How to Hire A-Players: Finding the Top People for ... - GIT home page

measure talents that are difficult to teach, such as sales effectiveness,
leadership ability, competitiveness, sense of urgency, analytical
orientation, personal motivation, and practical thinking. They
also provide insight into critical but intangible factors like a person’s
intuitiveness about others, self-confidence, ‘‘coachability,’’ and
drive to achieve.
If potential employees don’t bring the right combination of skills
and abilities with them to a position, their chances of failure increase
dramatically. By using assessment tools to make sure that all
your final candidates have these foundational aptitudes, you’re able
to focus on finding the A-players among the candidates that you
interview. Good evaluation instruments provide you with insight
into people that you can’t get otherwise.
Assessment tools provide an additional benefit. They temper
your natural tendency to be charmed by certain candidates and pursue
them despite their weaknesses. I know seasoned sales executives
who refuse to interview any potential salespeople until they
have completed an online sales assessment. These executives have
made too many hiring mistakes based solely on initial impressions
and ‘‘gut instincts.’’ They like the fact that assessment tools inject
objectivity about candidates into the interview process.
Creating a Common Language
Popping the Hood on Candidates Using Assessment Tools 179
A-Player Principle: We like to like people and to be liked
in return. Assessment tools help us remain objective about
the people that we interview.
Evaluation tools like these also give you a common language to use
in your organization as you interview, assess, and discuss candidates.
Executives in sales organizations, for instance, will buy into the importance
of measuring competitiveness, energy, money motivation,
and drive to achieve—all of which are specific categories measured
by sales assessment instruments. This common language helps multiple
interviewers to evaluate numerous candidates quickly.