Success Secrets and Stories
To share management leadership concepts that actually work.
You are responsible for your development as a leader. Don't expect the boss to invest the training budget in your career. Consider this podcast as an investment of time in your career, with a bit of management humor added at the same time.
Success Secrets and Stories
Hire Smart, Onboard Smarter
Finding and developing the right talent is perhaps the most consequential responsibility any leader faces. Yet many managers approach hiring with minimal preparation, relying on gut instinct rather than proven methodology. This episode John and Greg dive deep into the structured approach that separates successful hiring managers from the rest.
We begin by examining the critical foundation of any successful hire: properly defining the role. This means going beyond dusty job descriptions to analyze current needs, determine specific goals, and identify essential competencies. As we discuss, alignment with stakeholders across your organization ensures the position is properly situated for success before you ever post a job listing.
The conversation then shifts to sourcing strategies, with practical insights on where to find qualified candidates and how to leverage your existing team for high-quality referrals. We explore the advantages of panel interviews over one-on-one conversations, not just for better candidate assessment but for creating built-in support systems once someone is hired. Our detailed breakdown of interview preparation covers everything from creating consistent question sets to setting up appropriate meeting spaces and taking comprehensive notes that protect both you and your organization.
Perhaps most valuable is our extensive discussion of onboarding—the often-neglected final phase of hiring that dramatically impacts retention and productivity. Research shows that employees who experience structured onboarding are significantly more likely to stay with a company for at least three years. We outline a comprehensive 90-day plan that includes pre-boarding activities, first-day orientation, training schedules, regular check-ins, and formal performance reviews.
Whether you're hiring for the first time or looking to improve your existing process, this episode provides the framework and specific tools to find, onboard, and develop the talent your organization needs to thrive. Remember that as a manager, the entire hiring process falls under your responsibility—and getting it right pays dividends for years to come.
Ready to transform your approach to hiring? Reach out to us at wando75.jw@gmail.com with your experiences or questions about implementing these strategies in your organization.
Presented by John Wandolowski and Greg Powell
Well, hello and welcome to our podcast, success Secrets and Stories. I'm your host, john Wondoloski, and I'm here with my co-host and friend, greg Powell. Greg, hey, everybody. And when we put together this podcast, we wanted to put out a helping hand and help that next generation and help answer the question of what does it mean to be a leader? Today, we want to talk about a subject that I think supports that concept. Okay, about a subject that I think supports that concept.
Speaker 2:So you're hiring a new employee and you're a new manager and you want to understand what's involved in that process and you're looking at a thoughtful approach in terms of finding the right candidate with the right talent for your organization Just exactly what's involved in that.
Speaker 2:Well, there's quite a few pieces that are involved, but the thing is that you can make a bad hire and it's not doing what we used to call block and tackling. It's the simplistic approach to make sure that your process is there before you start the program. So if you're going to hire someone, you should do a little review to make sure that all these pieces are in place For example, defining the role and requirements for a job and usually there's an existing job description, but you need to take a look at it to see if it actually describes the job. If it doesn't, you need to go through the block and tackling of analyzing your needs, determining the specific goals and requirements of the role. Define the job role. Create a detailed job description outlining the responsibilities, the requirements, the skills, the experience and the qualifications. Next is identifying key competencies Pinpoint the essential skills and knowledges needed to be successful in the role and aligning with stakeholders.
Speaker 2:If you haven't heard this term before, it's a really important element of trying to make sure you have a good job description. It ensures that the role defines the alignments and the needs and expectations of stakeholders within the organization. I can kind of cut that down for a little bit of making sure that there's communication requirements for the position and they need to talk to other departments and understand the skill sets in order to create a good communication. In my world, when I was in maintenance, I would have a mechanic tell the operations people what to do. It's like nope, that's not the idea. That's not communication. Next is actually going in and seeing the requirements and the skill sets necessary for actually hiring Greg. Why don't you help us with that background?
Speaker 1:strategy for attracting and sourcing candidates. I mean, where will I normally get these folks? Where do they reside? Where are the best and the brightest working and might be looking for another job or a better opportunity? Then you've got to put on your brand face. You've got to attract qualified applicants right. There's various recruitment methods out there to reach a diverse pool of potential candidates. But you've got to get yourself seen and known. Ask your staff for references If you got a good team right.
