HR Profiling. BY STUDYLIE
role than a certain education.
For instance, a manager may be a charismatic, strong-willed, initiative person who thinks strategically, but has not got education of a manager. And vise versa, a person with a manager education might not fit this position in terms of his personal characteristics (passive, non-initiative, etc.).
But if you recruit a candidate for the position of an engineer in the nuclear industry, then you cannot do without a specialized education. So in the profile, be sure to record the level of education, if necessary.
Here the question may arise: if a person has experience, but there is no proper level of education, is it so critical? What if you’ll miss a good specialist? Are you ready to invest in raising his level of education with various qualification upgrades? Will the employee be allowed to go on study leave if he wants to study? You should have the answers to these questions.
Preferred relationships in the team, expectations for leadership style, peculiarities of team interaction.
An important moment is the type of relationships that a person prefers in a team. If the activity implies the competition among employees and the candidate is used to working in conditions of trust and mutual assistance, then this team will not work for him.
Leadership style is a factor that affects the duration of the work and the motivation of the employee. Some people prefer a strict hierarchical relationship and a clear task, but for another one it is easier when you can talk with management on unrelated topics and maintain good relationships. These things can be cleared up with the help of special questions used in projective techniques. We will talk about them in the relevant chapter.
There are also situations when a candidate is an excellent specialist, but he has «his own vision» of working in a team. To put it bluntly, he poorly interacts with the team, which is a distraction for both the specialist and the rest of the team. Who is your candidate: a manager, a lone wolf or a team player? There are special questions to find this out.
Goals and tasks of a specialist.
Determine what goals the worker should pursue. Once we were recruiting a candidate for the post of a production manager. We were looking among people living in Moscow, Moscow region and in the province. There was one 53 years old candidate from the periphery. On the question why did he respond to the vacancy and was even ready to move to another region while not having relevant experience, he answered: «I want to try myself in a new field.» It is unlikely that such a goal should have a person in this position, taking into account his age and experience.
Quite often we face the fact when a person gets a management position having no goal at all. This might suggest that he can stick to the same policy at work. Try asking the question: «Whom does your candidate see himself in a few years? In which areas would he like to develop? ” With some candidates it becomes immediately obvious that the person has never asked himself these questions.
If we need to fill a vacancy for a line position and we need a good performer, then the goal to take the post of director in the near future is hardly suitable for our request. For this post we will be looking for good performers who are not striving to take management positions.
Recommendation: In this part of the profile, the full functionality of what the employee is required to do shall be written. The reason for that is so that other responsibilities, which might be gradually added, won’t come as a surprise to an employee.
The more detailed the profile, the better it is. It is more likely that you will not get a cat in a bag. But try not to overdo it with incoming conditions. At times, you read a profile and you understand that this position requires a Superman, although in fact the position does not imply the use of a number of the listed skills. Just as in everything, you need to stick to the golden medium.
CHAPTER 2
RULES FOR MAKING A POSITION PROFILE
In terms of recruiting a properly compiled profile is the foundation on which further work is built. The foundation should always be paid special attention. So we will continue talking about the profile and we’ll offer the reader some basic recommendations.
1. Defining the development strategy of the organization as a whole.
Defining an organization’s development strategy is the first rule. In different companies the same position often differs in terms of functionality. Common sense suggests that there is a difference between an organization that has just begun its journey, and a long-existing large company, where everything is stable and clear. Accordingly, the profiles differ, even if they are compiled for the positions with the same name.
In large, stable, profitable companies, the work is built systematically and nothing particularly new needs to be done. It would be enough to follow a certain order, perform a set of actions and algorithms associated with the position. In a «young» or small company, an employee is both a «a chief cook and a bottle washer». He is in charge of various number of functions, including those that were not talked over. A start-up organization needs initiative, creative people, ready to do what they have not been taught. This is really important at the initial phase of company formation.
When it’s a relatively long-existing organization, no one is intruding in another workers’ sphere, into someone else position’s functions. Employees work bell-to-bell, from 8.00 to 17.00, and they are pleased with everything. This kind of companies welcome people who know the entire sequence of further actions, understand their area of responsibility, and then strictly follow clearly defined procedures.
When there is no clear and tested algorithm, a «procedural» person will not become effective in a position that implies creativity and multitasking. The smaller and the younger the organization is, the more competencies are needed, and the more requirements there will be for the candidate. So it makes sense to find out what kind of company you are recruiting for.
2. Formulate each competence very specifically.
Be clear about each competency description and what it includes. Avoid pompous titles that allow many interpretations.
Here is an example from our personnel profiling training. The participants were asked a question: «What are the qualities that a sales manager should have?» In general, the participants’ answers were as follows: communication skills, stress resistance, loyalty to the company, expertness, organizational skills, responsibility, clear speech and diction, learning ability, ability to listen and identify client’s needs, skills for reaching the decision-maker, client-focused approach.
The participants were offered to give detailed description to each competency. And it turned out that different people meant by this or that competence completely different things.
Explanation of competence depends on the specific position a candidate is applying for (car sales manager at the car dealership, sales manager for incoming calls, customer service manager, etc.). Let’s look at how to decipher each of these competencies.
Communication skills. Deciphering this competence may include both similar and completely different traits. For example, the ability to persuade, listen, identify needs; desire to communicate, well-bred speech, politeness, clear diction, persuasiveness, eloquence.
If requirements to the candidate include all above, but in fact he will be using only 2—3 characteristics, it will groundlessly make the profile more burdensome. Thus, you complexify your work, but that’s not all. If you specify redundant skills, this may cause low employee motivation.
Imagine the candidate for the position wants to communicate with new people, and he was given a block of client management where he cannot realize his plans. The candidate was expecting the position would give him a chance to use his strengths, but faced with the fact that his «trumps» are not in demand.
Suppose you recruit a person for the position of sales manager for incoming bids and an active sales manager. In both cases, sociability