Deck 12: Recruiting, Selecting, and Retaining Talent

Question 1

If you really wanted a job at Microsoft, how would you most effectively answer questions like "How many gas stations are there in the USA?" or "How many ping pong balls will fit in a school bus?" or "How much would you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?" or "How would you move Mount Fuji?"

Answer 1

In many circumstances, the interviewers asking these types of questions do not expect you to get the correct answer. Instead, they are looking for a reasonable answer that uses logic and/or creativity. Thus, you should focus on showing your rationale and out-of-the-box thinking. For example, in answering the question about the number of gas stations, interviewers would not be impressed with just a random guess. Instead, you should work through the problem rationally using information you do know. For example, you might start with your knowledge about the population of the United States (roughly 300,000,000) and estimate how many gas stations there would be on average for 1000 people. Then work from there to give your best educated estimate.

Question 2

Consider the following monologue from The Social Network, a film that tells the story of how Facebook started and ultimately thrived.

Answer 2

This highly unusual selection technique assesses not only the computer and technical skills of the applicants but also their willingness to be a part of something very unconventional and possibly risky. The technique sends a powerful message to applicants about the kind of working environment they might expect and it allows the organization to see how the applicants handle themselves in such extreme circumstances.

Question 3

Retaining a Talented Employee
It's Monday morning and you're swamped. It's three days before "Black Friday" and your 45 store employees are frantically preparing for the 4 a.m. opening. As you finish getting through the morning's e-mails, someone knocks on your door; it's Jessica, your star marketing associate. Despite being busy, you always make time for her as Jessica has personally been responsible for some of the store's most successful marketing campaigns. "Hi Jessica. Getting excited for the end of the week?" you say with energy. "Well, to tell you the truth, I've been feeling a bit unappreciated of late, particularly around the busy season," she remarks.
As you lean back in your chair, she describes in detail her dissatisfaction with her pay relative to others, the amount of time she works, and the lack of respect of her own direct reports. She ends by remarking, "I've always been honest with you and so I feel compelled to let you know I'm on the market and had an interview last week." You think to yourself, "How could this be? I've never heard any complaints from her and she's such a great employee." What can you do to keep Jessica? How might you ensure that you retain your other talented employees? What traps should you avoid in putting together a retention strategy?

Answer 3

The essential part of a manager's job is to select the deserving candidates properly. Since organizations succeed through the efficient people, therefore it is significant to select the correct individuals. At times, managers consider that the financial condition, information systems and production units are the main reasons behind the success but they ignore the fact that individuals are responsible for designing, maintaining and applying these systems.
Consider a situation where an individual needs to retain his/her talented marketing associate Ms. J. She is a responsible employee and she is famous for creating successful marketing campaign. But of late, she is feeling a bit unappreciated mainly around the busy season of "Black Friday" and planning to quit the organization.
In order to determine how to retain the talented employees, first it is important to understand their reasons behind turnovers. Ms. J is now not that happy with her job experience, facing lack of respects in her work environment and now she is trying to join some other organization. When the organization is getting profits from the marketing campaigns those are created by Ms. J, they should appreciate her hard works by providing deserving position and respect to her.
In order to retain other employees of the organization, the individual should create work environment feasible for the employees and they feel themselves as assets for the organization. The organization should acknowledge the contributions and hard works of their employees and should not make them feel overhead. The job descriptions should be clear so that employees can plan what to deliver. If there is any change in the description, the organization should communicate that with the employees directly and timely. Employees can be retained by providing an honest and transparent work environment.
The biggest trap in retention strategy is to lose connection with employees. The organization, sometimes, failed to maintain the connection with their employees and to receive feedbacks from them. The higher management of organization should always maintain an association with lower-level employees in order to avoid mistakes in retention strategy and to make such efforts fruitful.

Question 4

Even otherwise very good managers often have a hard time fully understanding findings from selection research. What lessons from that research have served Google and Microsoft so well?

Question 5

Although the questions and assessments are in a modern context and may seem quite innovative, Google, Microsoft, Southwest Airlines, and Doubletree are really just applying very wellresearched evidence on effective selection. What selection research lessons do you see in the practices of these firms?

Question 6

What do you think about the decision to centralize the selection function? What role do you think managers play in this approach to recruitment and selection?

Question 7

Expanding Your Pool of Candidates: Using Effective Recruiting Tactics
You fully recognize that the best way to get good employees is to be able to choose from many. However, your company is not a well-known firm and you frequently get very few candidates for your open positions. What are the best practices in recruiting and what do the best firms do? Does it make sense to seek employee referrals? What are common traps and mistakes in recruiting for new talent?

Question 8

What are the most common selection traps and misconceptions that Google and Microsoft are avoiding with their innovative tactics?

Question 9

Identify a very different type of firm and job (for example, sales, attorney, civil engineering) and use the selection lessons from these firms to design a valid structured interview.

Question 10

Do you agree with the logic to outsource lower-level positions?

Question 11

Choosing the Best Person for a Role
You have just been promoted to the position of sales manager with a large salary increase, the potential for a nice bonus, and responsibility for four sales representatives who will now report to you. As part of your new job, your boss asks you to hire a fifth sales representative in response to the rapid growth of the company. "In fact," he adds, "I've got a stack of resumés in my office for you. All you have to do is interview a few candidates and pick the best one."
How would you go about filling the new sales position? Are there typical mistakes managers make in this type of situation that you should aim to avoid? What type of information would you hope to gather on these job applicants? How might you best determine who would be the highest performer?

Question 12

Why have firms like Google and Microsoft moved away from relying on resumés and unstructured interviews when making their hiring decisions?

Question 13

Explain the statement "You hire for skills and then the whole person shows up."

Question 14

How might outsourcing the recruitment/selection function affect the methods used to select people?

Question 15

Conducting a More Effective Selection Interview
The unfortunate reality is that a monkey, throwing darts at a list of candidates on the wall, would have a chance of finding the best performer on that list roughly equal to many of the selection methods commonly in use today. Chief among the culprits is the unstructured interview (for example: Tell me about yourself? What are your greatest weaknesses? Why did you pick your major? etc.) which is among the most widely used forms of interviewing. While you have been interviewed in that way for all your jobs to date, you personally want to do better and conduct more useful interviews. So how should you go about increasing the effectiveness of your interviews? What are the major differences between unstructured and structured interviews? How should you frame your questions?