Working Smarter:

Common Hiring Mistakes — And How to Avoid Them

By Fleming Ford

Chances are, you can easily recall promising new hires whose lackluster performance was a bitter disappointment. After they’ve landed the job and you’ve invested months of training, coaching, salary, and benefits, several less desirable qualities surface. You’re left feeling frustrated and wondering why you hired them in the first place.

Every company makes hiring mistakes, mistakes that cost money. And while turnover can be costly, it can be just as costly to have a poor performing employee stay on the job.

So how do you stop wasting good money on bad hires? Simply knowing the most common hiring errors can help you sidestep some difficult situations. A few of the more widespread hiring mistakes are discussed below.

Recruiting — you may not be attracting the candidates you want

Running a “help wanted” ad in the classified section of the Sunday paper could be a big waste of time and money if your ad isn’t carefully worded and targeted. Simply noting the computer knowledge

needed, basic duties and salary range doesn’t work, though that’s what most employers do. Carefully consider the abilities, personality traits, and attitude needed for the job. If you need a high-energy salesperson who can think on his feet and quickly close deals, be sure to include words like “fast-paced,” “challenging,” “independent,” and “assertive.” Your ad will attract the more competitive, aggressive job-seekers and scare off non-competitive applicants.

“E-cruiting,” using the internet to recruit candidates, is becoming an increasingly powerful recruiting tool. With field-specific job boards, like Autodealerjobs.com, webpages for recruiting and staffing firms, and on-line trade classifieds, more and more job seekers are using the internet. As with the newspaper, though, be sure you use the right words to attract the type of person you need. Using words like “dedicated,” “team-player,” “careful,” and “professional” will result in lots of resumes for administrative assistants and marketing staff, but will not attract a top-notch sales candidate.

A hint: look carefully at the personality and pace of your best workers currently on the job before writing your ad. There are several behavioral assessment tools available to identify the common characteristics of your top performers. Use your top employees as benchmarks for new hires. Workers who lack specific skills and knowledge can be taught these skills. Pace or personality traits aren’t likely to change.

When recruiting candidates, don’t ignore the hidden talent inside your own organization. Don’t limit yourself to one specific department. Your top customer service representative could turn out to be a great entry-level sales candidate if their personality is a good fit with the job. Profiling can help identify those employees with potential.

Preparing for the interview, don’t blow it!

Poor preparation leads to poor performance. As simple as it seems, this is one of the most common hiring mistakes. Most people simply “wing it” and don’t interview enough people each year to be especially good at it. Inadequate planning for the interview wastes both time and money. By carefully structuring your application and interview process, it’s easy to establish a more relaxed and flowing interview, one that seems more like a lengthy conversation than a Q & A session.

First, review the resume ahead of time. Many an interview begins with the company representative reading the resume right there in front of the applicant! Take a few minutes to peruse the resume and cover letter — even if it is while the applicant completes your employment application, personality profiling tool, reference sheet, and background screening releases in another room. By reviewing the resume ahead of time, you can plan your questions, look for warning signs, and appear more confident and professional.

When reading resumes, be careful not to overlook what it doesn’t say. Fortune Magazine reports that 66% of all job applicants stretch the truth on their resumes. Candidates “forget” to list jobs they were fired from, adjust employment dates, or embellish job responsibilities. Some warning signs to look for:

• Dates of employment — candidates who list only the years (rather than more specific dates) may be masking short-term employment. For example, a candidate indicating that she worked as an analyst from 1997 to 1999 may have only been on the job for one year, beginning December 1997 and leaving January 1999. Look also for gaps between jobs and analyze the number of jobs held.

• Career Progression — look carefully to see if the candidate held positions with increasing responsibilities or if he simply changed employers without changing jobs. He may have bounced around from employer to employer, indicating a lack of commitment, ambition, accomplishment, or career direction. Also, be sure the resume includes detailed information about the job, not just the job title.

• Credentials — Pay attention! Attending university, qualifying for licensure, and completing certification paperwork does not necessarily mean the candidate graduated from college, earned her professional license, or received accreditation.

Questioning — Get it right!

