art of hiring smart, The

Rough Notes, May 2000 by Bauer, Barbara

Take the time to effectively interview and research a potential employee--you'll be glad you did

Chances are you can easily recall hiring promising employees whose lackluster performance proved to be a bitter disappointment. Your gut tells you that this new employee is going to work out great, but after he/she's landed the job and you've invested months of training, salary and benefits, some unanticipated behavioral problems surface. You're left feeling frustrated and wondering why you hired the person in the first place.

Hiring smart is more than using your gut instinct. Every company makes hiring mistakes-ones that cost money. But turnover can be avoided. Here are some tips to help you discover the art of hiring smart.

Recruiting. Running a "help wanted" ad in the classifieds 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 employee who can think fast on his/her feet and quickly close deals, be sure to include words such as "fast-paced," "challenging," "independent" and "assertive." Your ad will attract the more competitive, aggressive job seekers and scare off non-competitive applicants.

Using technology. "E-cruiting," or using the Internet to recruit candidates, is becoming an increasingly powerful recruiting tool. With fieldspecific job boards, dozens of Web pages for recruiting and staging firms and online trade classifieds, more and more job seekers are using the Internet. As with the newspaper, though, be sure to use the right words to attract the type of person you need. Using words such as "dedicated," "team-player," "careful" and "professional" will result in a lot of resumes for administrative assistants and marketing staff but will not attract a top-notch sales candidate. Here's a tip: Look carefully at the personalities and paces of the best people currently working for you 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.

Preparing for the interview. 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. By carefully structuring your application and interview process, it's easy to establish a relaxed, flowing interviewone that seems more like a lengthy conversation than a Q & A session.

First, review the resume ahead of time. Many poorly planned interviews begin with the company representative reading the resume in front of the applicant! Take a few minutes to peruse the resume and cover letter-ven if it is while the applicant completes your employment application, personality profiling tool, reference sheet and background screening releases. You can plan your questions, look for warning signs and appear more confident and professional.

Be careful not to overlook what the resume doesn't reveal. Fortune magazine reports that 66% of all job applicants stretch the truth on their resumes. Candidates "forget" to list jobs from which they were fired, they adjust employment dates or they embellish job responsibilities. Some warning signs to look for are listed below:

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 he/she worked as an analyst from 1997 to 1999 may have been on the job for only one year, beginning December 1997 and leaving January 1999. Also, look 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/she simply changed employers without changing jobs. He/she 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. Attending a university, qualifying for licensure, and completing certification paperwork does not necessarily mean that the candidate graduated from college, earned a professional license or received accreditation.

Questioning. 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. Prepare a list of questions before the interview. This not only helps you encourage the applicant to share more about his/her skills, knowledge and experience, it also allows you to get similar information from each candidate.