Simply put, if you describe work as a series of performance objectives rather than a list of skills, experiences and competencies you can attract a broader pool of more diverse and high potential talent.
Once you’ve defined the work as a series of performance objectives – these are often called KPOs (Key Performance Objectives) or OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) – you just need to ask candidates to describe their major accomplishments most comparable to the performance objectives. This way you can more accurately predict their on-the-job performance and likelihood of success. This entire concept is shown in the infographic below.
Once you’ve defined the work as a series of performance objectives, start asking candidates to provide detailed examples of work they’ve accomplished for each of the KPOs/OKRs. To get enough insight you’ll need to spend 12-15 minutes of fact-finding for each accomplishment to have enough information to predict both performance and fit. The trend line of these accomplishments over time indicates growth and potential. Having different interviewing team members ask about these accomplishments is part of the process. In the 4th edition of Hire with Your Head (Wiley, September 2021) you’ll find a complete series of interviews guides and our Quality of Hire Talent Scorecard to predict the candidate’s on-the-job performance. (Note: we describe how to use these tools as part of our unique virtual book club.)
As you’ll quickly discover, the hardest part of this entire process is to get every member of the interviewing team to answer this question before meeting any candidates:
What does the person in this job need to do over the course of the first year, where we all agree, the person hired is outstanding?
This podcast will help get them on the same page. Ensuring everyone who has a vote on what it takes to be successful in the role is the key to hiring someone who will be successful in the role.