for?

They want a job that does not require too much work, strain or effort. They want it easy. They would love to have a job which pays lots of money. And they are often looking for a job with status.

Therefore, if you place an Ad that promotes an easy job with good pay and so forth, without mentioning that they will need to get the job done and that it might be hard work, they will respond. They believe this is what they have been looking for – an easy life without pressure.

The Job Ad Liability

We have covered to what a Non-performer and a Performer respond to in job Ads. Here is more information Performia decided to publish to help you get really Top Performers responding to your Ads.

The main liability to selling a job position with too much sweet PR (or attention on money), is you will get too many applicants sending in their CVs.
This creates the following headaches:

• A lot of paperwork for you to handle.
  
• Not enough real Performers applying, as they respond better to Ads containing more challenge.
  
• The difficult task of finding the best Performers amongst that huge pile of responses.

The Challenging Ad:

• You want to hire that fire-breathing Executive who really can get people in your organisation to perform.
  
• Or you want that mythical Secretary who will anticipate your every need in order that you are free to get on with real Executive actions.
  
• Or, perhaps you want that elusive Sales person who can raise sales sky high, and maintain them at that level.

Then you have to attract a Top Performer, and the challenging style of Ad will achieve that.

A challenging Ad has the following attributes:

• It is directed towards a person who wants to work hard.
  
• It states what the main purpose of the job is, and what the expected results should be.
  
• It focuses on responsibilities.
  
• It does not avoid pointing out what barriers there may be.
  
• It does not make a big issue of the money or compensation.
  
• The content is truthful.
  
• It asks for a written production record, including figures.
  
• It challenges! For example, it could point out the fact that not many people can do this job in the way you want it performed.

The benefits of this kind of ad are:

• The right applicants will be more interested.
  
• Non-performers will shy away.
  
• It gives a better image to your present and future customers (and yes, they do read your job Ads). The applicant does not have any wrong expectations about the position.
  
• There is less work for you.

This is the underlying theory on writing successful recruitment Ads. The basic concept is — make the Ad challenging. Only in this way will you attract the right calibre of applicant — the Top Performer.

At Performia we have considerable experience and knowledge of how to write job-ads, which will attract Top Performers.

Mr. Marten Runow
Founder Performia International

For more information, please contact the nearest Performia Office.

 

 

How to choose the right Personnel

Interview with Mr. Marten Runow

Here is an interview with Mr. Marten Runow (M.R); CEO and Founder of Performia International who developed a unique technology for use in the Hiring field.

Q: I know that many people consider you one of the most eminent specialists in the sphere of Personnel evaluation and Hiring. Can you tell us about recent developments in this field and provide some practical examples that can be used when Hiring new employees. For example, what are the most important items that should be taken into consideration when you Hire personnel?

M.R: Different approaches to Hiring are based on different factors and data about the Candidate. One Businessman used the following approach when choosing employees: “If the Candidate’s finger-nails are nicely polished, that means she has a lot of free time and doesn’t like to work. I won’t hire her!”. Such approaches do exist. Taking into consideration my long experience in the Hiring field I can define 4 main items which you should look at very attentively. These are (1) Individual Productivity (2) Personality attributes as they are suitable for this particular vacancy (3) Motivation or what the Candidate is interested in – to help the Company or only personal benefit; and the last (4) Knowledge about the profession he is applying for work in. In some cases Knowledge can be considered first, but without checking the other 3 factors it will not necassarily provide adequate results with which to make a Hiring decision.

When I speak about Productivity I mean that the Candidate must be able to produce a product. When I speak about a Product I mean something valuable, something produced for the Company, something that can be measured. There must be a volume of production aswell as quality. It may look very simple, but after working in this market for more than 20 years I can guarantee that the main mistake Companies make in Hiring is not placing sufficient attention on this point regarding Production. But as regards the Company’s expansion this is the most important.

Q: If Productivity is such an important factor, why do Companies ignore this? How can this ability be checked on for a Candidate not formerly known to us?

M.R: We have been trying for a long time to find how to differentiate the productive person from the non-productive and to do it in minimum time. As a result of many, many observations we found what sort of questions must be asked during the Interview with an Applicant. These questions are included under the heading Productivity check. Having spent 5-10 minbutes with a Candidate you would be able to answer the following question with certainty: “Will this person be valuable to my Company?”. Our Clients, educated in Performia, constantly note that this new approach differs a lot from the traditional interview in two ways – it’s much shorter and much more exact. That’s a fact. Besides checking on the ability of the Candidate to produce results, you must always also pay attention on the Competence and Knowledge of a person. When I say Competence I mean not just theoretical knowledge but to check for real application, in practical terms, of all the knowledge the person has. High marks earned at school can look very good but experience has taught us that we must look deeper, if we want to find real competence.

