On this episode of the On The Homefront Podcast, Lou Adler, founder of the Adler Group, joins Jeff Dudan to talk about his Performance-Based Hiring System and other practices and methods he has developed over the years to hire the best talent.
Guest profile
Lou Adler is the CEO and Founder of The Adler Group, a consulting and training firm helping companies implement Win-Win-Hiring recruiting programs, using his Performance-Based Recruiting System to find and hire exceptional talent.
Author of the Amazon Best Seller "Hire with your head" and the essential guide to "Hire and Get Hired." Lou has been featured on Fox News, in various articles in magazines such as Business Insider and the Wall Street Journal, and has lectured to over 40 thousand recruiters and managers.
Find Lou Adler on LinkedIn
Episode's key tips
The Beginning of His Career as a Recruiter and Entrepreneur
In the late 1970s, after conflicts with the company's president group, Lou Adler left his successful manufacturing career behind to try something new, away from the corporate world. This is how Lou would start a new career as a recruiter, an event that would propel him to build a successful business and create a one-of-a-kind recruiting system that focuses on employee achievement and the job experience itself rather than looking at a set of skills and credentials, known as the Performance Based Recruitment System.
Knowing More about the Performance-Based Hiring System.
Early in his career as a recruiter, Lou realized the shortcomings and flaws of the hiring process and decided to create a system to help companies hire top talent based on job performance and competencies. He says that “hiring can be a business process if you follow a certain set of rules, and that's what became Performance-Based Hiring; a sequence of steps you follow every time, and if you do that, you would hire excellent people.”
How to Find the Right Talent?
"Everyone has a certain set of skills, good teamwork skills, intelligence, and problem-solving skills, but without the context of the job, it's kind of meaningless."
Lou believes that the most important thing when looking for candidates is to find people with skills that are applicable to the job and who can solve problems related to the job itself.
“It's what people do with what they have that makes them successful, so focus on what they have.”
Why are Assessments to Screen Candidates Not Effective?
In Lou's view, assessments should be applied to test the final three candidates, not to rule out candidates from the start. He believes an assessment is a confirmatory indicator, not a predictive one.
"Not everyone who passes the test can do the work, but 90% of the candidates who can do the work will pass the test because it's pure logic, that's why it's a confirmatory indicator and not a predictive indicator."
Bias and How to Avoid It During the Hiring Process
According to Lou, one of the biggest mistakes recruiters make is being biased. "When we like someone on first impression, we relax and start selling the job, we stop listening." When asked how to avoid bias, Lou mentions that we can do this by crafting performance-based job descriptions, focusing on the person's performance and not their personality, and doing a scripted interview.
Do Not Hire for the Starting Day
Lou says that the recruiter's main goal should be to find candidates who will successfully reach their first anniversary in that job, which he calls Win-Win- Hiring. "Win-Win-Hiring means you're hiring for the anniversary. From the day you hire them until the anniversary and if the person is still good at their job and wants to keep doing it."
To that end, according to Lou, recruiters need to make sure that the candidate is capable of doing the job, that she/ he has the specific skills to do the work, and really wants the job.
What Should Startups Do When Looking for Their New Hires?
Lou shares that in order to hire the right candidate, you must first define what you want this potential new employee to accomplish and include performance goals. Also, it's important to make sure your candidates have solved similar problems in the past and are prepared for all the challenges of working for a startup. “Hiring should be a long-term decision: too many people focus on getting that person started on day one and all these criteria. But the real truth is that people's success is based on intrinsic motivators.”
Top quotes from this episode
“You always have to give up at least something to try to get something greater.”
"If you do generic competencies, your situation is remote. Competencies should be related to the job and the position itself."
"Bias is the number one cause of hiring mistakes."
“Performance-based job descriptions: this is the beginning of stopping bias.”
“Sometimes great candidates aren’t great hires.- Because you screen people that might have great skills and suit your needs.
"Don't make an offer until you are 100% sure it will be accepted."
"Hire for the anniversary date, not the start date."
What is the Adler Group?
The Adler Group is a consulting and training firm helping companies launch "Win-Win Hiring" programs using Performance-based HiringSM systems. To know more, visit the Adler Group website.
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