Speaker 1:They're good. They probably know and hang around with people like themselves. Exactly Right. So if someone on your team has a recommendation, odds are the candidate will be a good reference, but the best fit for the job opening is ultimately your call. So you still have to be responsible to make that decision. To bring them on board. Then you screen candidates, evaluate applications based on qualifications and then, when you get it culled down to what appears to be appropriate, conduct initial screenings and those interviews.
Speaker 2:You want to assess a short list of candidates through interviews and potentially their skill assessments as well, john, and there's different ways to conduct an interview, and you and I have talked about this before. There's different ways to conduct an interview, and you and I have talked about this before. I'm kind of a fan of having three or four people as a team, and I've done one-on-ones. I've seen both. Which one have you seen that have been the most successful?
Speaker 1:So for me, John, we call it the panel interview. That's the team interview you're referring to, because you get multiple perspectives and then you kind of huddle up and talk. So what did you see? Oh, I saw it this way, and you have some good conversation that helps you get to the best decision.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I kind of like the idea that the team which, what is interesting is after that new candidate is actually hired the other people that were in that panel are helping that person succeed because they're part of picking that person for the panel.
Speaker 1:You're exactly right, john, they have a vested interest in that person's success, right? And then you want to make a job offer. You want to extend a competitive offer not an insulting offer, but a competitive offer to the top candidate and recognize you're probably going to have to negotiate back and forth a little bit and that's okay. So, to effectively conduct interviews for hiring a new employee, there's some things to think about. Prepare thoroughly. Again, you don't wing it. You don't just go in there and say, okay, let's see what happens here. Prepare thoroughly, create a comfortable atmosphere. That's also part of your company culture. They're going to get to see that firsthand, right.
Speaker 1:Ask insightful questions, not binary questions with, yes, no responses, but something insightful. Focus on understanding the candidate's skills, what their experience is and, again, their cultural fit. But you want to remain unbiased because you need the professionalism to come through the process. And then you want to follow up with each candidate to maintain a positive employer brand, because even somebody you turn down or you don't select, they're still thinking, hey, this is a pretty good company. I would tell my friends who work there or maybe they sell a product or service that you might want them to use. All right, preparation, preparation, preparation, no question about it.
Speaker 1:Define the job. I mean, you want to clearly make sure that folks that are applying for this job understand what's required, what they're going to be responsible for and the desired skills those preferred skills, actually. And then you want to develop interview questions and that's probably not as hard as you might think it is, but it's worth the time to develop those really good questions, a structured list of questions that assess the candidate's qualifications and fit with the company culture. Now you have to be careful with what questions you ask. You want to ask questions very pertinent to the job, what it takes to be successful at the job. But if someone were to come in and maybe it's a female candidate and you're thinking looks like she's really talented, but I think she might be pregnant, she might, you know, and you can't ask her hey, are you pregnant?
Speaker 1:No, no, you can't do that, absolutely not. Age, same thing. You cannot discriminate based on age. So the person, as long as they're meeting the requirements that you're setting out there, you've got to interview that person and consider them seriously for the role. John.
Speaker 2:When I had done candidate reviews before, we were often told that we could only use the same questions. We would find a list of like 20 questions and you could only use the 20 questions and they had to go. The same questions had to be used for each candidate. Is that correct?
Speaker 1:That is absolutely correct. That keeps you out of purgatory, as it were, from a legal standpoint, and it's also fair to the candidates. Each candidate should be asked the same questions and given the same opportunity to respond. And if you game the system by saying, well, this person should know more or less, and ask different questions, that's not going to give you the best results as far as candidates. So by all means, come up with a set of questions, and a lot of companies have them kind of on file. These are our questions for marketing analysts, here's our questions for engineer. Two, and maybe there's two or three sets of questions, but you have to choose from that already given list of questions to ask.
Speaker 1:One thing that some folks don't want to spend the time with, but you need to do it review candidate materials Carefully. Examine the resumes. Don't just race through them. Carefully examine them Cover letters. Oftentimes there's some really good information because the candidate is trying to get your attention. So look at that cover letter. That cover letter is another piece of paper that gives them a chance to sell themselves and any other application materials that they might provide to you. A project plan they created, an idea they'd recommended to their company. But you want to look at potential areas for discussion and if they send you that, then you have something that you can be more personal with on them.
