By Andrew Coutermarsh Reprinted with permission from the November 2001 issue of Identity Marketing

Hiring Smart

Although the economy seems to be slowing a bit, and unemployment rising somewhat, it is still extremely difficult to find qualified candidates to fill necessary positions. A recent survey reported that some companies are experiencing as much as 20% voluntary turnover as a result of the current demand for qualified workers. Those who carry the burden and stress of recruiting may be tempted to take shortcuts to place bodies in those tough-to-fill spots. I have had similar thoughts myself and have at times, contemplated using the foggy mirror test as my only screening tool. While this may result in filling the position, in the long run it is counterproductive. Now more than ever, it is essential to 'hire smart.'

Hiring smart is a multi-step process that requires as much attention to the process itself as to the end result. Hiring a new employee is always a gamble. We can hope that we draw a full house instead of a pair, but our goal should be to stack the deck to increase the odds in our favor.

Know the Job

The first step in hiring smart is to 'know the job.' Clearly written, accurate, and detailed job descriptions are essential to the process. Credible job descriptions rely on an in-depth analysis of the job itself - roles, responsibilities, duties, key relationships, metrics and performance standards, and qualifications, such as years of experience, education, physical and mental abilities, etc.

This analysis can be done through a number of methods. One method is to have the incumbent employee keep a journal or log of daily activities and the time spent on each activity as well as any tools or equipment used on the job. Job questionnaires are another means of collecting the required data. If questionnaires are used, they require careful thought by the person or persons developing the instrument to ensure that all appropriate questions are asked.

The other methods for data collection are direct observation and interviews. Both require the participation of another person besides the incumbent. Observation may require someone who is familiar with the job in question and who also possesses the skills required for detailed note taking and who is able to effectively describe the tasks.

Once the data has been collected it should be organized into a formal job description. Formats for job descriptions vary significantly from company to company, but as long as the essentials are included, the actual layout matters little.

One critical element of job descriptions is that they should separate the essential from the non-essential functions of the job. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) affects employers with 25 or more employees and prohibits discrimination against an individual with a disability as long as that individual can perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodation.

Recruiting

Once you have completed the job analysis and formal job description, these can be used to develop a recruiting ad for print, or a posting for an Internet site. The wording of the ad is critical for a number of reasons. First, it is your opportunity to 'sell' your company to the job candidates. Poorly worded, or lackluster ads may create an impression that might be difficult to overcome.

Second, it is essential that the ad not contain references that could be discriminatory. To avoid the discrimination obstacle, make sure that the ad lists only those qualifications that are job related. If the job requires a degree, the term 'recent grad' could be interpreted to mean the same as 'young,' thus leading someone to believe that the company discriminates based on age. References such as deliveryman or handyman are also discriminatory and should not be used.

Third, give serious thought about what qualifications to list in the ad. Think in terms of competencies vs. credentials. Does the job require a high school diploma, or does it require specific competencies or abilities in math and writing? Unfortunately, a high school diploma does not guarantee that the applicant can read, write and perform basic math functions.

Conversely, just because a person does not have a diploma, does not mean that they do not have the necessary skills. Additionally, are you requiring five years of similar experience when the particular job can be mastered in two years? You could be eliminating some excellent candidates.

There are other methods of sourcing candidates. Private employment agencies can be very effective, though sometimes costly. It all depends on the availability of candidates for your particular job in your particular geographic area. All 50 states also provide resources through their respective Department of Labor, or Department of Employment and Training. Many schools and colleges have placement offices that assist employers with recruiting needs.

Another source of candidates could be your own employees. If your employees enjoy working for the company, they might be an excellent referral source for their qualified friends. Care should be taken, though, to ensure against any indirect discrimination. For instance, if your workforce is predominantly white male, you run the risk of perpetuating this mix. If you use employee referrals exclusively, you may inadvertently discriminate against women and people of color.

Application

Regardless of whether a person submits a resume through the mail, or shows up at your front door, all qualified applicants should complete and sign the company's job application. The signed application becomes the legal document for the basis of the employment decision. The application ensures uniformity and provides the employer an opportunity to obtain documentation of some critical information.

Like recruitment ads, the application should not ask anything that would provide information that could be used in an illegally discriminating manner such as sex, age, national origin, religion, etc. Other questions should be asked in a manner that would not inadvertently provide the potentially dangerous information. For example, the question, 'To what professional, business or civic organizations do you belong?' requires a modification such as 'Please exclude organizations, the name or character of which indicates race, creed, color, religion or national origin of its members.'

One question that most definitely should be asked is whether the applicant has ever been convicted of a crime other than a motor vehicle violation. This specifically asks for convictions and not arrests. Most states will not allow employment decisions to be based on arrest records, but will allow decisions based on convictions if the conviction provides a job-related reason not to hire the individual. Obviously you would not hire a person convicted of embezzlement to work in your finance department, but you might hire the person as a machine operator in a production facility.

