By David Wolfe, Founder & CEO of NP Now
As a recruiter, your job is to find your organization A-players and to weed out the under-performers, the C-players.
Now, no one admits to being a C-player. Everyone presents himself or herself in the best possible light. For some, that may mean fabricating, exaggerating, or out-and-out lying on their résumés. In fact, according to HireRight’s 2017 employment screening benchmark report, 85 percent of employers caught applicants lying on their resumes or applications, up from just 66 percent five years ago.For others, it may mean they are master interviewers, but they really don’t have a lot of substance. In both cases, there’s a lot of fluff. There’s a lot of talk, but there’s not real substance, and there’s not a real history of success.
In my nine-step hiring process, you will greatly increase your chances to be able to sniff out those kinds of fakers and fabricators and find the candidates who truly are or can be A-players.
It starts by telling your company’s story powerfully and hitting as many of the candidates’ hot buttons/pain points and prime motivators as possible. A-players will become attracted to that, because they’re going to see what’s going on within the company, and they’re going to be attracted to the right things. That’s part of the vetting process: listening to hear what parts of your story they are attracted to.
For instance, if they’re only attracted to areas like your compensation, your benefits, and your paid time off, then those are probably a bit of a red flag. Those factors, though they are certainly important, should not be any candidate’s prime motivator— certainly not an A-player candidate. But if you ask them why they applied to your company and why they’re interested in joining your team, and they start talking about things like how they love your ten-year vision, how you live out your core values, how inspiring your core purposes is, and all the great things you’re doing in the community, then that’s a far better sign. It’s one indicator that this person might be an A-player.
As I said, A-players are attracted to companies that are winning and companies that are filled with other A-players.
That’s often because they are winners themselves. One of the most important signals that someone is an A-player is that they are already a high performer. They have a history of success somewhere in their background. Whatever they did, whether it’s in sports, or in school, or at another job, or a hobby, whatever they’ve done in their life, they can show you some measure of success. Or they can demonstrate how they had to apply themselves—and put themselves at the risk of failing—in order to go after something that was hard and getting it. I think that’s one of the biggest indicators of an A-player. They’ve been successful in many if not most of the things that they’ve done, and they can prove it.
With that background, they’re going to be attracted to a company that’s also growing and doing big things and achieving success. Companies that tell their story really well and have a big vision tend to attract those A-players, and it tends to be a better match. And it can also weed out the Bs and Cs. Some of the lower performers are going to feel pressure. They may think, either consciously or sub- consciously, “Hey, I’m going to be exposed here. If I apply and try to come into an organization that is doing all these things, it’s just a matter of time before they will find out. I can only fake it so long.”
- 2018 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report,” HireRight, www.hireright.com/benchmarking.