When communicating with various entrepreneurs and managers, the same idea/phrase is periodically voiced: “We can’t find people for the team, there’s no one to entrust tasks to.” But it sounds like: “We don’t know how to work with people and don’t know how to select.” And you know, this coincides with what is written in the job descriptions on hh.
As a result, we decided to share with you the key criteria for selecting employees
Content
1. Customer focus
If an employee understands who his client is, for whom he works, and that it is the client who determines his effectiveness, then he will work and look for ways to solve the problem. He will not “sleep” or engage in unnecessary bureaucracy. Moreover, it is also important to realize that the client is not only external, but the client is also a colleague who uses the product of labor.
2. Desire and ability to learn
We live in a world of constant change. Skills become obsolete faster than new ones are formed. And not only skills, but most importantly - the market. This requires constant learning. Let's add here the constant updating of software, its import substitution, and so on.
But the key here is that the employee not only wants, but also knows how to learn: he understands how he better absorbs knowledge, what his strengths and weaknesses are. If you have this skill, any hard skill will be mastered quickly.
Thus, Peter Drucker identifies 2 “main” types of people:
Readers are those who need to read
Listeners are those who perceive better by ear.
Also, some people need to take courses with personal interaction, where there will be teachers and a group, while others can do it on their own. The best way to learn is to find a mentor who will recommend materials, focus and accompany you. This allows you to gain knowledge, practice skills, and make these skills conscious, which means building competencies.
3. Teamwork, ability to listen and find compromise
No matter how versatile an employee is, he will work in a team, as a team. It is impossible to solve all problems alone or formulate an informed decision. In addition, there is no such thing as an ideal employee or leader. We need to be able to listen to each other and work as a team.
Working with more than one company has shown one thing - the secret of success is the ability to negotiate, hear each other, find a compromise and work together. If there is a crisis and problems, look for where, who and with whom could not come to an agreement. We have a separate series of articles on communication management on this topic.
Let’s also give an excerpt from Adizes’ book “Managing Change”: “...I have never met a manager who stated: “I have all the people under my command that I need to fulfill my job responsibilities.” Never. The managers I know always say the opposite. They usually complain that it is difficult for them to carry out their duties because the people responsible for solving key tasks are not under their control..."
4. Suitable psychological style of the employee for the required job
The person must be suitable for the required job. It makes no sense to burden an entrepreneur with routine, and a production worker with creative tasks.
For this we use the PAEI theory from Isaac Adizes. It allows you to determine a person’s psychotype based on 4 elements, understand his priorities, his strengths and weaknesses in his work.
In short, there are 4 basic functions:
P - production of results for which the organization exists. Responsible for “What to do?” Gives short-term results.
A - Administration that ensures performance. Responsible for “How to do?”. Gives short-term effectiveness.
E - entrepreneurship, through which change management occurs. Responsible for “When and why to do it?”. Responsible for long-term performance.
I - integration, unification to ensure viability in the long term. Responsible for "Who should do it?". Responsible for long-term effectiveness.
As a result, each person may have a different combination of these functions, but there are always 1, 2, or at most 3 dominant functions.
Also, Isaac Adizes developed the “vitamin theory”, which indicates in which direction of activity which dominant function is needed and which auxiliary.
You can read more about this tool here.
In addition, it is important that the person differs in personality and views from other members of the key team. Only diverse teams succeed. But for this you need to be able to communicate.
5. Motivation and hunger for success
There is another important criterion - motivation, hunger for success, ambition. But there are several pitfalls hidden here:
An overly motivated employee will not be able to perform complex tasks. You can read about this mechanism here
An overly ambitious and hungry employee may begin to put his own interests above the general ones.
Therefore, if the role is executive and does not involve working on complex tasks, then we are looking for sparkling eyes. And if a person is needed for a complex and creative role, then moderation.
6. Balance of hard and soft skills
Now let's look at the question: what is more important - hard skills or soft skills. And what is this anyway?
hard skills - professional skills: mastery of one or another software, tool, standard, etc. They can be shown here and now, and measured if necessary. This is a consequence of functional experience in the past.
soft skills are personal skills that are difficult to measure quantitatively. The way a person communicates and behaves in society, how he works with information and studies, organizes his time, etc. This is potential for the future.
As a result, we value soft skills over hard ones, even for executive positions. Because finding an employee who knows how to do it here and now may turn out to be a dead end, a temporary solution. And one of the reasons is that such an employee may be burnt out. That is, this will be an employee from the category I can, but I don’t want , and you will have to sell the idea every time. That is, an interesting situation arises - the search for an expert who can give quick results can lead to the fact that you will have to constantly stimulate him and spend your time and energy on selling ideas.
