While it can be tempting to take a few shortcuts in your hiring process to get someone in as quickly as possible, it’s always worth taking a step back to make sure you’re asking the right questions to get the right candidate. Here are a few of the questions we’ve found that lead to hiring success:
- What is the one thing about our company I’d want this person to stay up at night thinking about, whether leads, new customers, revenue, or public relations?
- What are the specific results I need this person to achieve in the first 90 days?
- What economic value do I expect this person to generate, and what am I willing to pay to get that?
- What expectations do I have of this person in terms of time, effort, connections and corporate culture (integrity, communications, availability, leadership/initiative, fundamental beliefs, etc.)?
Once you’ve answered those questions for yourself (before your search starts, so that you aren’t subconsciously answering the questions in a way that leads you to a certain candidate), it will make the conversations with all candidates much more focused, and help ensure that you make a smart hiring decision.
