So, this is a statement you hear many HR Managers, CEO speaking about. Every now and then we hear senior executives saying that ‘We Hire the Best’. So What is the best. Does it mean people with strong pedigrees, strong background, or top performing lot of companies? If the above is true does it mean that people not having above traits cannot get good jobs?
The answer to all is NO. The definition of Best, is best defined by the work that person has to do. We at GrapeCity, say we Hire the Best. It doesn’t mean we hire only rank holders/ toppers across the board, What it means is those people are best suited for the kind of work we have. An A+ for me could be a B+ for some other organization. Similarly a B+ for me could be a A candidate for some other organization. So in a nutshell the grading of candidates is organization specific and work specific. So to hire the best the organization needs to kind of talent they want to recruit. The talent can be graded based on
a) Technical Skills
b) Functional Skills
c) Behavioral Skills
The above skills and be drilled down further and a skill matrix can be created to based on competencies and its level required to perform a certain kind of work. E.g In GrapeCity one of the things we are very particular in Technical skills is the experience of a candidate on Web Apps Product Development as that is one of our core areas. Hence we look at candidates with score of 4/5 on these technologies. Similarly on secondary skills for a Software engineer we might just look at a rating of 2/4. This is GrapeCity definition of A+ talent. In some other organization the secondary skills might become primary and hence the whole definition of A will change. In the same manner the Behavioral Skills one has could be deciding factor as it could have a big influence on whether a person can fit into an organization culturally. When you combine all the skills you get a different flavour in each organization which would be A+ / B in its own way.
Also for strong execution, you need people at A+ level and at the same time at B level also. For Eg. a 10 member development team might comprise of 5 A+ people to lead the efforts along 2 B+ and 3 B people to supplement the efforts put in by the A+ people and follow directions given by them. Of Course this combination can change based on need. But putting 10 A+ or 10 B+ people together on one assignment would be a road to disaster.
In a nutshell, what Hiring the best means is hiring what is required by your organization. Not what the world describes as the best.
K Arun
Human Resources
GrapeCity