Speaker 1:Prepare the interview space this is really key and I can tell you over the years I've seen some pretty bad choices for well, the cafeteria was, lunch was done and we went to the back area, yeah, but people come in and out, right, they go to the vending machines, whatever Just crazy. Respect the candidate that you're bringing in and ensure there's a quiet, comfortable and professional setting for the interview, and you do that in advance. If you have an admin or someone that could do that for you, that's great, but you still own it. Hey, my admin, where are we meeting for the interview? And make sure that you're comfortable with where that meeting is going to be conducted. John.
Speaker 2:And I think the most important part is that there's a partnership between HR and the team that's hiring. And at this point it is now the team's responsibility to create a comfortable atmosphere, because that's where the real interviewing process is going to take place. It should be a welcoming kind of environment where the candidate is greeted warmly, you introduce yourself, you introduce any others. If you're going to do a panel, there should be at least some kind of small talk or engagement, so it's a casual conversation, so that it's a pretty stressful kind of environment and you want the candidate to do their best and you want them to relax. It's very important that you're creating that atmosphere and that can help Craig.
Speaker 1:Yeah, john, we've talked before about icebreakers and consider this an icebreaker right. Make people level playing field feeling comfortable so they can give their best and you can do your best in interviewing them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and even if you don't know icebreakers, look one up, take the time, have something that would make them feel comfortable or at least your group feel comfortable and then explain the interviewing structure to the candidate themselves so that they kind of things. And you have to be careful because there's different kinds of questions and you want to ask insightful questions but you have to have it in like what we talked about, that list of 20. They have to be in there first. They can't come up after you start talking and you start interviewing.
Speaker 2:And one of the interesting elements of asking a question is asking what they call star questions. So you're asking for something that shows a situation, a task, an action and a result that they created themselves, where they can talk about their experience and their accomplishments. If you're asking open-ended questions during the interviewing process, you might find that you're going to have to have a lot of follow-up and that gets you further away from the original question. So asking situational questions sometimes pulls the candidates to actually answer technical questions. The things in terms of cultural fit are important too, to understand a candidate's values and some of their work style and whether it would actually comply with the company culture, and you should allow time for the candidate to ask questions, to provide time for them to ask something about the company, something about the role, something about the team.
Speaker 1:I can tell you, john, I've always been excited when we get to the end of our questions and we say any questions you'd like to ask us at this time and they come prepared. They come prepared with some questions. That maybe tells us they know a little bit more about our business. It helps them distinguish themselves versus other candidates.
Speaker 2:Exactly Well said, the evaluation of a candidate. Listen intently and focus on the candidate responses and non-verbal clues. Body language is part of that process. Take detailed notes documenting key points and observations for follow-up questions that you may have. I'm going to just break for a second and say if there is a problem with the interviewing process and somebody were to argue about it, they're going to go right back and seeing what your notes are. So your notes are part of documentation. You have a conversation, you have a question. Put it on the piece of paper that you're using to ask questions that there is something that the HR department can take a look at. If they need to Be consistent. Apply the same question that we talked about this to all candidates. Post interview evaluation review your notes, assess the candidate's strengths, weaknesses and determine if it's a good fit. And then, my favorite you as the hiring individual hiring manager, need to talk to the references. You need to call the references. It's not the HR department's responsibility to do that, it's yours. Take responsibility for it, Greg.
Speaker 1:Yeah, john, one thing I want to add to the post-interview evaluation. That's when you kind of we used to call it a huddle up and the folks that interviewed the candidate would talk about what we liked about that candidate. We talked about what we like about all the candidates, so we had rich discussion about the top candidates we saw and what made one candidate distinguish themselves among the rest. And having that other person to bounce it off of pros and cons we felt made for a richer discussion and a better final decision.
Speaker 2:It's a good point. After each candidate, the panel should do that, document what they've come up with, and then there's going to be that final decision on which candidate they finally picked and that would go to the file. That would basically show that progression of making a decision. Craig, I think you have the other part that is important in terms of the interviewing process.