Another essential element of the application is the 'Authorization and Acknowledgement' section which should contain wording such as, 'I certify that the information I have supplied is true and complete, to the best of my knowledge. I authorize ABC Company to conduct an investigation as to my stated employment and any possible criminal background. In the event of my employment, I understand that any false, misleading or incomplete information given in this application or interview(s) may result in immediate termination of employment, regardless of the amount of time that has elapsed between my date of hire and discovery of the of the false, misleading or incomplete information.'

Without a complete and signed application, the person should not be considered a bona fide applicant.

Interviewing

The first rule of interviewing is consistency. Based on the job description, a list of pertinent questions should be developed that will be asked of all candidates selected for interviews. Follow-up questions or clarifying questions may be different for different candidates because of the respective answers to the original question, but the basic questions should be the same for each person.

If the job requires physical abilities such as lifting a certain weight, or the ability to keyboard at a particular rate, consider testing the individuals for those requirements. There are some who advocate testing in other areas, such as personality or psychological testing. Unfortunately, the jury is still out on these types of tests and many question their validity as predictors of behavior. Many states prohibit these tests.

All of us want to hire honest people to work in our organizations. To this end, some might be tempted to use a lie detector or polygraph test. However, the federal Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA) of 1988 severely restricts the use of polygraph tests for applicants and employees.

Other testing that you might consider includes pre-employment drug testing. There are significant arguments on both sides of this issue, including workplace safety arguments and invasion of privacy. Personally, I am inclined to believe that the health, safety and well being of the employees far outweighs any argument for protecting the individual's privacy.

Additionally, an individual employer must consider that, as more and more companies utilize drug testing as an employment screening, the employer who is not drug testing will end up with the applicants who have been rejected by those employers who are. If you do decide to test for drug use, remember that there are state and federal statutes that govern.

Whatever testing you decide to use, remember that it must be used consistently and the results must be given the same weight for each candidate.

During the interview itself, there are some basic rules that apply. You should be asking open-ended questions that encourage the applicant to provide detailed answers. You should not explain to the interviewee the type of person you are looking for since this gives the candidate clues on how to behave and you may find yourself being told what the candidate thinks you want to hear.

The proverbial 80/20 rule also applies here. You should be doing 20% of the talking and the interviewee 80%. And, of course, you should avoid any questions that deal with age, religion, national origin, marital status, family situations or plans, sexual orientation, etc.

One very effective technique to use is the behaviorally-based interview. Behaviorally-based interviews rely on questions that require the applicant to describe how he or she has behaved in particular situations in the past. This technique is based on the theory that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.

An example of this might be: 'Please describe a situation where you had to deal with an irate customer that you feel you handled well. What did you do that was effective?' Or, 'Please describe a situation that you felt presented an ethical dilemma. How did you resolve the dilemma?'

Behaviorally-based interviews go beyond the traditional exploration of a person's experience. Carefully worded, the questions can provide insight into a person's values and belief system. Hopefully, you have given some serious thought about the values that are important to, and help drive the organization. Ideally you will be looking for individuals to join the company who share those same values. For instance, if you consider yours to be a 'green' organization and your organization's values insist that the company act in an environmentally friendly manner, you would not want to hire individuals who would make profit at the expense of the environment.

Since the perfect candidate does not exist, you may find yourself faced with deciding between technical skills and attitude. If this is the case, I would recommend hiring for attitude. Technical skills always be learned.

One very important aspect of effective interviewing is to avoid both the halo effect and the pitchfork effect. That is, allowing personal bias, either positive or negative, to influence the interview to the point where you are no longer listening objectively. This bias can be based on a number of factors: personal likes and dislikes, first impressions, emotional 'trigger' words, etc.

Bias can also develop when we have received either a particularly good or particularly bad response to one of our interview questions. If we have labeled the candidate as either good or bad early during the interview, then it could affect how we deliver the remainder of our questions, or how we interpret the answers during the remainder of the interview.

Interviews should be balanced. That is, we should seek out information that presents a human being, not a superstar or villain. Returning to the example of the behaviorally-based question about the irate customer, a follow-up question that seeks this balance might be, 'Please describe a situation where you had to deal with an irate customer that you feel you handled ineffectively or poorly. Describe what you did, and then describe how you might have handled it differently and what the outcome might have been.'

Faced with a question such as this, most people will be forthcoming. Some, however, will insist that they have never handled a situation poorly. Your response should be, 'I'm sure that if you take the time to search your memory you will be able to remember such an event. Please take your time. I'm willing to wait.' Your continued silence after this statement will force the candidate to respond, so wait them out.

One last suggestion for effective interviewing is to have multiple interviewers. While this can be accomplished with multiple people in the interview room at the same time, recognize that this may make it uncomfortable for the interviewee, who may feel outnumbered and intimidated. Preferably, the candidate would meet with other interviewers individually. However, if you must have more than one interviewer at a time, at least let the candidate know before they come in for the interview that this will be the case.

