Is our hiring process reactive?

Today many recruiters and hiring managers simply react when someone quits, retires, or gets fired. We post an ad, interview, and hope we’ve hired the right person.  Usually, hiring mistakes result when we focus too much on the person who left and let our biases lead us astray. We tend to look for someone who is similar or dissimilar to the person we’re replacing, and we fail to base our decisions on objective data.

To make matter worse, as creatures of habit we rely on the same old processes. They’re easy to fall back on when we don’t take the time to strategically assess where we are today and what we need to do to be successful tomorrow.

To become proactive, we need to infuse objectivity into the selection process upfront, before the interview process begins. The better-quality information we obtain from qualified tools, the better our hiring decisions.  Such objectivity requires a new mindset, a mindfulness of what we are doing and why.  For more on this subject, see my article Easily Infuse Objectivity Early in Your Hiring System. (http://wp.me/p2POui-nj)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2014

Hiring biases cost you money.

Today, many recruiters are complaining about not finding qualified candidates. Yet candidates with the credentials and required experience never hear back after applying for opportunities. Or, if they are interviewed, they’re told they are overqualified, don’t have a particular skill set, or don’t have the right pedigree (e.g., industry experience, professional titles, salary history, etc.).

Age does matter. Although the EEO and other agencies frown upon age discrimination, we all know it happens all too often. Recruiters are simply following edicts from their bosses to find someone younger and cheaper. They don’t know how to “sell” a qualified candidate to these bosses. Bosses and recruiters don’t believe they have the time to strategically assess what is truly needed and are unwilling to think outside the box to find the gold. Statistically, younger employees are more job-mobile and will leave a position when more qualified ones will not. More-experienced employees have been through the instability every company experiences and have learned to roll up their sleeves and wait it out.

Here’s a newsflash: Amateurs don’t save companies money! A well-qualified professional who fits the job, regardless of age, can normally do it faster, more thoroughly, and with better quality than someone without experience. The failure by hiring managers to objectively assess for job fit by using qualified assessments can hinder your company’s ability to select the right employees. The truth is poor job fit will create short-term employees or employees who simply do enough to get by and keep their paychecks but no more. It’s a costly status quo with a limited return on investment, because it keeps your company focus in a reactive mode, not on proactive growth.

Filter and invest. Infuse objective data into the process upfront, before the interview, because quality information will make for better decisions. Interviews are inherently biased and can filter out well-qualified candidates because of bias factors (e.g., age, weight, tattoos, gray hair, bald, etc.). Example: If you’re looking for a trainer and have candidates who have done training, talk with them. Use a qualified assessment to determine if they have an interest in presenting the subject matter required. What training and skill development will they need over time? Will they be comfortable in small or large groups? Can they write training content or do they rely on off-the-shelf programs? What will be the best return on investment for the company in the long run? What other skills are currently missing in the company that they can provide?

Remember, using qualified assessments can make a huge difference in vetting the right people, regardless of experience. Hiring qualified people, regardless of age and other biases, and investing in them builds a stronger company faster.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Are your hiring practices sane?

Recent research data revealed by Google’s head of HR, Laszlo Bock, showed that brainteaser interview questions, unstructured interviews, student GPAs or test scores, and conducting more than four interviews all had little or no predictive value for success of job candidates! (http://www.ere.net/tags/backgroundchecking) Designing a simple yet predictive hiring system means thinking through your approach from the both sides of the desk: the applicant’s and the hiring manager’s. Infuse objectivity early in your process (http://wp.me/p2POui-nj) and use qualified assessments with high predictive values to help determine job fit. For other ideas, get your copy of “Hire Amazing Employees.” (http://BizSavvyHire.com)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

 

 

GPAs are not good success predictors

Many companies today rely on applicants’ GPAs from high school or college as an objective indicator to predict their success on the job. Unfortunately, knowledge does not mean you know how to use information effectively in a business setting. There are street-smart individuals with lower GPAs who will trump those with book smarts in achieving the intended results. Why? Many street-smart people know how to work with and through others to solicit the 90 percent of information not found in books or on the Internet. Using qualified assessments can objectively help you determine if a person’s thinking style will fit the job you need to have done. (http://BizSavvyHire.com)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Making the Same Hiring Mistakes?

When you keep making the same hiring mistakes over and over, it’s costly and very time consuming. You lose credibility with your staff and clients. It’s time to stop and get help. You have a misperception of potential employees’ work experience, skills, and/or job fit required. With clarification and by learning new ways to interview, how to use qualified assessments, and how to improve your due diligence processes, you can improve your hiring results. (BizSavvyHire.com)  Hopefully, it won’t be too late to rebuild your credibility.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Helpful Hint:

Job ads with trite sound-bites fail to attract, e.g., great opportunity and work hard. Learn how-to attract the right employees: http://BizSavvyHire.com

 

 

 

 

Easily Infuse Objectivity Early In Your Hiring System

Did you know that requesting applicants to email or mail you resumes is outdated? Or that over 50 percent of resumes stretch the truth? Yet many companies rely solely on this data to select candidates for interviews—a poor selection practice. By doing so, they shortchange the goal of collecting good objective, valid, and reliable data in order to net truly qualified applicants.

