Have you ever made a bad hiring decision? Unfortunately, if you have been a hiring manager for any length of time, the answer is YES. And you may be trying to figure out what went wrong in the process. You worked incredibly hard advertising, collecting resumes, pre-screening, and scheduling interviews. You found the person with seemingly the right qualifications. His resume, education and experience, were perfect. You held multiple interviews; everyone liked him. You took the time to check references and it seemed there were no smoking guns to be found. But once he reported to work and began to settle into his routine, the honeymoon quickly ended. Deadlines were missed, quality was lacking, you had to spend way too much time hand-holding, and when you tried to help, he didn’t accept your “coaching.” There was too much drama and the end result was that you finally had to let him go, dealing with all the fallout a termination can bring, as well as starting the hiring process all over again.
Does this scenario sound familiar? Bringing the right people into your organization is one of the most important things you do as a leader. We all know how important a top performer is to a company’s overall performance. Likewise, we know all too well the consequences of hiring a poor performer. According to a Forbes article, the cost of a bad hire can exceed $100,000. Yet a majority of companies surveyed say finding and retaining qualified talent is an ongoing challenge and concern.
So how do you remove some of the risk from such a critical leadership responsibility? You may have an excellent process in place for hiring: sourcing, phone interviews, in-person interviews, and references, all before closing the deal. We all have stories of people who interview well or of references that gloss over the truth, accentuating the positive and ignoring the negative. How can you effectively avoid a hit-and-miss hiring process and hire with confidence?
People are hired for what they know, and fired for who they are. How true! One way to dig deeper is to get the candidate talking during the interview. Your goal should be for the candidate to do 80% of the speaking during the interview. To take that one step further, ask open ended questions, which require more than a yes or no response. For example, you might ask, “At this point in your career, what would you consider your greatest achievement and why?” Or, “What was the biggest work-related conflict you ever faced and how did you handle it?” Develop a list of questions you find helpful, keep it updated, and use it! After you ask, stay quiet. Although it may be slightly uncomfortable, allow the candidate a reasonable amount of time to answer and don’t answer for him. Let him think about, even struggle with, his answers and listen carefully to what they share.
Another proven method is to build in personal assessments to your hiring process. There are many good assessment tools available; most are cost effective, can be administered online ensuring timely results, and are validated for DOLI / legal requirements. These assessments provide you, the hiring manager, with critical insights into how the candidate thinks, makes decisions, is motivated, and is likely to behave once on the job. You can then use this information in a number of ways, such as determining if the person will work well with your team members and if his values align with those of your company.
One of the greatest mistakes made when hiring is rushing through the process. While it is easy to be tempted to quickly fill a position and resume business as usual, consider the obstacles created if the person hired were to be the wrong fit. Take your time and use the tools available to find the right person for your team. It will be time very well-spent.
If you have questions or are interested in learning more about effective interview techniques or how assessments can benefit you and your organization, contact Terry Keffer at terry@consultkeffer.com or call 540-815-3139.
Terry is a business consultant with 20+ years of experience in the construction industry. He specializes in Strategic Planning, Leadership Development, HR Essentials and ESOPs and is an AGCVA member.