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DO YOU HIRE ‘SMART’ ?

Written by: Michael Shuster

Article Overview: Have you ever hired someone who did not meet your expectations? Have your managers been properly trained for ‘effective interviewing’? Chances are the first time your managers were in a position to conduct an interview (hire someone), they simply asked the same questions to the applicant, that were originally asked of them, when they used to apply for jobs. Unfortunately good interview questions for one job, are not good questions for another. Furthermore, once the applicant offers their responses, how do your managers determine if the answers are good? Specifically does this applicant represent a perfect ‘jobfit’?

DO YOU HIRE ‘SMART’ ?

Over the past 25 years we have changed the way we do everything in business …. EXCEPT the way we hire and manage our employees. Hiring and managing employees is not a one-time task (only when there is a position to fill). It should be an ongoing process. Unfortunately managers don’t do anything to improve their hiring process, or make it an ongoing part of their job. Consider that lawyers rehearse with witnesses to ensure better success in court, theatre performers practice regularly to stay in shape for the next audition, professional athletes practice their technique daily because they can’t afford to have a bad game, yet managers never practice or seek to improve their hiring techniques.

Typically you don’t recruit until an employee leaves. You are now short-staffed, and in a panic to fill the position, with no strategic hiring process in place. Furthermore you consider the interviewing process mundane, monotonous, and something you simply don’t have time to prepare for, because you’re too busy. You don’t properly define the interview process or proper ‘jobfit’. How can you possibly hope to identify the right candidate? Thus you hire the first candidate possibly suitable (based on their ‘gut’ feeling). Gut-feeling hiring is the number one reason for bad hiring. “First Impressions based on emotions, bias, chemistry, personality, and stereotyping cause more hiring mistakes than any other single factor.” (Lou Adler - Hire with Your Head.)

The flipside - people don’t look for a job until they no longer have a job. They are anxious to accept the first job offered to them, or worse…..’sell themselves’ to you. The applicant pretends to be someone they are not. There is a book in your local book store (self help section) called “101 answers to questions you’ll be asked in an interview”. This book has sold over 1 million copies. In the same bookstore there is a book (in the business section) called “101 questions to ask in an interview” which never sells a copy. Conclusion - Companies don’t prepare for interviews!

Specifically, managers collect resumes and immediately look at a candidate’s ‘experience’. Experience only tells you where the applicant has worked. You still don’t have methods in place, to assess the behavior, ethics or attitude traits of the candidate. Knowledge can be taught, but the personal traits are what create the ‘customer experience’. But how can you know if you are seeing the ‘true’ person during the interview?
Structured hiring programs which accurately identify and verify personal traits such as behavior, attitude, and ethics are still (unfortunately) very rare. The result then is such a high failure rate in hiring the best person for the job.

According to Peter Drucker (Famous Management Consultant) up to 66% of your company’s hiring decisions will prove to be mistakes in the first twelve months.” This doesn’t mean that employees will leave (consider the enormous turnover costs) … in fact most of them will unfortunately stay! (consider lost sales per customer, and loss of customers due to an unhappy experience!)
FACTS:
- A recent study found that 56% of employees Lie to Supervisors, 41% Falsify Records, 35% Steal, 31% Abuse Drugs/Alcohol. (and these are only the employees who admit to it)
- 95 % of college graduates were willing to make at least one false statement to get a job. Forty-one percent had already done so.
THIS IS YOUR APPLICANT POOL!
- A Michigan State University study found that interviews alone, without a strategic system which includes assessments to measure the thinking style, occupational interests, behavioral traits, and ethics of an applicant … are only 14 % accurate.

CONCLUSION:
To improve (systematize) your hiring process and hiring success rate, you must execute a strategic 5 step interview process.

1. Getting Applications and Resumes,
2. Step One Assesments TM This is a proven computerized method of analyzing data to remove the ‘gut instinct’ trap. It accurately tells you the applicant’s level of integrity, reliability, and work ethic.
3. The Interview (with structured and systematic methods of uncovering inconsistent and untruthful responses)
4. Due Diligence (background checks and verification of information gathered,
5. The Offer of Employment.

The purpose of completing these five steps is to answer four key questions which are integral to you hiring successful candidates with proper jobfit:

Without determining the true answers to these four questions …… you will NEVER hire smart!

Written by: Michael Shuster, President: HIDDEN CONCEPTS INC.

His expertise encompasses strategic employee attraction and hiring processes, sales & customer service training, ongoing employee performance management, and curriculum design. His goal setting, coaching programs, and tracking formulas, have been used by managers within over 250 organizations across North America, to successfully inspire and achieve excellence at hiring and managing top performers!

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