The Art of Recruitment

There are no clearly defined rules for mastering the art of recruitment of the perfect candidates, which is why it often comes across as the most arduous task of all. Bestselling author, renowned entrepreneur and orator, Mads Faurholt-Jorgensen, in his Ted Talks video addresses the same and shares insights about how to accomplish and perfect this art of successful recruiting.

The art of successful recruiting

To begin with, Farhoult explains that to master the art of recruitment the essence of remarkable leadership lies in the craft of assembling the perfect team and ensuring that the members of the team succeed in accomplishing their objectives and endeavors. Yet, he mentions that this is no child’s play as most often, we operate from a place of inherent bias and arrogance which obstructs and hinders us from hiring the right person. Among the numerous errors that one commits in terms of recruitment, Farhoult says the most predominant one is assessing people in comparison to one’s own selves or abilities.

Secondly, he cautions that rather than opting for a person who possesses all-encompassing abilities, the key should be to select people embodying specific talents or skill sets to address particular situations or crises. Thirdly, it is crucial, Farhoult mentions, to ensure that one always hires people who are better than their own selves to build a team that is sure to succeed. Also, sometimes we end up making hasty decisions and employ the procedure of recruitment merely to aid and confirm our inherent initial bias towards a candidate. Finally, in order to build a holistic team, Mads says one must recruit varied people, each of whom would be able to address specific issues by virtue of their unique skill set.

Therefore, as a solution to address all the mentioned issues, he recommends a systematic algorithm to aid the process of recruitment. However, he cautions yet again that the algorithm is no perfect tool either. It is merely an apparatus to make us aware of the limitations ingrained in our procedures of recruitment. At the same time, Mads mentions that the algorithm does bring in a certain sense of objectivity to the process as well and makes the selection process far more fair and just, augmenting the number of potentially suitable candidates fit for the job. To conclude, Faurholt designates a number of steps that will improve the process of recruitment:

• To identify the key requirement for a particular role
• To possess the appropriate questions or apparatus to assess the same
• To correctly and judiciously analyze, interpret and discern the data

Further, he suggests that before assessing the intelligence quotient of an individual, it is crucial to analyze his personality and then proceed with the recruitment in lieu of his technical skill set, past experiences, and so on. Finally, to master the art of recruitment, Faurholt says that it is essential that one keeps a record of the entire process of hiring an individual to assess and attest if the procedure succeeded in the long run and if not, to rectify, learn and improve accordingly, along the way.