From the course: Managing Temporary and Contract Employees

Selecting is an ongoing process

From the course: Managing Temporary and Contract Employees

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Selecting is an ongoing process

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- If you think recruiting is still a passive process where you simply create a pipeline of talent, you're going to be out-maneuvered when it comes to identifying and acquiring top talent. It's more critical than ever to create a tight process to properly vet temporary and contract employees. People are no longer beholden to an employer's whims, and their confidence in the company and its leadership are voted on with their feet. If they don't like the way the place is run, they simply walk. Loyalty went the way of the Blackberry. Selection and retention starts with knowing what the job requires, which is determining the skills and experience needed to best complement the team. You can get a great sense of skills and experience from someone's LinkedIn profile, and questions about the level of competence can usually be easily discerned via phone or video. Skills and experience aren't the only things to take into account. There are also behaviors. Some behaviors can be easily trained, and some are extremely hard to train. With temporary and contract workers, you don't have the luxury of time to develop people when it comes to what's the best fit. You need action and results right away, and that means you require people who are resourceful, collaborative, and focused. I have a recipe for each of these qualities. In order to find resourceful candidates, interview to find those with a combination of courage and vigilance. Courage and vigilance equals resourceful. The sweet spot between courage and vigilance is where adversity is embraced, uncertainty is expected, creativity is fueled, passions are pursued, and heroes emerge. Ask about how they've handled difficult times, and look for those who view tough times as temporary, limited, and external. To find collaborative people, look for a balance of humility and confidence. Humility plus confidence equals collaborative. You're looking for self-awareness and the genuine ability to reflect on where their strengths applied at the wrong time and the wrong place can actually derail things. You're also looking for candidates with the confidence to take on big challenges. Lastly, and especially important when it comes to tight timelines, the candidate must possess the ability to combine discipline and innovation to completely focus. Discipline plus innovation equals focused. You're looking for candidates with new ideas and approaches along with examples that demonstrate their self-awareness, teamwork, and self-discipline. Finding these qualities is really as simple as starting with three basic questions. One, can they do the job? Can the candidate fulfill the role, that is do the job at a high level? Two, do they want the job? Does the candidate have the desire to join a high-performing team and what that entails? Three, do you want them? Will the candidate be a good fit with the team, that is, play nice? When you focus on selection, you create a team in its truest sense, that is, a group of people with complementary skills who are accountable for the collective performance. One last thing, when it comes to finding employees who are curious and courageous, know that these aren't attributes you teach during onboarding. Curiosity and courage are attributes your candidates should possess before you even interview them.

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