As mentioned earlier, preparing for an interview requires planning. When “winging” the interview, many people fail to prepare questions that provide solid clues about the applicant’s competitive nature or follow-up ability. The interview ends up being a review of the candidate’s work history and a lengthy narrative about the job opening available. Don’t do all the talking! Prepare a list of questions before the interview. This not only helps you encourage the applicant to share more about his skills, knowledge, and experience, but it also allows you to get the same information from each candidate.

Consider dividing the interview among several people — one to probe the candidate’s past and one to determine why he is available and discuss career goals. Use open-ended questions, those that begin with statements such as “Tell me about a time when…” or “Give me an example of…” Be sure that every question is job relevant. Some good questions to ask a candidate:

· What is your greatest accomplishment?

· Tell me about a time when you became frustrated/disappointed at work.

· What would be you ideal job or career?

· Who was your best boss and why?

· What are your strengths? Weaknesses?

· If offered the job, would there be any situations that would inhibit your ability to perform during the

· first 90 days?

· What do you like and dislike about this position?

· The hours are ____ to ____. Would you have a problem with these hours?

· How did your job responsibilities grow?

· Why did you leave? And then where did you go? Who supervised you?

Be sure you know what you are looking for in the answers. If you are looking for a patient, detail-oriented claims examiner, the answers will be quite different than those for an upbeat, enthusiastic, and personable PR representative. Again, using your current employees as benchmarks helps.

Profiling — understand the personality behind the resume and interview

Even the most impressive resume and interview won’t always tell you if a candidate is a good match for a specific position, workplace, and management style. The best profiling tools are those that are easy-to-complete and provide an easy-to-understand report. These reports can help you understand the motivators, strength, and challenges unique to each individual, information that is difficult to learn from an interview. Profiling helps you measure “job-fit” by comparing the candidate to the job and workplace. Be sure to select an assessment tool that uses your company and your job for comparison purposes, not one that bases the assessment on a generic job description. The better profiling tools use professional analysts, not computer-generated reports.

Background checks — don’t bypass screening!

It’s amazing how many employers bypass this important step in an effort to save time or money! But hiring an employee with a fraudulent resume or criminal history could put your company at risk for negligent hiring suits. A careful review of an applicant’s history can also help protect your employees, customers and business from embezzlement, theft, harassment, or other difficult situations.

A recent study by Omnia Background Search found a discrepancy between information provided by the applicant and information obtained through background searches in nearly one-third of the candidates screened. Verify even the most basic information — education, certification, licensure, etc. Some jobs, like CPA or LPN, require specific licenses and coursework. Depending upon the job, you may also want to verify the applicant’s criminal record and check for any worker’s compensation claims. For jobs like teller, accountant, or financial planner, check the candidate’s credit history. If she does a poor job of handling her own finances, how well will she handle your money?

Be sure to conduct personal references, asking for more information than just dates of employment. In addition to asking questions about the candidate’s work performance, ask how well he handled stressful situations, adapted to change, or related to co-workers. Answers to these questions could provide valuable clues as to the candidate’s temperament and ability to work with others. Don’t forget the single most important question to ask of a reference: “Would you allow the applicant to work on your team again?” A reference that refuses to answer or provides a negative response has given you some very valuable information.

When conducting background and reference checks, you may be tempted to handle them yourself to save money. Resist the temptation. Rely on a professional background search group who knows exactly where to get the information quickly and easily AND how to read the reports. Take advantage of those background search firms whose final report summarizes the data collected in an easy-to-read, jargon-free format.

Finally, the offer — don’t skip the details!

It is important to seal the deal with a handshake, but don’t skip the details. Put the offer in writing and mail it to your new hire. Not only will your new employee feel valued and needed, but this simple step will also help make sure that the details are clearly understood from both sides.

Fleming Ford is a National Sales Manager for the Omnia Group, an employee selection and a management consulting firm based in Tampa, with nearly 5,000 clients in 15 countries. A complimentary Profile and interpretation will be provided to readers who call 1-800-525-7117 or visit Omnia’s website at www.omniagroup.com.