Improving Performance by Hiring the Right Talent

CompTeam is very proactive in making sure that our clients are hiring the right candidate from the start. Many of our clients come to us with a huge need of helping them sort out the best way to interview a potential employee. We have them focus on four aspects of the process called ‘Interviewing.’ Let me explain a bit more on those aspects.

The first aspect is what we call a ‘Cultural Fit’ step. Think of this as the process of bringing in a candidate to speak with various team members of the company. Some might be a Manager, others could be a peer on the same team or a different team, and some members might not interact with the candidate at all in daily routines at the office just the big companywide projects. The interview process should take four meetings in total. The first two meetings are all about how this candidate proves their skills and ‘chops’ so-to-speak. These meetings are technical, not so much about the cultural fit that they might have. The next two meetings are more in the lines of making sure the candidate meets the values the company has in place. Think of the last two meetings as the ‘get to know you better’ meetings that will help determine if the candidate will be an asset to the company. Yes, four meetings might be a bit extreme, but if this aspect is done correctly, the performance seen down the road is worth the time and effort of the 4-part interview process.

The second aspect has to do with the flexibility of jobs that the candidate can do. Let’s say you are hiring a Tech Support position. Dale is presented as a candidate; 5 solid years of Tech Support experience and knowledge. In the process of interviewing him, you know his ‘chops’ are there, but you also learn that he has a knack for designing great Marketing materials as well. By commenting about his dual skill sets, you open the door for his mind to allow it to wonder a bit. ‘What if I could start as a Tech Support, but later move into a Marketing role?’ By allowing new talent to think about seeing themselves in multiple roles at your company, they are more likely to perform highly and be result-driven.

The third aspect that CompTeam has their clients consider is in regards to how they would work for you. Let’s take Dale once more. In his third interview/meeting with your company, he mentioned that he had been an independent contractor for a previous employer. He enjoyed the flexibility of that aspect; able to work remotely when needed and on his own terms. This nugget of knowledge makes you think that his skills, both on the Tech side and the Marketing side, would potentially make him a great contractor, instead of full-time in office employee. When a company can see the benefits of how a candidate might work both on and off site, the company sees more performance for that employee. Think of how popular remote access positions are now-a-days.

The fourth aspect that CompTeam reviews with our clients has to do with the on-boarding process that a company goes through. For a more ‘traditional’ type company, the process is only for their on-site employees. They don’t worry about giving the full rundown to the off-site/contractors that are hired. By dividing the employees into these two pools, a company is doing more damage and harm than they see at first glance. When a company treats an employee, regardless of if they are on-site or off-site, the performances are more even. If a company takes more time with an on-site employee, this does not go unnoticed by the off-site employees. There is a line drawn and performances are impacted by this line.

When CompTeam works with a client to take these aspects into action mode, we are impressed with how respective our clients are and the types of feedback we get after a few months of implantation of the 4-part interviewing process. The goal of working with CompTeam is to better a company’s bottom line from multiple angles and aspects. We help our clients find the right talent from the start, so they can thrive like they intended to prior to working with us.