This article will offer a how-to guide for hiring an all-star training team, complete with insights on how to Identify measures of success, craft a job description and develop an interview guide (based on the STAR method). An “all-star employee” is typically defined as an individual who consistently goes above and beyond in their role, demonstrating exceptional skills, dedication and performance.

These individuals often stand out due to several qualities:

• Exceptional performance: All-stars consistently deliver high-quality work, exceeding expectations and achieving outstanding results in their tasks and projects.
• Initiative and proactivity: They show a proactive approach, taking the initiative to identify and address challenges, propose innovative solutions and drive positive change within the organization.
• Continuous learning: All-stars display a thirst for learning and growth, continuously seeking opportunities to expand their knowledge, acquire new skills and adapt to evolving industry trends.
• Team collaboration: They excel in teamwork, actively contributing to the success of the team by sharing expertise, supporting colleagues and fostering a positive, collaborative work environment.
• Adaptability and resilience: All-star employees adapt quickly to changes, remain resilient in the face of obstacles, and demonstrate flexibility in handling various situations.
• Leadership qualities: Even if not in a formal management position, they often exhibit leadership qualities by inspiring others, taking accountability, and guiding projects or initiatives.
• Positive attitude and work ethic: They maintain a positive attitude, show dedication to their work and consistently demonstrate a strong work ethic, motivating others by their example.

Overall, all-star employees understand what well-executed success looks like and use the above qualities to achieve it.

Outlining Success

Identifying the measurement of or outline for success of a given job role can be a challenging but rewarding task. To effectively identify what success looks like for a training-related job role, it’s vital to assess ongoing tasks that provide impact, prioritize tasks that need immediate attention, and consider tasks that can be discontinued or delegated to resources and tools, such as artificial intelligence (AI). The well-known “stop-start-continue” method can be utilized for a quick “need of the business analysis” to determine your hiring needs.

Addressing these needs may not involve the “go-to” hiring of an instructional designer for content creation but instead streamlining burdensome tasks using tools like AI, optimizing available resources and enhancing role efficiency prior to hire. Understanding available resources remains fundamental in this process. Understanding what is available is essential before determining what is needed.

Setting the candidate and new hire up for success through clear and consistent communication must be a priority. Identifying success metrics, such as key performance indicators (KPIs), before crafting a job description will help achieve this. (Note: KPIs and key competencies will vary based on the role’s needs and picture of success.)

Here’s how:

• Clarity in expectations: KPIs provide a clear understanding of what the level of success looks like in a particular role. When these metrics are established beforehand, it becomes easier to define the specific responsibilities, tasks, and skills required for executing and achieving those outcomes.
• Tailoring job descriptions: Understanding the KPIs allows for the crafting of more accurate and targeted job descriptions. It helps in articulating the necessary skills, qualifications, and experiences required from potential candidates to meet those performance indicators effectively.
• Alignment with organizational goals: KPIs are typically aligned with broader organizational objectives. Defining these metrics helps ensure that the job descriptions are in sync with the overall goals of the company. This alignment ensures that the new training hire’s efforts contribute directly to the company’s success.
• Evaluation and performance management: Having clear KPIs aids in evaluating employee performance once they are onboarded. It creates a benchmark against which the employee’s progress and success can be measured, facilitating ongoing performance management.
• Attracting the right candidates: Clearly defined KPIs in a job description attract candidates who understand and are capable of meeting those performance expectations. This helps to attract individuals who are aligned with the organization’s goals and have the relevant skills and experiences needed to drive those KPIs.
• Reducing misalignments and turnover: When job descriptions are aligned with KPIs, there’s a reduced chance of hiring mismatches. Candidates who understand and are motivated to achieve those metrics are more likely to stay longer and perform better in their roles.

Developing an outline for success through KPIs before crafting job descriptions is instrumental in setting clear expectations, aligning roles with organizational objectives, attracting suitable candidates, and ultimately ensuring that the new hire contributes meaningfully to the success of the team and stays long term.

Ask, “What would a picture of success look like in this role?”; “What impact does this role have?”; “If this role were doing everything right, what would they be doing?” Be careful to only outline the “what” and not the “how.” It’s important to be stubborn about outcomes but flexible about methods.

Example 1: Written Measurements of Success

Identified Role Needed: “Learning Experience Specialist”

Remember: Business needs should be the goals of the training competencies. These may include, for example, increased revenue, reduced costs and mitigated risk to the business.

Crafting a Job Description

Once your success metric(s) defined and established, it’s time to communicate them through a well-written job description. Keep in mind that a well written job description has the following structure to help set a candidate up for success in their role and gain a head start on developing their business acumen.