Speaker 1:Thanks, john. For me it's following up, Meaning it's not done just when the interviews are done. The final decisions. Now you've got to inform the candidate and you want to provide timely feedback to all of the candidates, not just the one that you want to make the offer to, but all the candidates, regardless of whether they're moving forward in the process or not. And that talks again about your culture, your integrity, how you treat people. It's an extension of the company. You want to maintain professionalism at all times, ensure a positive candidate experience throughout the entire hiring process. Whether they get the job or not, you want them to say gosh, I didn't get the job this time, but that's a pretty sharp company. I'd like to work for them, or maybe I'd like to buy their products or services, john.
Speaker 2:And how many times have we seen it where the first candidate ended up passing on the position and you go to the second candidate so that you know that you've done very well. You're the second candidate, the first one decided to go another direction is, I think, the buzzword people like to use and you end up calling the second or even the third and they know that you were appreciated and they were recognized as being capable.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. So now you've hired someone, Do you have an onboarding plan? It doesn't just stop because you said I can wipe my brow. We did all that work, we got somebody coming on board. They're coming to this date. Well, there's a little bit more to it Now. They're somewhat might say the real work starts. Okay, A successful onboarding plan is essential for welcoming new employees, boosting productivity because you want them to ramp up more quickly, right, and enhancing retention, more apt to stick around a little longer.
Speaker 1:Research shows that employees who experience structured onboarding are significantly more likely to stay with a company for at least three years. And, as you talk about ROI return on investment on this process three years is pretty good these days. You get somebody, that's good. They stay at least three years and companies with strong onboarding practices see a noticeable increase in new hire productivity. It means they ramp up more quickly, they're able to make contributions more quickly and that's ultimately what you want. So pre-boarding before day one all right, yeah, so this phase aims to engage the new hire before their official start date, because you want to reduce the anxiety and then you want to turn that, if they had anxiety into excitement and build some really nice, strong excitement. So welcome communication, send a personalized welcome email or package with key information. It's like you know when's the start date, the time location. They probably know some of this stuff already. But be professional and again relieve some of that anxiety.
Speaker 1:Essential paperwork, Facilitate the completion of necessary forms. Some companies have an HR department that does that, Some do not. But there's things that are just required by law to be done before they can actually start work. So things like the I-9, W-4 for our taxes. Pretty much everybody now is on direct deposit, so making sure that is taken care of.
Speaker 1:You want to minimize administrative tasks the first day, right, you don't want them to be caught up in administrivia for eight hours and that's welcome to the company day one. And now, because of the way the work situations occur there's technology involved, workspace setup. Ensure that all the necessary equipment laptop, phone, software is ready, not day one, but before they start. Not day one, yeah, Right. Because if you wait until day one and we've all been there, right, and the IT department's scrambling and the legal department's scrambling, HR department's scrambling, the facilities guy or gal is scrambling trying to get to your space when you knew beforehand. So secure these things before the person starts right, and then for remote roles, because there's a lot of that going on these days. Provide clear instructions for self-setup so they know what to do, how to do it, so they can engage their first day as well, John yeah.
Speaker 2:And you've hired the person, you've gone through the process, you've done all the things to get that person in the door. You're not done, you've only begun them, introducing them to your staff, getting them to understand their workspace and you know the ever famous. Show them where the bathrooms are, show them where the cafeteria is. Those are all very important elements and for them to understand that they're coming into an environment that are really interested in making them feel comfortable and be successful. Making sure that they understand the handbook and the policies are something that you read afterwards. You don't need to read it to them, but they should know where it is and that there's certain requirements that you might want to highlight, like in some environments there's policies and regarding information, like your laptop and your thumb drives and trying to take information off the site. You have to cover those things at the front end. Then you're talking about having an idea of what happens after the first week of actually being on the job. You're structuring the training, scheduling, specific role training and providing relevant resources and materials. You discuss goal setting and talking about goals in terms of expectations for the first few weeks and the first few months, creating a clear roadmap of what that means in terms of the organization, team activities and this one, I've seen people have done it very well in terms of getting together for lunch or having a coffee break or virtual activities to foster connections and to build a rapport with their colleagues. As a hiring manager, you need to check in with the individual. It's a one-on-one meeting to monitor their progress and to give them an opportunity to ask questions and to provide support. It's like a mini mentoring program, if you want to consider it, making sure the person has the opportunity to succeed. Feedback is encouraged. New employees share their feedback and they talk about whether the onboard processing is working or not working. That's the best place to ask those kinds of questions is in the first week.
