There are many blogs out today on the importance of effective onboarding for a new hire. Strong onboarding can lead to better job performance, job satisfaction, organization commitment and retention. While day one—onboarding, is important, we think another day is even more important:

DAY 365!

According to a recent article, two important factors that can determine Quality of Hire are:

1. How the new employee performs at predetermined markers, such as one month, three months, six months and one year.
2.  Whether or not the new employee is still with the company in a year.

These two factors for determining Quality both focus on day 365. So, if one year is so important in measuring Quality of Hire, how are you incorporating day 365 into your interview process?

Here are three ways to make sure day 365 is front and center in your hiring process:

1.  Go for the Goals: Successful people are very goal oriented, so focus your interview on having vs. doing—what does the person need to do to be successful, not what skills does the person have to be successful. Communicating clear, measurable goals and objectives to candidates during the interview process will bring clarity to what is important for success and will help you determine quickly whether or not the person is up to the task. Who would you rather hire someone with the skills or a person who can deliver results.

2.  Create Opportunity: A recent article by LinkedIn stated that one of the most important indicators of Quality of Hire is whether or not the job is a Career Move. Make sure that during the interview process you are communicating HOW this new job is an actual opportunity/career move, complete with job stretch, job growth and an increase in job satisfaction (notice we didn’t list money!). Use your interview process to demonstrate to the candidate the difference in what they’ve done to what they could be doing.

3.  Engage your Managers: Making sure your hiring managers are “on the same page” and prepared before an interview is a must. Here are five ways outlined by Lou Adler in his Performance-based Hiring Process to engage with your hiring managers for hiring success:

*Do your homework on the candidate before the interview.
*Ask them to define before the interview what the person would need to do to “ace” the interview.
*Ask the mangers to be prepared to tell the person what big projects or tasks they want the person to accomplish throughout the year.
* Benchmark people who are now in the job whom the mangers want to clone. Ask them, “What do these people do differently?”
* Push the manager to clearly define the EVP or Employee Value Proposition—Why would a top person want this job? What will the person learn, do and become? What kind of impact will the person make?

To help you increase your Quality of Hire or to learn how to more about strengthening your interview process to highlight day 365, click the button below to contact us. We’d love to start a conversation!