The candidate should understand the goals, roles,and rules by the end of reading the job description.

Job Description Structure

Introduction to the company: the goals.

Introduce the company’s Mission, Vision and Values. Include any organizational goals, interdepartmental collaboration, and external teams the candidate might partner with.

Provide a brief overview or summary sentence of where this role sits withing the company hierarchy or structure. This helps in setting the context for execution of the role.

Role-specific details: the roles.

• Outline specific skills needed for the job in a concise bulleted list.
• Keep the list focused and relevant to avoid overwhelming candidates.
• Include a disclaimer for additional duties to be clear about the full role.

Candidate’s current competencies: the rules.

• List the necessary qualifications, certifications or experiences.
• Highlight how a candidate’s past experiences could shape their level of success.
• Emphasize the importance of relevant competencies without unnecessary qualifications.

Guidelines for Crafting Job Descriptions

It can be easy to fall into a trap of adding every possibility into the job description. Be mindful of overwhelming the candidate while still giving them a clear picture of daily, weekly and monthly tasks or scenarios.

• Tailor the job description precisely to the role’s success metrics outlined above.
• Avoid adding qualifications not directly tied to job responsibilities.
  • For example, if the job involves an “everyday-every human task,” a required college degree might not be necessary.
  • Overemphasizing unnecessary qualifications might limit the applicant pool and contribute to the “paper ceiling”.
• On the opposite end, don’t leave important tasks out. This could be perceived as a “bait and switch.”

Example 2: Job Description — “Learning Experience Specialist”

Developing the interview guide:

Crafting the interview guide involves making questions that will help to decern future behavior based on past exposure or experiences. Past behavior often predicts future behavior until they are exposed to or experience new things. Often, an individual will aspire to goals, perform to roles and fall back on the rules. That’s where the STAR method helps in interviews.

Understanding the STAR method:

The Situation, Task, Action and Result (STAR) method can be explained as follows:

Situation describes the context a candidate was in (e.g., what was the need or cause?). Task explains what they were asked to do (e.g., what were they tasked with?). Action shows behavior (e.g., what did they do or how did they do it?). And results are well, results. The interesting part of the results portion is the variables. Sometimes, what they did (i.e., action) doesn’t match what was expected (i.e., task). Here, it’s crucial to know what happened consequently.

When candidates discuss the result, listen for lessons learned if their action didn’t match the Task. They might share how they adapted or what they learned. Also, pay attention if unexpected actions led to good outcomes. This shows adaptability and creative thinking.

In short, the STAR method helps understand how candidates act in situations. It’s about more than just what they did; it’s about how they learn and grow from their experiences. This method helps see problem-solving skills and how adaptable candidates are, showing how they might contribute to the organization.

Example 3: Star Questions Versus Regular Interview Questions

Example 2: Job Description — “Learning Experience Specialist”

Learning Experience Specialist (Full-Time)

Welcome to [insert company name]. Our mission is to [insert company mission]. We aspire to [insert company vision]. We accomplish this through [insert company values]. This role reports to [direct supervisor title] and partners with [insert departments they will work with] to [insert the goals of the job role]. We can verify that our employees have an experience that goes above and beyond expectations from orientation and onboarding.

Role responsibilities:

• Design and develop a virtual new-hire orientation program.
• Teach the virtual new-hire orientation program.
• Call new hires to follow up on their experience.
• Dispatch actions for analysis of business needs or additional learning.
• Complete all other tasks as assigned.

Role requirements:

• Must have proficiency in training authoring software.
• Must have at least two years facilitation experience.
• Must be able to use Microsoft Office communications software (Outlook and Teams).
• Must have great communication and interpersonal skills.
• Must have experience in writing development plans.

Bringing It All Together

Combine the job description with the STAR method to create a good interview guide. Start by listing the tasks and what success looks like. Then, make questions based on STAR to test how well candidates can do these tasks. Look at Example 4 for help.

When interviewing training professionals, explain how the company uses the STAR method. Ask if they know about it. If not, give an example question to clarify. Being clear in interviews helps candidates understand your leadership style in assigning tasks and sets them up for success prior to hire. They will remember this when job offers start to come in.

Evaluate interviews like annual reviews in the company. This helps figure out where each candidate stands, what training they need, and how they might perform in future reviews. Being open and discussing concerns before hiring leads to reduced turnover in the long term. This can also help weed out any unconscious or conscious bias that could affect the success of this individual in the role.

Example 4: Interview Guide Template

Here’s an interview guide template to consider:

A Template to Get Started

Here’s a template to help get you started: