Take the case of reservation agents. Based on her interviews, Rhoades believes there are seven dimensions for success on the job: practical learning, teamwork, tolerance for stress, sales ability, attention to detail, adaptability/flexibility, and motivation. Tolerance for stress means "an ability to exhaust frustrations and maintain effectiveness on the job" and "observe emotions displayed in body language." Behavioral flexibility means a person can "handle each call on an individual basis" and "prepare [for] each call with the thought that positively outrageous service is the ultimate goal." Rhoades has designed specific interview questions and exercises to probe for these and other attributes.
3. The Best Way to Evaluate People is to Watch Them Work
A few companies take this rule literally -- none more so than steelmaking giant Nucor. In many ways, Nucor is to steel what Southwest is to airlines: innovative, fast-moving, eager to break the rules. One of Nucor's best sources of new steelworkers are the construction workers who build its plants. Managers monitor their construction sites, look for plumbers and electricians who demonstrate the work habits they value, and then hire them. At Nucor, the dirty and dangerous task of building a steel mill is one long interview for jobs running it.
Most companies can't hire the Nucor way. But they can opt for the next best alternative -- simulation. In its new factory in South Carolina, BMW has built a simulated assembly line. Job candidates get 90 minutes to perform a variety of work-related tasks. Charles Austin, an Atlanta-based consultant with DDI, helped design the facility. He says people who don't have the mental stamina to meet BMW's "aerobic workplace" requirements don't get hired. Austin has built similar facilities for other automakers (including Toyota and Subaru) as well as for a new Cessna single-engine airplane factory in Independence, Kansas.
Cessna's Independence plant takes simulation beyond front-line workers. Austin developed an elaborate role-playing exercise for managers that simulates a "day in the life" of a harried executive. A job candidate spends up to 12 hours in an office with a phone, fax, and in-basket stuffed with files and letters. Throughout the day the prospect works through memos and handles problems. ("We'll call and pretend to be an irate customer and let him deal with that," Austin says) . Cessna has hired roughly 100 people in Independence using this day-in-the-life simulation, including an 8-person management team and the plant manager.
Why bother? "You've got fewer people doing more work," Austin says, "so you have to see how people will do the job before you hire them. You can't afford to make a bad decision."
4. You Can't Hire People Who Don't Apply
Companies that take hiring seriously also take recruiting seriously. Successful companies seldom lack for job candidates. Last year, there were nearly 40 applicants for every person hired at Southwest Airlines. Silicon Graphics hired 2,700 people in 1995 and received more than 50,000 résumés. But the goal is to have the right job candidates, not the most.
Companies that hire smart usually start their recruiting efforts close to home -- with their own people. SGI's Lane estimates that 65% of his company's new hires began as referrals from current employees. It makes sense: it takes a certain kind of person to thrive at SGI, and those people tend to spend time (personally and professionally) with people like themselves.
A second approach to recruiting goes one step further -- on the theory that blood is thicker than water. Most companies with advanced hiring systems encourage family members of standout employees to apply for jobs. The logic is simple: If "who people are" is what matters, who better to hire than people related to your stars?
Thomas A. Morelli, vice president of human resources for Solectron, makes just that point. "Around the world, our current employees are our best recruiting source," he says. "They understand the soul and spirit of the company. I can't say exactly how many family members we have, but we have more family members than any company I've worked in."
James Coblin, Nucor's general manager of personnel services, agrees: "People ask us, 'Do you hire families?' We hire entire clans. We've got brothers, sisters, cousins, husbands, wives."
Peter Carbonara (pjcarbo@aol.com) is a writer and TV producer living in Brookline, MA.
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