Using multiple interviewers allows for more than one opinion and can provide confirmation of either your positive or negative impressions of the candidate.

Background Checks

Now that you have completed the interviews, reviewed your notes and finished discussions with the other interviewers, you can narrow your selection down to two or three candidates. Now for the paradox: I truly believe that the majority of people are honest and forthright. I also assume that the majority of resumes and employment applications contain twisted truths, if not outright lies. I have found this to be true often enough, that I would not chance hiring someone without conducting a thorough reference check and background investigation.

In the past 22 years, I have found people who misrepresented the extent of their experience, omitted from their resumÈs any reference of having been employed by specific companies because of poor employment records, lied about their medical history in pre-employment physicals, lied about criminal convictions, and listed fictitious degrees. I have had people lie to my face during an interview and then tell me that I was being unfair for not hiring them.

If you hire someone without conducting a proper background investigation, you are putting yourself, your company and your employees at risk. And, you deserve exactly what you get. At a minimum, you should confirm all employment records for dates of employment, wages and reasons for leaving, confirm immigration status, investigate criminal background, all diplomas or degrees and dates attended, and any professional licenses or certifications listed.

There are any number of reputable companies that can perform this kind of investigation for a reasonable fee. It is money well spent.

The hiring manager should also conduct a formal reference check with each of the previous employers to find out what kind of an employee the applicant had been. Ideally, the person contacted would be the applicant's former supervisor. This is the time to find out about any attendance or punctuality issues, behavioral problems, motivation, etc. It's also an opportunity to ask if the reference is aware of any reason to question the applicant's honesty or integrity, or if there is any known history of violence. These are important questions and even if the reference lies, you have done due diligence.

Oftentimes you will run into a situation where the person refuses to provide any kind of reference information. When this happens I usually suggest to the person that we are considering hiring the individual and, unfortunately, no response would have to be taken as a negative response and could cost the person the job opportunity. More often than not, this appeal has the desired effect. I have also reminded references that in some situations like violent behavior, the reference may have a legal 'duty to warn' that outweighs the 'no reference' policy.

Making the Decision

You probably have had one candidate in mind over any others and hopefully, the background check will provide confirmation that this would be a good hire. Let's assume that the background check was not so good and there is evidence that the applicant has lied. The next step is to provide the information to the applicant to determine if there is a reasonable explanation. After all, clerical and administrative errors do occur.

Let's say that the university listed could not verify that the applicant had graduated. You should at least allow the applicant the opportunity of providing the original diploma. Of course, if they cannot, then you don't have many options. Do not hire a liar!

There is no other way to say it. If, after allowing the applicant the opportunity to explain, you have reasonable cause to believe that he or she has lied, then explain to the applicant that you have a policy of not hiring people who falsify resumes or applications, and move on to your number-two choice.

The toughest situations to deal with are ones where the person did not admit to a criminal conviction on the application, but one was revealed during the background check. Even if you fully understand and empathize with the person's reluctance to reveal the conviction for fear that he or she won't be hired, do not hire the person who has lied. You are not penalizing the person for their criminal history, but for their current lie.

Once you have decided on a candidate, send a letter of hire that outlines the conditions of employment, start date, salary, benefits, etc. Make it business like, but friendly, and include a warm welcome and wishes for a successful career. Be careful, however, of wording that might create an expectation in the mind of the new employee that you are unable to fulfill, such as calling the new person a 'permanent' employee.

Introducing the New Hire To the Organization

Hiring smart is not limited to the steps involved in the selection process. Hiring smart includes paying attention to how the person is assimilated into the organization. Make sure that there is someone assigned as a 'buddy' to assist the new employee in learning the culture and everyday procedures.

Introduce him or her to co-workers and others and provide an orientation to the job and the organization, being careful not to include too much information too fast. It takes time to adjust to a new position and it is difficult to retain an overload of information given on the first day. Ensure that the new employee has been properly enrolled in the appropriate benefit plans and that any benefits concerns have been addressed.

Provide opportunities for the new employee to ask questions and raise concerns. Ensure that necessary training has been identified and that a formal program has been developed to address the training needs.

Provide feedback, frequently and consistently. Let the person know how they are doing. Praise them for accomplishments and redirect and provide the necessary assistance when improvement is needed. In short, pay lots of attention to your new hire. After all, if you have followed the process for hiring smart, you have invested significant time and resources in this person.

Hiring smart is all about finding and hiring the best person for the job. Hiring smart is all about stacking the deck in your favor so that risk is minimized. Most importantly, hiring smart is all about keeping those good people once you find them.

Andrew Coutermarsh has an MS in management from Antioch University/Antioch New England Graduate School where he also is a member of the adjunct faculty, teaching human resource development and an advisor for student practicum projects. He holds SPHR (Senior Professional Human Resources) designation from the Certification Institute of the Society of Human Resource Management. He has spent the past 20+ years in the human resources profession and currently is director of human resources for Prime Resources Corp.