The answer is: This is selection for NFL teams, and the choices determine team quality and success in the future.
Selection is when you choose those who are going to become members of your workforce – your team. The NFL is in a position where they do not need recruitment. Essentially, every quality football player wants to be selected.
You must first succeed in recruitment to have quality candidates to select. Given that quality candidates have been recruited, selection becomes crucial for your beef production business, just as it is for NFL teams.
Let’s pursue our analogy with the NFL draft a little further. Do NFL teams look only at the skill levels and past performance of the players? The answer is: no. They also look at what is often called “fit.”
There is the oft-recalled 1998 draft where, based on past performance and skills, everyone said the first two draft choices would be quarterbacks, and the choice was difficult because the two had almost identical skills.
The Indianapolis Colts, with the first pick, carefully studied many personal traits, including using sports psychologists, in their decision to draft Peyton Manning. The San Diego Chargers, with the second choice, selected the seemingly-as-well-qualified Ryan Leaf.
Leaf turned out to be a bust, and Manning became one of the greatest quarterbacks ever. Selection matters.
Do they “fit?”
In selection, we must look at more than experience and skills. This notion of fit has two dimensions. The first is related to whether the skill set is what is needed for the beef production business. In football, teams focusing on passing the ball will look for a lineman whose strength is pass blocking.
For a beef production business looking for a crop manager, a candidate whose passion is growing and marketing corn and soybeans is not a likely fit.
The second part of fit is the fit with your ranch business culture. Does this candidate have the personal values, interests and career goals that will enable him or her to contribute to and thrive in your business culture? It is crucial to recognize that culture fit is not hiring someone who is just like us.
Diversity is critical; respecting diversity and avoiding any type of discrimination is paramount.
The first key to selection is knowing what you are looking for. Considering the job description and the necessary fit, carefully identify and articulate the three to five most important competencies to succeed in the position.
Competencies are the skills, knowledge, experience, performance behaviors and personal attributes required to succeed in this position.
The following is an example competency set for a position to work with calves and youngstock:
- Reliability
- Loves animals
- An understanding of calf health and nutrition
The selected competencies are different for each position and often for each time you fill that position.
The selection process
How then do we select the best candidate? Selection involves choosing from the pool of candidates the individual or individuals who best match the competencies needed to succeed in the position.
Remember that you are determining the qualifications and potential of this candidate for the position and fit with your business and its culture; you are also promoting the position and your beef production business so the candidate is likely to accept should you offer him or her the position.
The selection process involves many steps, typically the following:
- Review of resumés and application forms
- One or more employment interviews
- Testing, assessments and simulations
- Reference checks and recommendations
- Hiring
The heart of selection is the interview. Here are some ideas to ensure you are prepared for and have a constructive interview:
- Recognize that an interview is an important, stressful event that requires significant structure.
- Construct a schedule for the interview.
- Make certain the candidates fully understand in advance what to expect – anything he or she should bring or prepare, interview time (start and end), interview location, interview schedule and format, including appropriate dress.
- Make certain there are no interruptions during the interview.
- You must make every effort to make the candidate feel comfortable.
- Give the candidate many opportunities to ask questions.
- Make certain the candidate knows exactly what to expect when he or she leaves the interview. What and when is the next step?
A prepared set of questions to be asked of all candidates is a unanimous recommendation of all interviewing experts and practitioners. How, then, do we write good interview questions? You should begin by writing a series of questions for each of the competencies.
Make certain you have different difficulty levels in the questions. You learn a lot both from questions the candidate can easily answer and those he or she finds difficult or even impossible to answer.
Many of us have a tendency to ask question that begin with “What would you do if …?” Research and interviewing experience has shown that a better question begins with “Tell me what you did the last time this happened …?”
A concluding remark: Just as a football team greatly influences the future success of their team on draft day, you are influencing the future success of your beef production business every time you select a new member of your team – your workforce. 
Bob Milligan is also professor emeritus, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University. Email Bob Milligan.
-
Bob Milligan
- Senior Consultant
- Dairy Strategies LLC
- Email Bob Milligan
