There was a lot of overlap and similarity between these successful hiring execs that centered around several consitent themes:

1. Always hire talent, even if you don’t have the perfect spot for them yet. The single most difficult task of any executive is finding and retaining talent. If you discover a gem of an employee, hire them and create a role for them. You never regret adding creativity, ingenuity and intelligence to your team.
2. Ask questions that require them to tell stories about their experience. Resumes are filled with dates, sales targets met, percentages of quota filled and numbers of direct reports. But these recitations of statistics and static observations don’t tell whether the job seeker will fit into your company and culture. Ask them to describe in detail how they managed their greatest failure. Or how they managed to get corporate support for a new, unusual product launch. How do they work? Who do they work with? What do they value? If their answers match your culture, grab them up.
3. Culture always trumps strategy. One lesson learned by virtually every executive is that a brilliant mind doesn’t always result in a successful employee. If the new employee doesn’t share your values and embrace the way you conduct business, they will not work out for you long term. They never do. Hire to culture, not just capabilities.
4. Rely on referrals for your best candidates. Put the word out to your network of friends and business associates announcing what you’re looking for and let your network generate a stream of referrals. Your friends will only refer those they believe are truly capable of doing the job because if the candidate fails, the referrer’s reputation is similarly diminished.
5. Don’t focus solely on hiring talent from your industry. It’s predicted that the average graduate coming out of college today will likely have dozens of jobs and will switch careers entirely several times during their worklife. Hire talent, aptitude and attitude, not specific industry skills. These are the people that can step into the roles that don’t even exist yet.

Dispelling much of the media hype about our country’s decline in manufacturing, overall manufacturing production in the USA has remained remarkably constant for decades. What has changed dramatically is the number of jobs used to generate our manufacturing output. Since 1979 the manufacturing workforce has shrunk by 40% and there’s every indication that it will continue to shrink since the productivity of manufacturing workers has never been higher.

The decades-long decline in manufacturing jobs reveals several important factors of the manufacturing job market that must be understood and acted upon by job seekers, manufacturing companies and government entities alike.

1. the lost jobs aren’t coming back. Just as the jobs for phone operators were replaced with digital switches that could handle exponentially more calls at a fraction of the price of an operator with a headset, manufacturing has embraced automation and will never return to manual processes.
2. new manufacturing jobs require higher levels of technical skill. Manufacturers need employees who add value to the manufacturing process. They don’t need a warm body capable of punching a button to activate a punch press 120 times an hour. If you can’t provide more value than a simple machine, you will not get hired. Employers are looking for individuals who can operate and program their automated machines. These new positions requires mathematics and computer programming skills that former machine operators never developed.
3. training is essential. Although there are thousands of machine operators who are potentially capable of updating their skills to include programming, these operators all need training. Solutions have to be developed privately and publicly to enable these workers to shift from simple machine operation to advanced programming, monitoring and operating.
4. essential skills need to be introduced in high-school. The new manufacturing jobs are higher paying because they’re more demanding intellectually. They require an understanding of advanced mathematics, logic and programming that are not imparted in the current high school curriculum. Students should be introduced to the skills that will play an increasingly large role in their professional lives so they will be better prepared to step into real-world employment opportunities with a solid educational foundation.

I hesitated, trying to figure out why he had asked. Then, almost in a what kind of idiot do you think I am tone I replied “Four”. Since he did not respond or nod right away I added, “Unless this is the kind of place where if you say it’s five, then it’s five. Or if the customer says it’s five then it’s five – but I have to tell you, even if you say it’s five – I’m the kind of guy who will work with five but I’ll probably still let you know I think it’s four.”

I got the job, but that answer was not the reason why. In fact a couple of years later the same guy (my boss) asked me to interview new applicants for a position and handed me his file of interview notes. I found his notes on my interview and examined the notes on that particular question. His notes: “Answered decisively – then went way too deep.”

One might argue that it was a great question to ask, replete with nuanced layers that most people don’t think of, but he actually just asked the question to test my reflexes. Unfortunately there are many ‘interviewers’ out there who either take behavioral interview or active listening techniques so literally that they miss the entire point of the interview. Or they wind up evaluating candidates on illegitimate criteria.

Even in an economy where the supply exceeds the demand, where cynicism runs rampant among those who have the jobs and are interviewing those that do not, and where companies are looking harder at ways to disqualify people than to qualify them there is still a great truth that gets overlooked time and again: the interview is a two way street.

Here is my advice to the interviewer on how to properly conduct an interview.

Step 1. Take the first few minutes to get to know the candidate and find some way to connect. This will put them more at ease and get you more honest and thoughtful responses. Perhaps you know people who live near where they live or grew up; perhaps you have friends who went to school where they went to school, or anything that has less to do with work and more to do with life.

Step 2. Discuss the opportunity (don’t run at the mouth or take too long to go over it since the candidate has presumably read the job description) and make sure the candidate has some understanding of what you’re looking for. Then ask them to tell you how they would approach the job. It’s very important to avoid interrupting, but do take the time to validate that you understand what they are talking about. DO NOT tell them things like, “you won’t be able to do that here” or “we’re not set up for that”. This disrupts their energy and enthusiasm and is counterproductive. Your goal is to determine the scope of the candidate’s vision, even if it doesn’t yet align precisely with yours.

Step 3. As they talk about what they would do, they’ll ask questions. Be prepared to answer them, and don’t be cagey. Sharing information goes a long way in building trust which will enhance the interview process immensely.

Step 4. Use the dialogue to take you to places you feel the interview needs to go. Interviews often end with the standard, “What else can I tell you?” or “Do you have any questions for me?” or “here is my card, call me anytime with questions.” While these are standard comments to end the interview, they often come across as insincere. So instead try, “Did we get to go over everything you had thought about before coming in?” or “Can I call you if I think of something else I wanted to ask you or talk about?” This simple twist may actually solicit some very important info that will help you make a decision about the next step. It will also make sure that, no matter how poorly the interview went, the candidate will likely have nice things to say about you and the company.

Step 5. Follow up. Even as you jot down your notes on the interview take a moment to send a quick email while you have the resume in hand. A “thanks for coming in; it was a pleasure meeting you.” goes a long way in making the candidate experience complete. That experience is key to the growth and morale of the company overall. These steps not only will help you become a better and more effective interviewer, but will also be instrumental in building your new employees’ morale.

How do executive know when new staffers are qualified for the job?

Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great, explains on bigthink that the key is to instill your company’s core values in your new employees so your company culture is continually extended and reinforced.