Q: You said that Personal attributes also play a role when choosing new personnel. How are Productivity and Personality connected? Isn’t the ability to produce a personal trait?

M.R: We need to understand that Productivity and Personality are different things. There are several reasons why you should look at Personality. You can productively steal money – that’s also a productivity of some kind. You can also productively deliver some useful service. So what exactly will the ability of this person to produce be directed at you will be able to see when looking at his Personal traits. Here is an example from one Russian Company. There was a Sales Director who quickly found his place in the team and created a great deal of Team Cooperation. He also secretly organized selling some of the Company's products, for personal profit, without their knowledge. Was he not really productive? He was super-productive and obviousely clever. But because the Company did not recognise the destructive tendencies he had, they got a lot of problems because of having hired this man.

You also need to be able to see if the person is suitable for a vacancy. Many people do work for which they are not really suited. Sometimes they do it because they have to do some sort of work. But the Company must be able to see it whether they are suitavle for a particular vacancy or not. Here is a simple example. A person comes to you for the cashier position. She will have to stay in a small room the whole day. But this person just “dies” because of being unable to move and communicate a lot to others. You hire him thinking that he will work for you for a long time, but they leave after a month. If you had known his personal traits before, you could have either hired another person or put this candidate on another position.

In short, for those reasons we look at Personality using the Performia EXEC-U-TEST.

Q: But due to my experience personal tests aren’t highly exact. Can we really rely on them?

M.R: I can’t answer for all tests on this planet but about our test, I can say for sure that its exactness has been wondered about many times by even old experts. By the way, I am often asked, can this test be tricked, filled in “very cleverly”, etc. Certainly, people who fill in tests have very often read books about correct behavior, and can obtain apparently higher results on the graph. But if they attempt that with our test a particular Syndrome appears, the “I want to be liked by everybody” Syndrome. Someone trained as a Performia Evaluator will notice this very easily and will take it into consideration when dealing with this Candidate.

Regarding ordinary people who tried this test we often hear such epithets as “It’s all about me!” “That’s right!”, “It’s incredible, how do you do it?”.

Of course I won’t give you 100% guarantee but I guarantee for sure 85-90%.

Q: What of all this can be taught for personal use?

M.R: You can purchase an evaluation of individual Candidates from our company. It’s very convenient for one-time cases. But if your Company is going to be in the market for new Personnel a long time, then it would be much better to come to our Seminar and learn how to use all the aspects of the tech – how to write an Ad; how to do an Interview; how to get to understand personal traits; how to ascertain the Candidate’s motivation; their knowledge and make a Reference check. All this is available in almost 20 countries including Kazakhstan and Russia. In these 2 countries these professional seminars are delivered by the President Performia CIS Mr. Vladimir Sidorenko. This tech has been used in CIS since 2002.

Q: Can you give any tips how to make the Productivity check?

M.R: Of course. In order to give you the whole idea of this you need enough time (that’s why we deliver 8-Day seminars), then I will tell you about points which you should focus on. First you need to understand what Product means. Product in this definition of the word is a valuable final result which has exchange value inside or outside the company. Example: the Product of an Executive could be A lively and expanding organization. If the Company’s income and size are increasing then we can say that this Executive has created the Product required of his position. The Product of a Security Guard can be “ A secure working environment” and it can be measured as “the number of safe working days”. All that we observe during many years is that people who like to produce want to know what you expect of them (that can be called the Product). Then they will do their best to give you all that you have asked. When you ask Candidates about what Products they have produced in the past you will make a wonderful discovery that some people have only a very slight idea of this or don’t even understand this idea at all. Those people who can tell you about their previous products and about their results and can use some measurement to describe the volume and quality, as a rule, are our best and most potential Candidates. In order to tell you about this more in detail and give you more information, Performia seminars are organized.

Q: Who are usually the participants of your seminars about Hiring?

M.R: It differs. First from any Company the Owner must be educated. He must become acquainted with the technology which will make his company become stronger. If the Company is big and the Owner does not do hiring personally, then he sends his Personnel Manager to get trained. For technical specialists there exists special training (in CIS there is a special classroom in Moscow), where people receive a lot of practical Training. For Company’s Owners we deliver special 8-day live Seminars. Often at such seminars there are partners and Executives of our Clients.

Q: If you really know the working technology of Hiring, what are the limits of success?

