“We need to hire someone more senior for this role” is a phrase I have heard my whole agency life. But what means “being senior” in a business,
“We need to hire someone more senior for this role” is a phrase I have heard my whole agency life. Often, the choice is right and the person fulfil her role with professionalism. Still, we sometimes end up with a deceptive and ill-adapted solution where the person is not equipped to fill it mission, however senior s.he is.
This can have a devastating on the level of service on the short term and quality of the business relationship on the long run, I have experienced it first hand lately and it took me to reflect on the roots of the problem we faced.
Why recruitment does not always work and how to address it?
Analysing the internal issues we faced, I realised that this seniority definition is divided into the following pillars:
- Expertise/ Skillset: based on the pure technical know how and specificities of an industry or a solution. Someone who is certified or accredited in a particular area of work. The more senior one’s get the deeper one’s knowledge is.
- Experience: based on the length of someone’s acquaintance with a sector, a role or a situational environment which makes one’s knowledge about the potential outcome and necessities of the future role.
- Values: based on the capacity to take ownership of a role and resolve to address any issues coming with it, including potentially managing team members.
I gather that each role does not require to reach the same level in each of these pillars. But the company needs have to be clear what the job requires.
How do you get the assessment right ? I read a lot of HR and Coaching blog to address this and the actual best advice I found is the following: Use your team members to confirm and clarify the role needs and values as the doers are the best persons to understand the role needed and the mistakes not to be made (again).
That includes :
- Build a precise role description
- Advertise it properly: internally and externally
- Assess the applicant on those necessary pillars:
- Expertise : check it skills with a test – does he have to master excel ? web based and/or collaborative tools ?
- Experience: check with its old employer and work history
- Persona : how does he cope with stress ? with other team members ? with stakeholders at all levels of the hierarchy ?
- Do not underestimate practicalities : other job offers ? does he have to move in town ? where is his.her family?
As a manager, it is essential to clarify if your HR process is covering these 4 elements or needs to be cover by you. at the end of the day, the manager can sometimes « inherit » a team member he has not selected and end up not being able to keep its standard of service and productivity because of an ill prepared recruitment process.
When recruiting for your company is difficult, it can also emerge from the external outlook of your company as a good place to work.
Large businesses address this as part of their corporate communications strategy to support recruitment effort of qualified personnel.
If you are facing recruitment issues, and need support in building a recruitment strategy, do not hesitate to share your questions with us. we are always happy to help.
Tiard Communications 