I’ve been reading a book called Know What You Don’t Know by Michael A Roberto and it made me think about some particularly good parallels in the recruitment process. Firstly, trusting your instincts. On the negative side it is often tiny signals that can set small alarm bells ringing. But it is often hard to pinpoint what the signal was - that ‘couldn’t quite put my finger on it’ thought. Rarely are those thoughts unfounded – and to keep things simple it is easy enough just to drop someone from the recruitment process because they don’t ‘seem’ right. But clarity and understanding is preferable to an unidentified gut feeling. And, on the positive side, going with a candidate because they felt right, when you weren’t sure why they seemed to be a good fit also needs some explanation.
I was trying to think about how to get better at analysing those subjective reactions to candidates when Michael Roberto gave a useful steer – break down what you know into
· the facts
· what you’re unclear about and
· your assumptions.
When you have a list of the areas you are unclear about – then you can think about how to get clarity. When you have really focused on your assumptions, you can then do something to test them. Just the discipline of thinking through what you think you know and what you actually know is a great step towards determining what those little niggles in the back of your mind are.
This is particularly important in this market where there are a number of candidates who are under pressure to find a new role. And while we haven’t seen many people lying, not telling the full story by omission is more commonplace.
The most common area for being unclear about the facts and making assumptions is not just why people left their last role, but when. We’ve been caught out in a few cases ourselves for example
· where CVs haven’t been updated for the end date on the current job
· where the full story revealed long periods of gardening leave on CVs rather than actual work
· where candidates are in discussions to leave their current role but do not reveal it.
What can we all do? We can ask some basic questions.
· Who are you currently working for?
· When did you begin your employment with them?
· Is your employment ongoing or does it have a termination date?
· Why do you want to leave?
· If you have already left, what are the circumstances surrounding your departure?
· When is / was your last day in the office?
· What are the terms of your notice or gardening leave?
· Are you subject to a non-compete restriction and if so until when?
· Who can we talk to in your previous firm to reference you?
There is no need for people to tell us these things unless we ask. So let’s focus on getting our facts clear and leaving our assumptions behind. It is a tough market and we all need to get the recruitment right if we are to be successful in the future.
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