Your Employment Agency Doesn’t Understand You – You Don’t Want Average Because You Are Not

As a Values & Behaviours Analyst, I offer my clients Values & Behaviours assessments to prevent them from making costly hiring mistakes.

Sometimes they work with us to search out their candidates, sometimes they do it themselves and sometimes they use an agency.

Here is an e-mail that I sent to my client who is not getting high caliber candidates from the agency that they are working with.

Dear Elite Advisor,

I believe that you should change agencies … in fact, why not work with more than one. I believe that a good agency should have had an inventory of candidates to put in front of you.

In my mind, given the agency is in a large metropolitan area, they should have provided more candidates.

At the same time, the agency does not understand you as a client.

In my mind, your firm is not just another financial advisor firm – your firm, everyone in it, the marketing actions you are taking and the clients that you deal with are elite and you are looking for better than average.

To screen out unqualified candidates, it is my belief that the person that you are looking for should be a quick start & study, have a high degree of inner strength & self esteem, be able to take instructions quickly from assertive people and follow through without needing a lot of hand holding and step by step supervision.

Please note that I have written the above characteristics to set the standard so to speak.

This standard is also defined so that the candidate will be able to run with the team that you have versus be eaten alive ( in the candidates mind ).

Here are some questions that will help to confirm that the person is NOT the person that you are looking for.

My approach here could seem too analytical … my outcome is to prevent having to do the hiring again in 4 months from now.

You should have the candidates answer these questions by e-mail before they do an assessment.

You can get a sense of the candidate without spending a lot of your time.

Regards,

Simon

• Give a specific example of how you have worked independently and under pressure to get the job done and meet a deadline.
• In a situation when your manager is unavailable, how have you proceeded with a project when all the information is not readily available to you.
• Provide me with an example of where you have had to isolate yourself from co-workers in the office to focus and complete a project with a deadline.
• Explain the benefits of working independently, or working collectively as a team. What situation do you prefer and why?
• What role do you play in ensuring a smooth working environment when your boss is away?
• How do you handle conflict?
• Sometimes it is difficult to know when to quit. Describe an experience in which you were too persistent / not persistent enough. What happened?
• What was the most difficult interpersonal situation you encountered in this position? How did you handle this?
• Think of a recent decision you made that was good and one that wasn’t as good. What did you do differently in making these decisions?
• How have you reacted to criticism from your manager? Give an example.
• How have you reacted to customers’ criticism of your products or services? Give an example.