DEAR WW: I’m about to hire my first batch of new employees. What are the most important things to remember as I go through the hiring process? BRING ‘EM ON
DEAR BRING:
I always try to remember the Tony Hinrichs rule when I think about hiring new employees. Mr. Hinrichs came to my attention when he was arrested for burglary of the Extreme Surveillance shop in Arizona. I read about him in the “News of the Weird.” Yep, it never crossed his mind that the security firm might actually use its own products. He was identified and convicted based on the surveillance video that was made of him burglarizing the store.
The big-brother philosophy is one that you should adopt when you conduct a job interview. Try to imagine that the interview is being recorded and everything you say can, and probably will, come back to haunt you. I’ve included the major mistakes that most organizations make during the hiring process below. For more, check out “Top Grading” by Bradford Smart (Portfolio, 2005).
Do you avoid asking illegal questions? Most interviewers would love to know everything that they can about the potential job candidate. The problem is that there are a bunch of questions that are illegal to ask — questions about kids, age, religion, etc. Two simple rules, know what you can’t ask and don’t ask it.
Do you cover all aspects of employment with your company? A job interview is an effort to screen the candidates to bring in the best talent. But it’s also an important opportunity to explain what employment with your company will really be like. For example, if you are an employment-at-will company, and most are, it’s important to tell the candidate during the interview.
Do you give the candidate back-up materials on employment with your company? Brochures, annual reports and a personnel manual can all be very helpful to share with a potential employee.
Do you avoid making promises that you are not authorized to make? Job candidates tend to have long memories when it comes to promises made in a job interview. Wouldn’t you remember if you were told you’d get frequent raises, increases in responsibility or access to perks? It’s about more than getting in trouble with the law for making promises you can’t keep. You are potentially creating problems down the road by making promises that you, or your company, can’t keep. If the employee feels that you misrepresented what would be coming to them in the future, you’ll have problems with them as long as they work for the company.
Do you avoid getting too comfortable during the interview? Mr. Smart believes that it is dangerous for an interviewer to get too comfortable with a candidate. Professionalism and a bit of formality during the job interview is the safest way to stay out of trouble.
Lucky for you the job interviews you conduct won’t be taped. But you must act like they are or face the consequences. Happy hiring.
Working Wounded poll:
How would you rate the job interviewers that you’ve had during your career?
- Excellent, 20
- Mediocre, 55 percent
- Terrible, 25 percent
Working Wounded strategy:
Our winning strategy for hiring comes from D.D. in Boston:
“I think the biggest problem in hiring is not illegal questions but having a bias toward a particular candidate. I found that I would ask easier questions if I liked a person and tougher if I didn’t. Now I have a list of standard questions and try to treat every one equally. It’s not as much fun, but it’s really helped me to do a much better job of finding great talent for my company.”
Bob Rosner is a best-selling author, speaker and internationally syndicated columnist. Sherrie Campbell is a relationship and business professional, having applied her counseling background in a variety of challenging organizational settings. They’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic, especially if you have better ideas than they do. Also check out their complete column archive at workmash.org, “The Boss’s Survival Guide” and “Gray Matters: The workplace survival guide.” Send your questions or comments to bob@workmash.org.
Filed under: Hiring, Managing & Leadership
