Six Sigma

Dear HR Manager / Headhunter / Recruitment Consultant : When a job-seeker submits resume on this website, it automatically - and instantly - gets converted into several graphical profiles, which we like to call " THE  RESUME  ANALYTIC ".  These graphs are generated by plotting, "Raw Score" ( assigned to candidate's resumes by our software ), on X- axis. "% of Co-Professionals" ( getting the same score ), on Y- axis. As the database grows, these graphs will tend to become the familiar bell - shaped curve, popularly known as the Normal Curve, where the mean, mode and median all coincide at X = M. Sigma is the normal variant ( STANDARD DEVIATION ), from the mean and in a NORMAL CURVE , (+ , - ) 1 Sigma =  68 % of the population ( under the curve ). Now, don't expect to find a candidate with a score of  > +3  Sigma.  They are already working for IBM - Google - Microsoft etc. and not looking for a job- change !   If you do, simply grab. On the other hand, all those scoring higher than  +2  Sigma, must be immediately called for an interview. Having mastered the "Art of Interviewing", it is about time, you rationalize your recruitment process by taking help from the " Science of Interviewing ". Normal curve was the logic behind our logo. We love STATISTICS ! -Shubhangi  /  www.IndiaRecruiter.net --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE   IMPERFECT   SCIENCE   OF   HIRING Common slip-ups focusing on pedigree, going for the familiar, hiring someone with a low EQ, or with the too much experience for the job     What is the biggest hiring mistake you have ever made ? - Stephan kiapproth , Zurich, Switzerland  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Would you believe that with about 60 years of combined experience, we have made too many hiring mistakes to name just one ? It is true.  Now many occurred when we were newer at this game, but picking the right people never gets easy. Just last month, we almost blew it twice, saved only by a last minute eureka in both cases. Incidentally, even as we were in the midst of making these almost mistakes, we were cringing a bit, concerned we were off track. And yet we forged ahead, feeling simultaneously hopeful & helpless. Our candidates seemed bright and shiny enough, and we were just  so tired of interviewing  when there was real work to be done. Of course, hiring is real work..  Given the central importance of your people, it is as fundamental as work gets. Yet, too often, we rush heading into its painfully common pitfalls. Take our first near-miss last month, when we almost gave into the universal impulse to hire a person who looked too good to be true. There she was with an Ivy League degree, several technology jobs at companies and exactly the skills we needed. Well dressed, well spoken, charming, eager- the works, even her salary requirement was in the low range. But she couldn’t tell us why she hadn’t held a job for last six months.  “ She plugs our hole perfectly,” we actually said to each other and,  “ Maybe the job market is tighter than we thought. “  Finally, we were brought to our senses When her references, despite repeated requests, would not call us back, forcing us to remember that anyone who looks good to be true invariably turns out to have something not-so-good they are trying to keep you from noticing. A related hiring mistake is the rush to hire a person because he possesses your missing piece – the Wharton MBA, the way with words, the “prestige” experience. Back when one of us ( Jack ) was a new graduate of the University of Illinois trying to build a plastic business, he leapt  at candidate whose resume listed DuPont. Some of those hires turned out fine; other were duds. In the end, the “pedigree” they brought to the table was less important than the entrepreneurial nerve and sales savvy the actually needed. Flip the coin and you will find another common hiring slip-up, going for the familiar – same college, social background, favorite baseball team, and so on. This dynamic crops up especially in global hiring, where managers seem irresistibly drawn to hiring the candidate who literally speaks their language.  Familiarity hiring can work.  But too often, once the new employee settles in, you begin to discover the shortcomings you should have dug for earlier but didn’t because you “knew” the candidate.  You knew only what he seemed like – you. Another mistake is hiring a candidate who has a too much experience for the job, or more aptly, too little runway.  It can feel reassuring to bring abroad a person who has seen it all.  But, eventually, these individuals can grow bored of seeing it all again, and if there is no upward route, they become a managerial problem without an easy solution. You have hired someone into dead end Finally a misstep we have both taken is hiring a candidate who is smart and capable but just too lacking in emotional intelligence , or EQ, the term popularized by the researcher Daniel Goleman to describe the combination of self-awareness, realness, compassion and resilience that helps make people great teammate and leaders. Luckily, most people develop EQ as they mature, through work and life experiences, both good and bad, and many others can be coached to develop latent EQ within. But, occasionally, you bump into a talented and competent candidate, as we did last month, who is so lacking in the EQ components of humility and authenticity that you can’t take a chance. Again, this young man had a lot of right stuff, but when he started telling us he had never made a mistake in his life and didn’t expect to, we knew we had heard enough. The happy ending to his story is that we ended up with great people, but we would have to predict that our hiring travails will never end. As long as “real work” beckons, time is tight and hope springs eternal, THE  SCIENCE  OF  HIRING  WILL  BE  IMPERFECT.  Just like all the people doing it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: mint - June 30, 2008 By: Jack and Suzy Welch