03 Apr | The importance of selection
Group work has become one of the pillars of modern business organization. Teams are formed for specific projects and this ensures greater stability for the company. However, teams often turn out to be ineffective, or less productive than they could and/or should be. Why is that? Probably because the focus is more on the group’s management and, thus, little attention is actually paid on how they are actually “assembled”. Here are some strategies that help to assemble a perfect team and avoid problems in the future!
# DEFINITION OF OBJECTIVES
What tasks do I intend to entrust my team with? What goals will it have to achieve? These are the first questions that you need to ask yourself when selecting your team members.
Without a strategy that is clear and oriented towards the realization of a well-defined project, one will always run the risk of choosing unsuitable profiles. Furthermore, the goal greatly influences the type of team to assemble. Sometimes a “fluid” group can be more effective, that is, one in which members are not obliged to constantly work together.
# PROFILE SEARCH
It is not enough to simply choose the profiles from a list of candidates or curricula received: it is necessary to actively seek out the most valid subjects. Thanks to the Internet and Social Networks, we now have the opportunity to access a huge number of possible candidates that one can contact in order to identify their skillsets.
# INTERVIEW MANAGEMENT
In order to assemble a really efficient team, it is necessary to carefully calibrate the interviews and organize them in such a way as to bring out the qualities that will be needed once the project has started. What is now quite common is the double interviewing technique: an individual one, to get to know a candidate, identify specific skills and skim through the least convincing profiles, and a group one, in order to assess their relational and cooperative skills.
In particular, the possibilities of interaction provided by group interviews are varied and they also provide a number of useful indicators such as: excessive competitiveness, low ambition, availability, laziness, aggressiveness, ability to listen and converse, attitude to problem solving and creative thinking.
# SELECTION: SKILLS AND COMPATIBILITY
Once the interviews are over, it is time to choose. So, how do you select the best candidates?
Well, first of all, it is advisable to focus on diversity, to create a varied team that includes different professional figures based on training, studies, motivation, personality, culture, skills and competences. You must bring together individuals who are very aware of the commitment required by the project and are gifted with the same kind of cooperative inclination. It is, therefore, vital to know each and every profile, and each and every story, to perfection.
Secondly, much attention must be paid to the size of the team, so as to avoid excessive divergences and to minimize the margin for error.
# DEFINITING THE ROLES AND BALANCING THE TASKS
Once the team training is complete, it is time for clarity. Roles and tasks must be well defined right away so as not to avoid misunderstandings, every limit must be fixed and clearly visible, each member must be made responsible by entrusting them with tasks that are appropriate to their skillset, thus making them feel an integral part of the project.