M.R: I would say that it’s impossible to have 100% of success. There exist such fields which are difficult to control. Besides, life changes and that means circumstances are constantly changing. For example, you could hire a very productive secretary, but 5 months later you hear that this person is leaving your organization as her husband received an offer to become a Director in some other City or country. If you don't like stress then you shouldn't work in Hiring as the person who does must be always ready for new circumstances and change. Nevertheless, when I say that 100% success is impossible I would say that 85-90% success is possible when you know exactly what it is your are meant to do. For example, in Sweden, when we were checking the quality of our projects we came to 94% success. A successfully completed project means the following: the client, whom we have helped to hire a new employee, after 9 months says that he is pleased with the result.

Q: What do you think about the future of recruiting and the hiring process?

M.R: Evidently, in the future there will be more attention on the proving all achievements stated in the Candidates resume. Most of the Hiring Process will be done on the Internet and Companies will have to become better organized and educated, especially in the field of Management. The Hiring process and as well movement in the job market are speeding up a lot. In the USA, basic educational standards such as the ability to read and write have dropped a lot and thgis creates much concern in the Business world. We hope that Russia and Kazakhstan will be able to save their best traditions in this field. Personal traits and low productivity can be in many cases directly connected with poor education. Employers will also face such problems.

Q: What does the picture with the Cart mean?

M.R: The Cart is your company. People, who push it forward, are the most valuable employees. Those who just sit in the Cart are employees who could do more for their Company but for some reason don’t. And sometimes there are those who try to stop the Cart and create a lot of difficulties and problems. With the tech of Performia every Company could increase the number of those who push the Cart forward and don’t let on staff those who could become “the stopper” for the group. This is the aim of the tech of Performia for Hiring productive employees.

Thank you very much for your answers, Marten.

For more information, please contact the nearest Performia Office.

 

 

The Three Main Criteria in Recruitment

In recruiting new people there are three very important factors you have to firmly establish before you can safely decide to bring a new person on board.

Production record

The first and by far most important factor is the PRODUCTION RECORD. A product is defined as the final result of a directed effort to get something completed. And the fact that it is really complete, is one of the key attributes of a product.

Definition of a product

A product in order to be a product doesn’t have to be a physical object, it could as well be a completed service. In today’s society we have, in fact, a tendency to develop and deliver more and more products that are personally or machine delivered services. It could be cleaned windows, fixed teeth, a consultation resulting in a suitable and viable business plan, access to the Internet, etc. They are all products in the sense we are using the word here.

The vital understanding of your companies products

This may sound too simple and unnecessary to bring up. But, if this concept of a product is not fully grasped, you will not become skilful in Performance Hiring. Understanding what actual and different products areas of your organization are meant to produce in quantity and with quality is vital, if you want to get the full benefits of this hiring system.

Stay with the company

The second prerequisite that needs to be fully established is that you are dealing with a person who is able to STAY WITH THE COMPANY for a reasonable length of time. Unfortunately, there are many people who change positions and companies as soon as more money is offered somewhere else , or some unexpected problems occur or who just simply lack persistence. To establish whether or not a person is able to stay for longer periods, you will have to look at several factors. One is his or her background regarding length of employment with earlier employers and the other is personality. Certain personalities are very definite about learning a job and they then experience satisfaction about knowing what they are doing and have no or little urge to change just to get some excitement. Others are more impulsive and easily become bored with things they know so continually need new things to do, new challenges and even though they may be quite creative, it is sometimes difficult to make them stay longer. This is an area were Performia's personality testing really can provide vital information and prediction.

Function within a group

The third area is that the hired person needs to be able to FUNCTION WITHIN A GROUP and be able to create understanding with other people. Sometimes (however, very rarely) you will find a person who is fairly productive whilst working on his or her own, but who has such a problem cooperating with others that it will ruin the overall productivity of the group and thus it becomes a negative recruitment, in other words, one you do not want. We, in Performia, consider this last factor vital.

Knowledge about a person’s personality

It is a fact that the more knowledge you have about a person’s personality (both positive and negative), the easier you can take responsibility for that person and get the full advantage of their abilities. However, ideally, you should have so much information about an individual, that you, as a manager, can predict potential negative situations and posit solutions for both the individual concerned and the group. Indeed such situations should never even have to happen.

The worst combination

The worst combination of these three factors is naturally a person who is not performing nor productive, who has big problems cooperating with others but who will stay and stay and stay. Unfortunately, that is the reality you as a manager sometimes will find yourself up against. Performia specializes in educating businessmen around the world not only on how to detect those high-quality, productive, loyal and cooperative individuals but also on how to attract them to your Company in the first place.

Mr. Marten Runow
Founder of Performia International

For more information, please contact the nearest Performia Office.