Let’s say you’re the founder of a successful and growing $5MM-$10MM company. You had a great idea, you were first to the market, and now you’re ready to take it to the next level, i.e. $50MM – $100MM.
Ok, you have a great game plan to get the business to the next level and now you’re ready to hire those key executives. This is where many entrepreneurs fail! Many start up CEOs will hire in their own image instead of bringing on board the needed complementary experiences and skills that will take them to the next level. Unfortunately, many of these emerging companies plateau or even take a nosedive. Ask your accountant how many times he’s seen this happen with his clients.
Here’s what I suggest you do regarding the selection of these newly created positions and your critical hiring needs.
Let’s say your first hire, for this new game plan will be a position which includes the traditional controllership and CFO responsibilities. You may have the need to go from a book-keeper to a more experienced controller with special information systems and auditing experience. If you’re the astute business person that got you to this point, you’ll probably go to your accountant for help in the creation and possible selection of this new position.
Here’s a summary of the talent selection process
· Write job responsibilities
· Establish key skill requirements, i.e. financial analytical ability (5-8 skills)
· Review content with an outside expert
· Write open ended questions for each skill
· Personally interview the finalists
· Select the best person meeting the requirements
· Perform a skills reference check for the finalist
· Make an appropriate and timely offer
So, here’s what you’re going to do. Let’s talk about the process called job analysis (steps 1 and 2). This is human resource jargon for what you should be looking for, (i.e. experience and skills) in a new hire. Now, how do you make it happen efficiently? This process called “Job Analysis” will be the same for each of these newly created managerial positions no matter what the responsibilities are. With this process, you won’t go out and find another ego-driven manager with a need to persuade. That would only be good if you’re hiring a Sales Manager.
Now here’s what you have to do. You have to look at this controllership position responsibilities and determine what experiences and skills are required. Most entrepreneurs stop at experience and match responsibilities with what they see on a resume. That’s where many emerging CEO’s fail in the hiring process. At this point, not only do you have to determine the responsibilities but you must determine which skills are critical for success and figure out how to make this assessment. What you now do is look at the possible job activity and ask the questions:
How important is this responsibility?
How often is it done?
Doing this will help you to establish the key responsibilities and determining the needed skills will follow. Now you can establish these critical skills and abilities, i.e.
¦ Financial managerial experience
¦ Financial analytical ability
¦ Detail ability
¦ Ethics
¦ Tolerance for stress
This isn’t easy to determine and it takes some time and energy to do.
Most likely, you will verify these position responsibilities and requirements with your CPA/accountant. He’s the expert in this arena. The next step, of course, is to identify interested candidates and you do this in a variety of ways, employment agencies, and executive search firms, job postings, such as Monster, Career Builders, personal referrals, and others.
Before you bring in anyone, you’ve created a list of questions for each skill. Now you bring in 2-5 candidates for personal interviews and ask each person, the same open-ended questions to ascertain that they meet the skill level in the selected areas. As part of this process, you can also interview a current employee to determine who might also meet most of the position requirements you’ve established. Your bookkeeper or a financial consultant might be qualified. As an example, to determine ‘detail ability’ you might ask the candidate how a previous boss would rate this candidate regarding his/her detail ability, and why. You would also ask each candidate for an example of how his detail ability saved his company money. This is done for each critical skill, i.e., ‘financial analytical ability’, ‘ethics’, and ‘management ability’. You rate each skill from ‘poor’ to ‘excellent’, compare the candidates, and then make your selection.
Then as a safeguard you assign someone else, with great listening skills, to ask the same questions of the finalists’ previous bosses, not the candidates’ friends or peers. Most other references are usually a waste of time and rarely do they provide critical hiring information.
Now, you repeat this process as you create more managerial positions. Each new hire will have complementary experiences and bring the needed skills to make him successful in each particular position. Again, you ask other outside experts, i.e., your advertising agency, your product development firm, IT consultant, or other outside experts, with particular expertise, to help you establish each newly created position.
Still, you’re not completely done! Make certain that your new hire has been given a thorough orientation, introductions to key players, and scheduled follow-up meetings to head off any possible issues or problems.
Yes it takes a lot of time but it can only help you to make substantially better hiring decisions for each new functional area in which you probably have little expertise. From these efforts, you’ll enjoy the fruits of working with the best people and they will have the skills to take your vision to the next level.
John Guarniere is the founder of RCE Associates. He draws upon 20 plus years of experience including executive search consulting with a major international public accounting firm and corporate staffing management with two Fortune 100 organizations. Mr. Guarniere has been designated by the Personnel Accreditation Institute as a Senior Professional in Human Resources in employment, placement and personnel planning. He is the creator of the HR Index and is a certified interviewer in Targeted Selection.