Therefore, the focus on hard skills should be conscious. In fact, hard skills are a good bonus and advantage, all other things being equal, but not the basis for forming a team.
But in order to determine what kind of hard hardware an employee needs, it is necessary to describe its functionality as clearly and in detail as possible, and for this you need an up-to-date organizational structure , a described strategy, and business processes will not interfere.
A separate point here is discipline. We have repeatedly observed how even the most talented and competent person without discipline brings more problems than benefit. Yes. With the help of digitalization of collaboration and IT, effective meetings , business processes, organizational structure and culture and other tools of a systematic approach, this can be compensated. But here the question of labor costs arises. Do you need it? Spend time and resources on his upbringing and restructuring? And the key thing is, can you do it at all? And even if this works out and you solve your problems, then with cross-functional interaction it will remain the same, there will still be breakdowns in agreements with those who are not its manager. And this reduces the productivity of the entire team and demotivates its members.
To determine this quality, we also recommend using Adizes theory . The P and A function are responsible for it; it should be at least at a basic level.
7. Digital erudition
In the age of digitalization, recruiting people with low levels of digital literacy is not a good idea. We are surrounded by IT everywhere - computers, phones, WiFi, printers, software, electronic signatures. You can continue endlessly. And if a person is not on top of his game, then not only will he not be able to effectively carry out his tasks himself, but he will also slow down his colleagues and burden the IT service with or without reason. In general, this is a destructive influence on the entire organization. And if this is the majority, then the consequences will be sad.
In addition, as experience shows, people with a high level of digital erudition turn out to be more competent in other areas. They are also more open to change. As a result, we get a specialist who will not only not slow us down, but will also be able to replace 3-4 ordinary employees. Therefore, investing in such people can be considered an investment.
8. Suitable for the values and internal culture of the company, the level of its organizational development
And so, you have selected employees who are suitable for the job in psychology, know how to communicate, think about clients, are moderately motivated, and have the necessary hard skills. But what's missing?
It is correct that it be at your level of organizational development, or better yet 1 level higher, but no more. Otherwise, he will be too far removed from you in terms of his culture and will be a black sheep. Which means he will quit quickly.
The level of organizational culture also affects the values of employees. Again, if you are already a large organization, then different departments may have different levels of organizational culture/development. We wrote about this in detail here . Separately, it should be noted that if you are a young startup, then it makes no sense to start with a culture of rules or just synthesis. This is an evolutionary path.
As a result, if you want to form a stable and motivated team, then you need to move away from a functional view of the employee, what he did before, what he can do now. Cool hard skills are an addition, but not a base.
In our opinion, you need to look for people from the following categories:
or I want, but I can’t, which you will mentor and teach;
or I want and I can . And this is the ideal option - a motivated expert.
And to find a motivated expert you need
a clear understanding of what hard skills are needed, this requires a well-developed organizational structure. structure and described key business processes
so that the job fits his psychological profile
so that he fits the culture and values of the team.
As a result, it is a priority to look for people who are suitable in terms of values, outlook, level of organizational culture, but are unique in competencies and psychotype. Ideally with the necessary hard skills and suitable soft ones. But when choosing between hard and soft, we give preference to soft, because it is easier and more effective to spend 3 months learning the specifics than to sell an idea every time, fight with bureaucracy and formalism.
As a conclusion, we will share a small checklist/framework for selecting a team:
Identify 4-6 key functions of the position and the key product that is needed in this position. Determine how this relates to the company's global goal
Determine key metrics (KPIs) by which the quality of work will be assessed and decisions will be made, including whether employees will undergo a probationary period or quit
Describe the key hard skills for the position: proficiency in 1C 8.3 - ERP, proficiency in English, working with Excel and pivot tables, knowledge of federal orders and regulations.
Describe the necessary psychological qualities: diligence, attention to detail, discipline, creativity, communication skills, etc. It is necessary to compare them according to the Adizes model with each other and for the described vacancy, for conflicts. And remember that a person can have 1-2 bright traits, and not all at once. And we consider customer focus and the ability to communicate and find a common language within the team to be unconditional.
Describe the level of organizational culture of the company/division. This will allow you to understand what values are needed from an employee
Determine the need for office work. By default, all positions must be remote or hybrid. If necessary in the office, you need to prepare 4-5 arguments. This way you can attract the best, and save on the payroll, which is difficult with utility costs
Prepare an onboarding plan and necessary training materials.
Test your employee according to Adizes. This can be done for free. And understand whether it fits the task profile and whether all functions are developed, whether there are any failures.
Well, remember 2 rules:
we hire slowly and fire quickly;
you are lucky to have a good employee 1 time out of 10, if you take a comprehensive approach, then 1 out of 5.