Customer Reviews

High Impact Hiring: How to Interview and Select Outstanding Employees

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"Making the right hiring decision is more important today than ever before." Del J. Still writes, "I don't have to tell you about the impact of smarter competition and globalization of today's business on profits. I'm sure you've felt the pressure. If not, you will. Even the smallest company cannot afford to operate as they have in the past and expect to suceed in today's pressure-filled environment. How do you win? You win by building an exceptional work force"(p.19).

In this context, throughout the book, he presents his 7-Step interview model that can be summarized by one seven-letter word- 'PROCEED.' He argues that "It is an acronym where each letter represents one step of the process. 'PROCEED' is your blueprint to interviewing success. You'll be amazed at the results you achieve when you follow this process, step-by-step"(p.42).

Step 1: Prepare

* Identify existing superior performers

* Create a job description for the position

* Identify the competencies or skills needed to do the job

* Draft interview questions

Step 2: Review

* Review questions for legality and fairness

Step 3: Organize

* Select your interview team and your method of interviewing

* Assign roles to your team and divide the questions

Step 4: Conduct

* Gather data from the job candidate

Step 5: Evaluate

* Determine the match between the candidate and the job

Step 6: Exchange

* Share data in a discussion meeting

Step 7: Decide

* Make the final decision

Finally, he writes that "Even though the material I have included in this book is based on years of research and practical experience, it can always be improved. I encourage you to experiment with the methods and discover what works best for you...The cardinal rule is to 'stay legal' and 'play fair.' The 'best' thing you can do is put someone in a job where their competencies closely match the requirements. The 'worst' thing you can do is the opposite"(p.221).

Highly recommended.

Please, please, please study this book before you conduct your next selection interview. Postpone it if you must, but don't even attempt to hire another employee before you read High Impact Hiring. Selection decisions are the most important personnel actions any manager takes. If you want to hire the best contributors for your organization, you are personally responsible for being the best interviewer and choice-maker in your organization. High Impact Hiring will enable you to fulfill that awesome obligation. Del Still's new book not only offers an immediately useful process, it's chock full of rich case examples and extraordinary practical questions you can use in your very next interview.
Jim Kouzes, co-author The Leadership Challenge and Credibility
Chairman and CEO
The Tom Peters Group/Learning Systems

I've been interviewing job candidates for a number of years and I thought I knew it all! I must admit, I learned a lot from Dr. Still's book. He makes the hiring process straight forward and easy to understand. His book is the first "how-to" management book I have read that is practical and delivers a lot more than it promises.

Take my word for it, every person who participates in the hiring process (even you recruiters) should own this book. It's written in a language that is easy to understand and does not try to over power you with technical details. And, it's not an academic treatment. By-the-way, the author gives you a who series of useful interview questions to help you get started. I used several of them in a recent interview and I was very impressed with the amount of high quality information I received from the applicant.

We need more books like this one -- no fluff, just good, common sense, practical advise.

"High Impact Hiring" by Del Still is a must read for everyone from the President of a Company to the Dept. Manager charged with interviewing & hiring decisions. Once you have read this book you will find you are more equiped to gather the pertinent information on candidates which will ultimately give you greater success in this most important decision. Hiring the right individual is one of our Corporate clients greatest challenges so we have been giving this book to them to assist in facing the hiring hurdle. With the assistance of the book they are capable of meeting the hiring challenge with confidence. As the President of one of Southern California's premier CPA firms I am involved in all of our own internal hirings and am so grateful to have read this book. My advise to those of you who are involved in this process is "Don't hire without first reading this exceptional book!" Your business cannot afford the wrong individual. Creating an exceptional company can only be acheived with exceptional people within an organization.

Over the dozen years that I've been interviewing and hiring staff, I have "self-developed" many of the techniques the author presents. However, I had not formalized them. This book provides methods and procedures, helps develop a mechanical thought process, to structure the pre-interview selection, the interview, and the post-interview analysis.

I used the book to augment my own "self-grown" interview process recently and with tremendous success.

This book is a "must have" arrow in every manager's quiver; young or old, new or mature. Whether you have "home-grown" an interview technique, had HR force one upon you, or are looking to develop a strategy, this book will help.

In December 2001 I recruited a person to our business and because I hired on my gutfeeling I made a very expensive mistake. Now seven months later after enormous amounts of energy and resources devoted to that person I had to fire him.

This book has thought me the importance of looking at working habits and past actions when hiring people. Maybe you can teach a old dog to sit - but who has the time and money for that!

If you are hiring - buy this book and do it right!

I got turned on to this book years ago and have found it a great and useful source of interview related information. Using this book will turn your pointless interviews into knowledgefests.

I was very impressed with Dr. Still's book. His method of interviewing was easy to understand and apply. I recently used his techniques to make a tough hiring decision. The book almost made the choice for me. This is a book that every one who participates in the hiring process should own.

As a management consultant and professional speaker focusing on human resources I read a lot of background. I am already frequently quoting Dr. Still's work in HIGH IMPACT HIRING. His writing style and common sense treatment of this very important subject makes building an all star team easier. I Will be reading chapters from this book over and over again.

The sample questions for each Work Habit were just what I needed to improve our interviewing style to make it more effective. It helped me think about what Work Habits are really important for this job position and how to get a good honest answer from a candidate.