Peer to Peer Magazine

A CIO’s Secrets of Successful Staffing Start With a Successful Search Begin by defining your internal needs and take the opportunity to redefine the vacant role to meet those needs. Also take the time to do some planning on paper, looking at “what-ifs” and realigning responsibilities within the department. Quiz and discuss with your department team and see what input they have. Note any gaps in service or friction among the team members that can be corrected. Not only does opening the discussion up to your departmental team afford them the opportunity for input, but it also gives them a stake in the hiring action. Involving your team is a key part of retention. Indeed, adding a new team member, realigning existing team members and the calculus used to come up with a solution can be mystifying, so don’t keep your team in the dark! Remember that your human resources (HR) department is a critical part of this process, so involve them early and often all the way through hiring. HR can provide a lot of valuable assistance in the early realignment and position description development that, quite frankly, we might not fully appreciate. Additionally, this involvement invests HR in the position itself, helps them appreciate the salary requirement and often the complexity of the hiring action itself. If you only consult them at the end of the process, you’ll find yourself in a defensive position. HR Once you’ve selected your resumes, work with HR and set up your interviews. I like to partner with HR on these and have them do the initial screening, because they can explain the basic backgound of the firm and act as a great measuring stick to ensure a good personality and culture fit. This approach also ensures that HR knows who will be made an offer, which again puts you in a position of harmony with HR when briefing firm management. Size Up Your Candidates For the interview, develop a script that covers the key “Retaining staff is really about fostering a work environment that is challenging, satisfying and fun.” should know in advance and take part in discussions with your departmental team about the new role and any possible realigned roles within the team. Trust me: HR involvement will go a long way with firm management when you are both standing together on a position’s role, salary and realignment. Once you have approval, you’re set to post the job. Though HR will handle most of this, along with sorting out the flood of resumes, you’ll want to design the ad such that the right people apply and the wrong ones are deterred. Screen out potential applicants up front, zeroing in on the experience you want by using explicit key words and phrases, experiential requirements and specific technologies. In short, don’t be vague. Be as specific as limited space allows. These phrases will make the experience and skill level stand out to attract the candidate you want. In the following examples, which is better? Five years senior MS SQL experience with two years on 2008 version OR Five years MS SQL experience technology and project skills you are seeking. This ensures you cover the position requirements and that the process will be fair. Typically, I circulate this script among those who will be peers of the new hire and let them flesh it out. Again, this helps them feel involved and is crucial to retention. My interviews are pretty tough. Usually I open with some introductory comments about the department and about some of the most interesting things we’re doing. I ask them some general interview questions and a few open- ended questions. I want them to talk a lot and I take copious notes. Usually I’m looking for items for which they claim success and technologies in which they claim expertise. With my notes and interview script, I then begin to drill into the areas our position requires and those in which they claimed success or expertise. The first 15 minutes of an interview are collegial. The next 30 minutes are interview “whack-a-mole,” which means a fairly rapid fire style with a series of questions meant to separate fact from fiction. We all know interviewing for a job is about presenting yourself, your skills and capabilities in the best possible light. That’s why my job is to confirm that what you are saying matches my needs and isn’t inflated. For instance, a candidate says she was the project manager for an application upgrade. I’m going to ask a litany of questions on project management, what she managed, how many personnel, timeline, how she tracked deliverables, internal and external team members, etc. I will repeat this type of question and answer cycle for 20 to 30 minutes. Why do I put candidates on the spot and change the tenor of the interview? I want them to feel some stress, see how they react to a change of tone in the interview. What I’m looking for are the three Cs — confidence, competence and candor. If I find those traits in candidates, I tend to hire them, often on the spot. Ensuring that these qualities are reflected in each person working in your department will make staff retention much easier. Peer to Peer the quarterly magazine of ILTA 67

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