Ok, you have a great game plan to get the business to the next level and now you’re ready to hire those key executives. This is where many entrepreneurs fail! Many start up CEOs will hire in their own image instead of bringing on board the needed complementary experiences and skills that will take them to the next level. Unfortunately, many of these emerging companies plateau or even take a nosedive. Ask your accountant how many times he’s seen this happen with his clients.
Here’s what I suggest you do regarding the selection of these newly created positions and your critical hiring needs.
Let’s say your first hire, for this new game plan will be a position which includes the traditional controllership and CFO responsibilities. You may have the need to go from a book-keeper to a more experienced controller with special information systems and auditing experience. If you’re the astute business person that got you to this point, you’ll probably go to your accountant for help in the creation and possible selection of this new position.
Here’s a summary of the talent selection process
· Write job responsibilities
· Establish key skill requirements, i.e. financial analytical ability (5-8 skills)
· Review content with an outside expert
· Write open ended questions for each skill
· Personally interview the finalists
· Select the best person meeting the requirements
· Perform a skills reference check for the finalist
· Make an appropriate and timely offer
So, here’s what you’re going to do. Let’s talk about the process called job analysis (steps 1 and 2). This is human resource jargon for what you should be looking for, (i.e. experience and skills) in a new hire. Now, how do you make it happen efficiently? This process called “Job Analysis” will be the same for each of these newly created managerial positions no matter what the responsibilities are. With this process, you won’t go out and find another ego-driven manager with a need to persuade. That would only be good if you’re hiring a Sales Manager.
Now here’s what you have to do. You have to look at this controllership position responsibilities and determine what experiences and skills are required. Most entrepreneurs stop at experience and match responsibilities with what they see on a resume. That’s where many emerging CEO’s fail in the hiring process. At this point, not only do you have to determine the responsibilities but you must determine which skills are critical for success and figure out how to make this assessment. What you now do is look at the possible job activity and ask the questions:
How important is this responsibility?
How often is it done?
Doing this will help you to establish the key responsibilities and determining the needed skills will follow. Now you can establish these critical skills and abilities, i.e.
¦ Financial managerial experience
¦ Financial analytical ability
¦ Detail ability
¦ Ethics
¦ Tolerance for stress
This isn’t easy to determine and it takes some time and energy to do.
Most likely, you will verify these position responsibilities and requirements with your CPA/accountant. He’s the expert in this arena. The next step, of course, is to identify interested candidates and you do this in a variety of ways, employment agencies, and executive search firms, job postings, such as Monster, Career Builders, personal referrals, and others.
Before you bring in anyone, you’ve created a list of questions for each skill. Now you bring in 2-5 candidates for personal interviews and ask each person, the same open-ended questions to ascertain that they meet the skill level in the selected areas. As part of this process, you can also interview a current employee to determine who might also meet most of the position requirements you’ve established. Your bookkeeper or a financial consultant might be qualified. As an example, to determine ‘detail ability’ you might ask the candidate how a previous boss would rate this candidate regarding his/her detail ability, and why. You would also ask each candidate for an example of how his detail ability saved his company money. This is done for each critical skill, i.e., ‘financial analytical ability’, ‘ethics’, and ‘management ability’. You rate each skill from ‘poor’ to ‘excellent’, compare the candidates, and then make your selection.
Then as a safeguard you assign someone else, with great listening skills, to ask the same questions of the finalists’ previous bosses, not the candidates’ friends or peers. Most other references are usually a waste of time and rarely do they provide critical hiring information.
Now, you repeat this process as you create more managerial positions. Each new hire will have complementary experiences and bring the needed skills to make him successful in each particular position. Again, you ask other outside experts, i.e., your advertising agency, your product development firm, IT consultant, or other outside experts, with particular expertise, to help you establish each newly created position.
Still, you’re not completely done! Make certain that your new hire has been given a thorough orientation, introductions to key players, and scheduled follow-up meetings to head off any possible issues or problems.
Yes it takes a lot of time but it can only help you to make substantially better hiring decisions for each new functional area in which you probably have little expertise. From these efforts, you’ll enjoy the fruits of working with the best people and they will have the skills to take your vision to the next level.
John Guarniere is the founder of RCE Associates. He draws upon 20 plus years of experience including executive search consulting with a major international public accounting firm and corporate staffing management with two Fortune 100 organizations. Mr. Guarniere has been designated by the Personnel Accreditation Institute as a Senior Professional in Human Resources in employment, placement and personnel planning. He is the creator of the HR Index and is a certified interviewer in Targeted Selection.