A friend and I were recently having a funny discussion about the perils of hiring staff when you don’t actually know a lot about hiring. We began joking about performing an intelligence test as well as a test for technological comprehension and how it’s needed in this day and age, depending on the company’s expectations.
While we all know there are things you can not ask a candidate, I’ve found that some interviewers make the mistake of talking too much, and listening very little. In any typical interview, you could easily listen for cues as to positive character traits as the applicant speaks throughout the interview process.
For years I was involved in a lot of different types of hiring, but mainly it was retail related hiring. Occasionally, I would travel to new cities and have to do a lot of hiring, firing, restructuring and some super intensive power training for a couple of the retail chains that I worked for.
Before that, I worked in the office of my father’s construction related company during my college years and watched him make hiring mistake after hiring mistake…all were very costly. That is where I first learned the importance of hiring more on the basis of integrity than for skill set. The bookkeeper was embezzling, the shop mechanic was being paid by a competitor to sabotage our trucking equipment as part of a hostile takeover attempt by a competitor, one salesman would turn in dinner expense receipts for Sunday brunch with his girlfriend and her child, another salesman was getting paid by us, but selling jobs to our competitor. Basically, we were losing thousands of dollars per month just from internal issues.
People with integrity sometimes fail to realize that everyone does not also possess it. They often make the mistake to assume that everyone is like them. It is the number one thing I look for in the hiring process, Integrity or lack thereof. My father based his hiring on skill set alone as opposed to worrying with the issue of integrity. Lack of integrity can do you in, and put you under.
My husband and I debate on this issue all the time, as he typically has an innate tendency to believe the best in every person who comes along, wanting to work for his tennis coaching business, or do some sort of partnership. I am the one who has to run background intel and then beg him to understand that when a person lies, and claims to have a Masters degree or years of in depth experience…this is going to be a bad hiring experience.
I’ve been right 100% of the time. It’s taken him years to understand that I developed the hiring skill after years and years of experience. Poor choices can cost you a lot of profits, and even tank your business. It doesn’t matter what type of employee you are seeking, integrity is always a key component.
In training managers on the top things to look for to be able to hire at a winning ratio (with a very small fail rate) I developed a list of the top 5 things to measure during an interview. I had originally shared theses thoughts in a Hiring and Succession planning class with my company. I thought I would share these facets of hiring with the universe since it’s a topic that continually gets brought up over the years as friends call with horror stories of bad hires.
In each case, if we retrace the initial interview, we can usually see the red flags that were overlooked. In most cases, we find that the red flags were there, the hiring manager just didn’t take heed. The common applicant is not typically skilled enough to hide the fact that they are a train wreck about to happen, so it’s up to the hiring manager to hire smart.
The funny thing is, as detrimental as hiring the right person can be to a company, I’ve noticed that 24 year olds, with 2 years of work experience have been doing initial interviews for big companies. A system is usually set in place in which the executive level manager is the last person that gets to see the final applicant pool, after it’s already been weeded down by lesser level employees. This makes no sense. Hiring is one of the most important jobs a company has within itself. Attempting to function well in the workplace without good quality people is hell. So enough with the ridiculous questions that you got out of that hiring manual! Have a real conversation styled interview and get to know the candidate.
Here are my 6 top hiring points to consider while interviewing and assessing your next candidate;
- STABILITY OF PERSONAL LIFE
I know that you are constantly told that an employee’s personal life is none of your business, but it is the number one indicator of what you’re inviting into your workplace. Do you really think that a candidate with a problem riddled, unstable personal life is going to have any workplace stability? Usually not. While you never ask a candidate the specifics of their personal life, they usually spell it out for you throughout the interview. “I moved here” “then I moved there” “then I moved here,” unless it was specifically to grow for work or school related progress, most conservative people think twice before pulling up stakes and moving from state to state. I’ve found that those who are grounded, are grounded in every aspect of their lives. Another great question to ask is, “Do you have any pets?” It seems as if some of the most responsible people, are those who have had a pet for an extended period of time. A pet is work, and commitment. It’s a good sign as to a person’s follow through and level of commitment. I absolutely hate it when a candidate finds a way to mention an “ex” during an interview. Ugh. Turn off. Look for any signs of stability, follow through and commitment. While it is inappropriate to pry, it is appropriate to listen and allow the candidate to feel free to share whatever they feel important. You should be hoping for a candidate with a positive mindset in respect to any mention of their personal life.
2. INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY
Ask you ask a candidate what they enjoy in their spare time, or about hobbies and interests…look for signs of Intellectual Curiosity. Do they know or care anything about the world? Politics? New tax code? Do they know who Dr Ben Carson is? They don’t have to like him, but just knowing who a person like Ben Carson is, shows signs of life at the intellectual level. Even possessing a desire to know what is going on in the Universe, outside of one’s own bubble, is a good indicator as to the level of intelligence you are dealing with. I have friends who don’t like to read or do not wish to know anything going on in the universe. They watch stupid cat or dog trick videos on You Tube in their spare time as a hobby. These people can still be great workers, but will be limited in growth potential. A college degree is not an accurate summation of intelligence in many cases. I know a person with a Psychology degree who is unemployable, dumb as a rock, and a recipient of disability due to his inability to function at a level deemed sane. I’ve had degreed individuals unable to figure their sales commission earned. Possessing no inner desire for knowledge is a key indicator of intelligence. Sorry, but typically you want a person who is self motivated to excel and do well in the workplace. Intellectually interested people generally are also self motivated to excel. Having interests in something outside of oneself is a key indicator of a person who will want to learn and grow at work, and typically intellectual curiosity is a true indicator of intelligence. Think about it…how smart could you be if you care nothing about the world that you live in and will a person like this be a good investment for your company?
3. HEALTHY MENTAL STATUS
Mental health can never be under appreciated in the work place. People often endure stressful situations at work. Do you want people that get rattled easily and can’t handle their emotions well in the workplace? A good way to test for one’s ability to cope with stress, is to ask simple questions during the course of your conversation, such as “How bad was the traffic on your way here? Did it bother you? Have you ever taken a road trip by yourself? Oh, really? Where did you go?” “Do you ever go out to dinner alone?”
As your conversation blossoms and your candidate begins to feel more comfortable with you, you will easily see and hear things like he/she is uncomfortable with driving out of town alone, traffic rattles them, they are comfortable keeping life very simple, in the box. What you are looking for is a sign that a person may be emotionally fragile. I’m sorry, but if a person gets freaked out by eating dinner out alone occasionally, they will have trouble being outgoing, which may be needed in certain work situations. As an employer, sometimes flexibility is expected of your employees. Generally, fragile people are not flexible. Any little kink to their regimen undermines their emotional stability.
It would also prove fruitful to be mindful of the individual’s personal filter or lack thereof. If a person is not able to remain within professional boundaries, it’s usually a sign of issues. Too much expressed emotion during a first meet will typically be an indicator of one who has emotions they can’t keep in check. If you are too controlling of the direction that the interview goes, you won’t get a chance to really hear and experience the individual. If they begin to run at the mouth, and can’t quit spilling their guts…good, you get to experience and learn more. This is what an interview is all about. You need to get a feel for the real, inner person you are interviewing. Real conversation is a good way to see through the interview persona people often put on.
A self aware and mindful person will shut up and wait for the next question. It’s best to have a true conversation with a candidate and get the clear picture before the hire, so you can decide if they will be a fit for you. Poor mental health is a bitch in the workplace. It’s also a Protected Class. Once it’s in, it can be disruptive to all. That’s why it’s very important to insure you are hiring correctly for the job and insuring that the candidate is a fit for the position and will be able to perform the tasks involved. Just sayin.
4. NATURALLY ORGANIZED
A good type of question to ask in an effort to get a true picture as to an individual’s natural organization level, is to simply ask, “Tell me about a typical day for you?”
