A couple of months back I interviewed Patrick Thean about the success he's experienced in building scorecards for new hires.  He provided some great suggestions of the metrics he's used along with the real-life example of presenting a scorecard to a prospective hire to help her "opt out" of the interviewing process because she determined she wasn't capable of the job.

I absolutely loved the example Patrick shared because it reinforced what I've repeated over and over again about the two reasons why a new hire doesn't work out:

1. You failed (as the Hiring Manager) to clearly articulate what you needed someone to do
2. You failed (as the Hiring Manager) to tell the new hire what you needed them to do

Having a scorecard is a HUGE first step in making sure that you've put in the time to define what will determine success for someone who's just joined your team.

Last month (January '11) I had the opportunity to meet Pepe Charles from MAP.  He's an expert in helping organizations develop what they call "VITAL FACTORS".  You won't be surprised to learn that these vital factors are another name for...wait for it...scorecards.

I asked if they'd be willing to share their proprietary vital factors with you as readers of this blog.  They graciously said yes and so you can find a very robust list of things that you can measure across departments and skill sets here.

The day that I heard Pepe speak about these vital factors he brought something up that really stunned me (and I was also a bit embarrassed for not having thought of it myself earlier).  There's a very high likelihood that you've heard of the acronym SMART for goals.  It commonly accepted that the acronym stands for:

• S: Specific
• M: Measurable
• A: Attainable
• R: Realistic
• T: Timely

What Pepe suggested was that the A (typically referred to as attainable) should actually stand for AGREED TO.  What a revelation!

In summary, I now have 3 reasons why someone you've just hired won't work out:

1. You failed (as the Hiring Manager) to clearly articulate what you needed someone to do
2. You failed to tell the new hire what you needed them to do
3. You failed to come to an agreement with the new hire on what they needed to do

Thanks, Pepe.