Most offices have the superhuman employee. Sometimes whole companies are made of these working-a-million-hours-always-taking-on-more-ever-so-committed people.  Are you one of the superhumans?  Are you requiring others to be?

This topic is on my mind a lot right now for several reasons. For the past two weeks, I've been bombarded with articles, videos, and conversations on this subject.  It's to the point of being eerie.  Have you been reading a lot about this as well? Additionally, this topic resonates with me because I certainly wrestle with the inclination to try to be superhuman. I'm working a lot now on addressing that because I know it's not healthy for me or my family.  I also do not I do my best work under these circumstances, which means it's not fair to my clients.

The first nudge on this topic was this article on 60-hour work weeks that my friends at Dress for Success Indianapolis shared.  It's short and I found it hard-hitting.  If we are working 60-hour work weeks, SOMETHING IS WRONG.  I don't know how many times I've said that phrase to myself lately.  I love that the article talks about the prospect that maybe our job is ill-designed and resources are limited...it's not just pointing a finger at being a perfectionist or workaholic (although those can be issues, too).

Whether you hire 1,000 people annually, 10 or even 1, there is tremendous value in examining your hiring system, considering whether it’s as strong as it could be, and identifying opportunities for improvement.

But I know you have a ton of other stuff to do.  Why is this important?

A weak hiring system results in wasted time by you and your employees, vacant seats for longer than necessary, and poor hiring decisions, all of which negatively impact revenue, client service, and morale. 

It’s possible that you may not even be aware that your hiring system has weak points: the “You don’t know what you don’t know,” phenomenon.  For example, you may think that you have an efficient and streamlined process, but little do you know that there are inexpensive and easy-to-operate software options that can save tremendous time and help you make even better decisions.

Whether you’re happy with your hiring system right now or it’s causing you known frustration, here are 10 key questions that can help you identify opportunities.

1. Do our job descriptions paint a crystal clear picture of 1) what someone will do, 2) what is necessary for success (including critical behaviors and skills), and 3) how performance will be measured? (HINT: Categorizing responsibilities and giving time allotment to categories can take job descriptions from being sketches to high-res pictures of the position.)
2. Are openings promoted in a way that attracts our target candidates?  Do candidates see why working for us is better than working for our competitor?  (HINT: Job descriptions don’t do this.)
3. Am I using the current best sources for connecting with candidates?
4. Does our means for collecting information on candidates leverage automation and provide the ability to search candidate information easily?
5. Are we smartly getting candidate information through questionnaires, assessments, tests, etc. before investing our time doing interviews?  Are we seeing too many “bummer” candidates in interviews and, if so, how can we decrease that?
6. Do our interviews support being able to make apples-to-apples comparisons of candidates?  (HINT: Everyone making up questions on the fly makes this hard.)
7. Do our candidates think we're fabulous?
8. Are we doing anything in our process that opens us up to risk of accusations of unfair hiring practices?
9. Do our new hires have a great experience getting started with us?
10. What do our newest hires say about their experience applying, interviewing and starting?

No matter how you do this, I hope you will take an hour or so to think through these 10 questions and determine how strong your hiring system is.  After all, your talent is the foundation for your company’s success.