Firms can avoid costly hiring errors

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Jan, 1998

The improved job market is causing companies to interview more job candidates to fill a particular position. Unfortunately for a number of firms, many interviewers feel they make the right choice just half the time. As a result, the company pays dearly for these mistakes -- often 35% or more of a job's annual salary -- to find a suitable replacement. In addition, departments experience a loss of training time, productivity, and morale.

What can managers and owners of companies do to ensure their hiring and interviewing process brings them the right person for the job? According to Del Still, author of High impact Hiring and a consultant to Fortune 100 companies, by avoiding interview errors and learning how to evaluate work habits, better hiring decisions can be made, thereby eliminating costly personnel mistakes.

Dangers of premature decision-making. One of the biggest mistakes when interviewing job candidates is making a hiring decision within the first five to nine minutes of the interview. "Interviewers often base their decisions on intuition or gut feelings rather than on data," Still cautions. "Many also respond to first impressions or physical appearance. If the candidate went to the same school or worked for the same company, they `see' themselves in the candidate and unconsciously say, `Here I come! This person looks just like me! They must have the same good qualities I have.' Then comes the self-fulfilling prophecy where the interview is conducted in such a way that it lines up in accordance with the interviewer's premature decision. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long before disappointment sets in because what they thought was true about this person really isn't."

Focusing just on technical skills. Because many interviewers are experts at matching technical skills to job descriptions, they fail to interview for another set of skills they intuitively know exist, but don't know how to get at. "I call these skills work habits.' [These] are not what the person physically does in a job, but how they go about doing it."

Uncovering appropriate skills. Of the 35 different work habits that apply to most jobs, interviewers should key in on six to eight that separate superior performers from average ones. "If being on time is a work habit that's important to your company's success, then don't hire a person who's chronically late. The best way to determine if the candidate has the work habits you're looking for -- such as integrity, dedication, or diversity sensitivity -- is to ask them to tell you about their past experiences relating to the work habits you're inquiring about."