Match: A Systematic, Sane Process for Hiring the Right Person Every Time

Introduction

As president of a recruiting firm, I've been intimately involved in literally thousands of hiring decisions. I've worked with hundreds of department managers, HR professionals, and everyone whose title begins with "Chief." When I talk to them about their hiring success rate, I'm surprised at how many times I hear the same things:

You can't find good help. . . . People are unpredictable—hiring is a crapshoot. . . . People just want a paycheck—they don't care about my company. . . . Some folks are really good at interviewing, but when you hire them, they can't do the job. . . . I found a guy with the right skills, but no one in the department likes him. . . . Young people just don't have the work ethic . . . and on and on.

What surprises me even more is how many companies accept mediocre hiring results as the norm. It doesn't occur to them that, in fact, there is a process that virtually guarantees hiring the right person every time.

Let me repeat that: there is a process that virtually guarantees hiring the right person every time.

That's what this book is about.

Most companies are terrible (or at least inconsistent) at hiring. This is not a good thing at all, since talent matters perhaps most of all. One of my heroes, Peter Drucker, said it best when he wrote:

The ability to make good decisions regarding people represents one of the last reliable sources of competitive advantage, since very few organizations are very good at it.

Study after study tells us that the most successful ...