Speaker 2:Next is defining that 30-day developmental and immersion into the position. Deepening the training. Providing further training in terms of the company's products or services or internal processes. Making sure that they have the necessary tools. Project involvement, gradually introducing them to new employees, to projects or tasks to apply their learning and to contribute to the team. For them to understand that connection learning and to contribute to the team, for them to understand that connection. Now more to the role of the feedback and coaching, to make sure that they check in with the manager on a regular basis and offer constructive feedback, criticism, guidance. All this is actually saying that you need to mentor the person, to make sure that they have a buddy plan, that there is somebody that can provide that guidance, so that the person doesn't feel like they're abandoned on the job. Here's the keys. Good luck, have fun. You want to take it that next step, greg. They're past the 30 days. Now the real question is can they make it to their 90 days?
Speaker 1:That's it, john. So, thinking about performance alignment and growth, from that kind of 60 to 90-day period performance review, a more formal review of the new hire's progress against the initial goal set. Right, they've had some training, they've had a little onboarding, they probably had a buddy or mentor, but at some point they've got to demonstrate they can do the job. And if the candidate is failing and you've supplied and provided them with all these different resources you are preparing then documents for potential dismissal right, you don't wait until 120 days or 240 days. This is a period of time. This first 90 days is real important that if you see them failing, they're not making it happen and you've been in contact with them, you're giving them support and resources. Then you start to think about dismissal and you need the paperwork to support that Goal refinement. When things are going well, you would say work with a new employee to adjust existing goals and set new ones for the next period. Because they've knocked it out in 30 days. They've knocked it out in 60 days. Looks like 90 days is going to be the same. Go, because they've knocked it out in 30 days. They've knocked it out in 60 days. It looks like 90 days is going to be the same. Go ahead and ante up a little bit higher, because they're showing they're capable of making that happen.
Speaker 1:Also, professional development Discuss career paths and identify potential training or development. They're not going to leave you in nine months, necessarily, but you do want to start thinking about the future and have them start to think about it and do both of your parts to help provide them with the capability to move up and on if they can, because you want them to stay for a while. They're not just here for the one job. If you really want to get your return on investment with folks, if you'd like them to be there for a few years, do different functions and expand themselves. Ongoing feedback right Feedback is a gift. Maintain open communication channels and encourage ongoing feedback regarding the role, the team and the company to the individual. John.
Speaker 2:So, just to summarize, if you're going to be hiring someone and you're a new manager, there is so much more to that process that you own that may not be as obvious in the other roles that you've had. You're involved in the process to make sure you're getting the right candidate, because you're working with HR to send out the information of what you need. You're involved directly to make sure that you're hiring the correct candidate and then you're putting together that effort of 30 days, 60 days and 90 days to mark that time, to make sure that you made the correct decision and that the people that are around this new candidate are either helping that person to succeed or identifying that there are issues that need to be addressed and that you need to take action on. Because there's an issue, it's all you and you have to take the responsibility for hiring that person from the beginning to the end and making sure that they're actually taking off and having a successful career because you got the right person on board. So, if you like what you've heard, yeah, I've written a book called Building your Leadership Toolbox and we talk about tools like this and it's available on Amazon and Barnes, noble and other sites.
Speaker 2:The podcast is what you've been listening to. Thank you so much. It's also available on Apple, google and Spotify. A lot of what we talk about is from Dr Durst and his MBR program. If you'd like to know more about Dr Durst, you can find out on successgrowthacademycom, and if you'd like to contact us, please send me a line. That's wando75.jw at gmailcom, and the music is brought to you by my grandson, so we want to hear from you. Drop me a line, tell me what's going on, what you like and what you would like to hear about, and it's always helped us to create content. Thanks, greg, this was fun. Thanks, john as always next time yeah.