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As a manager, I think there is nothing less valued than to write
a traditional job description. They’re usually bone-dry and
rarely convey what the employee really does. The assumption is that
we think we can describe what the requirements are such as skills,
abilities, etc and then match the person to the job description.
Sure, a job candidate may have all the technical skills you’re
seeking, but if you really need someone who has excellent customer
service talents, the technology skills alone won’t cut it.
We can describe tasks we know the employee will be performing -
we can even place measures into the task description. But the best
description will encompass all that plus a description of the expected
behaviors required to perform the job successfully.
While managers know the technical skills they want in a new hire
and the job title to be filled, we rarely focus on what really matters
- the results the job must deliver. Andersson, author of Hire for
Fit, advises managers to develop a customer-based job description.
Look at the customers a position must serve and determine how it
serves them, be they peers, managers, clients, colleagues or others.
In the book, First, Break All the Rules - What the World's Greatest
Managers Do Differently, author's Buckingham and Coffman make the
point that there is a difference between skills, knowledge and talents.
The distinction among the three is that skills and knowledge can
be taught, whereas talents cannot. Skills are the how-to's of a
role. Your knowledge is simply "what you are aware of".
Talents are different phenomena altogether. Talents are the four-lane
highways in your mind, those that carve your recurring patterns
of thought, feeling, or behavior. Buckingham and Coffman use the
Accountant position as an example. Ask a great accountant - not
any accountant, but a great accountant - when he smiles and he will
tell you, "When the books balance." When the books balance,
his world is perfect. He may not show it, but inside he is aglow.
All he can think about is, Oh, when can I do that again! This may
seem odd, but when you think about it, for the person blessed with
an innate love of precision, accountancy must be a wonderful job.
A love of precision is not a skill. Nor is it knowledge. It is a
talent. If you don't possess it, you will never excel as an accountant.
If someone does not have this talent as part of his filter, there
is very little a manager can do to inject it.
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So first, ask yourself, " What do those [internal or external]
customers need to meet their success criteria? How does this position
contribute to help them do that? " Set your new hire up for
success by giving them not dry words on a page, but easily understandable
behavioral criteria, such as "Maintain accuracy and adherence
to high standards. Apply analytical skills. Perform detailed tasks
that require adherence to quality. Abstract thinking to discover
more effective work methods." Andersson’s book goes
into much greater detail on the topic, but the theory remains
the same: Look at who the customers are, then customize the job
to those expected behaviors. Place measures into the description.
Second, assess the candidate's behavioral traits for what the
job calls for to be successful. If they don't have those traits,
chances are good they won't be great at the job. You can do this
by developing interview questions directed to draw out past experiences
or by administering a behavioral assessment questionnaire. Either
way, you still use interview questions to draw out those past
experiences. A behavioral assessment provides a much more accurate
measure of the candidates talents and can help to formulate questions
for the interview.
Yes, it’s a new angle on writing job descriptions and hiring,
and one that may save us a lot of grief in the long run. The Nielson
Group uses TTI Performance Systems' Work Environment Analysis
for developing behavioral job descriptions for both new hires
and for helping incumbents understand the requirements of the
job. The Managing For Success® Interviewing Insights report
is ideal for applicant assessments. It uses the Style Analysis™
instrument which takes about 10 minutes to complete. Examples
of both reports are available at
http://www.nielsongroup.com
/assessments/assessments.shtml.
Carl Nielson is a management and organizational consultant located
near Dallas, Texas. He provides pre-employment assessments to
small, medium and large corporate clients in diverse industries.
He can be reached at cnielson@nielsongroup.com.
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