A great candidate would reply, “ I get up at 6am every day because I make my husband breakfast and we walk the dog together before he goes to work. Then I have my free hour at my computer desk, where I read the news, check my emails, pay any bills if needed and peek at Pinterest for a few minutes before hitting the shower. I stop every morning at my corner Starbucks to get my skinny vanilla latte and I make it into work every day at 8:30. I take a bag lunch Monday thru Thursday, and eat out for a fancy lunch on Fridays! I’m usually home by 6. I force myself to hit the gym 4 days a week, unless something important is going on. I’m not going to lie though, I do give myself an hour of trashy reality T.V. before going to bed!” (I actually know someone who says all of this, except with the addition of every detail of every calorie she takes in for the day as well.)
The point here, is not so much that she goes to the gym. The point is the ritualism. Ritualism is in effect…organization. She has to have her morning coffee at her special stop, the dog gets walked with the spouse ritualistically every morning. She allows herself a free hour of relaxing, trashy reality T.V. and this shows she controls time well and has organization as a natural trait. When people do things in a certain way and time frame, they do so to insure they have peace of mind in that they accomplished their daily tasks. Don’t ever bother to ask a person if they are self motivated and organized in an interview, of course they will say yes. Again, have a conversation and learn who you’re talking to.
5. INTEGRITY
Integrity is the number one thing I look for in candidates. An employee with a lack of integrity will get you every time. Integrity, however, is probably the hardest component to measure in a new candidate. This is a conversation my husband and I go round and round over, when discussing whether or not to hire someone for the tennis management business he runs (with my expertise.) Other than having an at-length, conversation styled interview with people, what else can be done to measure integrity? Check people out. About 6 months ago, an individual approached my husband about doing a little partnership together. I researched the man, and discovered he had lied about having a Master’s Degree. His entire LinkedIn resume was a twisted fabrication. He also was caught with other lies and it was apparent that he had a Napoleon complex. He sought to make every word than came from his mouth paint a portrait of overwhelming fabulousness. Obvious issues. I was done with the possibility of working with him after that. (There’s a whole lot more to the story, but I will omit it here, but basically, it ended poorly.) My view is that people that lie are dangerous in the workplace. I know quite a few people who have careers based on complete fabrications. That’s alarming to me, and I want people with no moral code to be nowhere around me. If people lie about who they are and where they’ve been, then why expect honesty and morality in any other venue?
On the flip side, I’ve hired people with admittedly limited experience, trained them, promoted them and respected them, and was rewarded to see their careers grow, and they also helped me to be successful in my jobs as we worked together. Integrity is everything. I’ve rarely been disappointed by a person of integrity.
6. TECHNOLOGICAL APTITUDE
Since it is now 2015, I have to add a sixth key indicator for hiring well. Depending on your type of business, you’ll probably need people who have some measure of technological ability. Ask your candidate which social media accounts they use, or even what type of cell phone they use. That can be a huge indicator of their tech aptitude. The odds are absolutely zero, that an individual has a flip phone, but has enough tech savvy to do anything more than check an email account here or there. Do they know what Skype is? Have they used it? Do they pay their bills online? Depending on the expectations involved with the position you are hiring for, perhaps you want to discuss SEO or social media networking ideas just to get a clear and accurate picture of your candidate’s real level and understanding of today’s technology. You may think that people can be easily trained, but some people have learning road blocks, so be sure to hire people who will be able to meet your expectations.
I promise that if you begin to follow this hiring formula for any industry, you will see better retention, more in house promotion, and an improved bottom line for your company if your staffing decisions improve. Continuous trainings of new staff can be costly, and let’s face it…it’s embarrassing when your hiring skills are questioned due to a really bad hire here and there! Too many bad hires in the same business at the same time, can take down your empire. I’ve seen it.
It’s worth mentioning that some of these qualities are also helpful when considering future friends and mates!
