5 Components to an Effective Selection Plan

Making good hiring decisions can save a lot of money and significantly contribute to an organization’s success. So it’s no surprise that selecting the right candidate for a job often leads to a more productive, engaged, and motivated workforce. When you take this into consideration, having an effective selection plan is just good business.

The following are my top 5 components to an effective selection plan.

1. Analyzing the job to identify the essential skills required for success. This is often done by the hiring manager along with a current, competent job holder and a human resources member trained in job analysis techniques.

2. Defining the skills. This will help the interviewer know precisely what to look for in a candidate, and will serve as a standard of measurement. For example, “leadership” might be defined as the ability to assume a role of authority, set an example for colleagues, delegate responsibility, provide constructive feedback, and empower associates to make decisions.

3. Developing a structured interview guide. An interview guide contains a series of written questions that link to required job skills. It’s critical to good selection. In the case of “leadership” being identified as a required skill, the question might be: Tell us about a time when your coaching of an associate was effective due to the feedback you provided? Conducting the interviews using a structured guide will help ensure that the process is fair and that you get the information you need to assess the candidate’s skill.

4. Acquiring basic interview skills. It’s important for the hiring manager to learn basic interviewing skills, like being prepared, putting the candidate at ease, asking appropriate questions, and taking notes. The order of the questions may well vary depending on your level of experience, the complexity of the position or the preferred style of the interviewer. To ensure a fair process though, each candidate should be asked the same questions, regardless of the order.

5. Assessing the candidate’s skills. This begins with reviewing the skill definition, reading the interview notes, and determining if the candidate provided evidence of success. Be mindful of hiring or not hiring someone because of the presence or absence of non-critical skills.

The cost of making poor selection decisions is high. Consistently making good hiring decisions is priceless.