Your hiring system speaks volumes: it’s the first impression many have of your business. Failure to utilize current technology has savvy job seekers questioning if you are a leader—or could be—in your industry. Failure to follow-up and communicate applicant status frustrates many. Top performers wish to work with winning bosses and companies that respect their time and efforts.

Using a well-designed applicant tracking system (ATS) is cost effective and allows you to post job ads and showcase your company, products, and services. It attracts qualified candidates, operates without paper, and helps you vet applicants, saving hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars. When strategically planned and followed, an ATS infuses objectivity into your hiring system early on.

Time-saving keys for ATS:

1) Require that an application form be completed. It minimizes truth-stretching (e.g., inaccurate job titles, job duties, company names, dates of employment, and titles).

2) Incorporate pre-screen questions and core value assessments to ensure objective, valid, and reliable data is used to select candidates for the next steps while weeding out unqualified ones.

3) Automatically thank applicants and make it easier to communicate with them. It’s critical to remember your applicants are future clients, vendors, suppliers, and decision-makers for awarding contracts. You want them to have a positive impression of your company. (Read Hire Amazing Employees, Second Edition for further time-saving ideas, available at BizSavvyHire.com.)

All ATSs are not all created equal. Factors to consider when choosing your ATS (taken from Hire Amazing Employees):

  • User-friendly sites can be reached within one or two clicks from the social media site or the job posting. Busy professionals need to be enticed the moment they read your online ad; most will not return—even if they have the best of intentions to do so. Make it easy for them to apply and for you to receive their information in order to infuse objectivity in your decision-making process.
  • Is there a fee for posting your openings on the ATS site?
  • What is the cost for setup and maintenance of the site?
  • Can the application form, job posting, and other pertinent information be customized?
  • Will it notify interested applicants of future positions? (That’s a great way to keep your candidate pool filled.)
  • Do your job openings easily post to job boards?
  • Can you collect EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) information? Tracking may be required if you have any government contracts (or if you are a subcontractor).
  • Is there a human verification process to reduce spam? This process prevents hackers from completing your application form and blasting resumes to you.
  • Is it easy to communicate with candidates inside the system and generate automated notifications (e.g., completion of application, request for interviews, etc.)?

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013 All Rights Reserved

Want an award-winning ATS to attract amazing employees to your company? Click here

Jeannette Seibly has been hiring amazing employees for over 34 years. She delivers straight talk with immediate results to business owners and executives of $1MM to $30MM enterprises, achieving dynamic results. You may contact her at JLSeibly@SeibCo.com to discuss your hiring challenges. Get her newest book, Hire Amazing Employees, Second Edition: Improve Your Profits (and Your Work Life)! http://BizSavvyHire.com It includes templates for interviews and reference checking.

 

Avoid Costly Hiring Blunders

Many business owners and executives often find hiring a painful process. A challenge they hate. As a result, they rely heavily on the interview as a major decisive factor, which only provides hiring success a shocking 14% of the time! Sadly, this creates costly hiring blunders. They often forget to include other equally important indicators in their hiring decision process. The goal of any hiring system? Collect enough of the right information to make solid decisions.

Applicant Tracking System can help you attract great candidates and simultaneously provide factual details of their past employment, education and skills. Select a tracking system that is user friendly and can be reached within one or two clicks from social media sites or other venues. The beauty of these systems is you capture their attention now and have them complete the application form at the same time. Remember this important distinction: a resume is a marketing tool, but an application is a legal document that requires actual dates of employment, salary and titles, to name but a few of the facts provided, that all help you make better-informed decisions.

Qualified Assessments allow us to see the whole person. Nearly 90% of a candidate’s true self is frequently camouflaged by resumes which selectively depict a person’s education, skills and job experience. That true self is often further camouflaged by the strength of an interviewer’s skills. Avoid these pitfalls by selecting assessment tools that meet the Department of Labor’s guidelines. This is important because you want to be sure the quality of the results actually reflects the job fit of the person you are interviewing, for both the present and the future. Remember, we often hire for perceived job skills and in the end, fire for a poor job fit.

Full Due Diligence requires conducting background checks, real reference checks and collection of other pertinent information. Be sure to have more than one final candidate.When you only have one candidate, you are more likely to rationalize why it won’t make a difference, many times to the detriment of the enterprise. Too often employers select only one and after it’s too late, find out something they hadn’t discovered earlier. The bottom line is … you can pay now to conduct a proper assessment process, or pay later in loss of business, increase in litigation or theft of data, money or proprietary information if you’ve hired the wrong person. You decide.

Join us on Thursday, September 13 @ 9:00 a.m. MDT (11 a.m. EDT/8 a.m. PDT): Hiring Refresher for Busy Bosses http://wp.me/pN8WG-97  Find out more about how to effectively use the above-mentioned tools to make better informed hiring decisions.

 “Hiring Amazing Employees” eBook is available at http://BizSavvyHire.com

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2012