Category: Talent and Hiring

Interviewing protocol–Listen up, y’all

An interview is a two way street, more so with senior level hires. Most candidates who take the time to interview are otherwise engaged in a day job, but interested enough to pursue a new possibility. The company doing the interviewing often falls flat on their corporate face, misunderstanding the protocol of interviewing, from timing,…
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ABCs of hiring in Asia

[framed_box]A) My contrarian position that there is no ‘shortage of talent’ continues. There is plenty of talent, and thus plenty of potential. No new hire is a ‘finished work of art’, ‘ready made’, and knows the job to be done at the outset. Yet many internal stakeholders are too busy or seldom in the office…
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Seeing, but not believing

When it comes to senior level hires, there is often talk of chemistry’, how pleasant or well liked the company and/or candidate was, the overall bonhomie and friendliness of the interview and conversation. Without question it’s an important component, but insufficient to make a decision, based on some talks and gut feel. Whether you’re hiring…
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From lowest to hire! Vignettes from the trenches

Who sets the hiring pace within an organisation? The hiring manager? HR? CEO? CFO? Board? External stakeholders? Peers? All of ’em? When one group wants a specific candidate profile, and another group has a different perspective on what is needed, trouble is ‘a brewin’… All the ‘war for talent’ chatter quickly erodes into corporate turf…
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My rules of how not to drown at the outset

Onboarding? More like waterboarding… …So said a friend to me the other day when I asked him if his new company was on-boarding him at all. And recently met up with someone else who said the new company’s on-boarding was to go around the office and meet the COO, CMO, CIO (who said, “Don’t bother…
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8 steps to (interviewing) heaven

When I receive mandates for a search, clients often remind me of urgency and completion by a certain time. All well understood and expected. The fast time frame, however, is often not adhered to, sliding into a “hurry up and wait” cadence. Why is that, given such urgency and need? I have observed that many…
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HR: value-add or vapour

[framed_box]A man in a hot air balloon realised he was lost. He reduced his altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted: “Excuse me, can you help? I promised a friend I’d meet him an hour ago, but I have no idea where I am.” The woman below yelled back…
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Talent, where art thou? A tale of two leaders

Some organisations–and leaders–seldom have a problem attracting good talent(and not just huge branded MNCs). If asked, these people would likely say that if you want strong talent, spend time knowing the market–who is where, a lot of effort meeting and interviewing people, hire only on strength, and when ready to get them on board, act…
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The job description–made to last

I look at job descriptions and at people’s CVs through the day. I assess their skills, work history, presentation and aspirations, how they compose and formulate their CV, their reflections, aspirations, ability to listen, how the articulate and market themselves, sometimes with a dollop of self awareness.. I usually (after an hour or so) understand…
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