[HR Issues] 10 Ways To Improve Your Hiring

From coffee shops to corporate conglomerates, employers instinctively know that locating and securing the right employee for any position can be a daunting task. The moment a vacancy occurs in an organization, it is often a race against the clock to fill the open spot with the perfect person — someone with an identifiable set of skills, a willingness to learn and grow and a strong work ethic.

To produce such results, hiring managers often expend their most precious resources — time and money. In many cases you need to fill a position that has unexpectedly come open due to an employee leaving. Perhaps the former employee was dismissed from the company. Maybe he or she left on his own but gave little advance warning, which means you have less time to perform an adequate transition process. Perhaps the employee was a vital member of the organization, someone with deep institutional knowledge that served faithfully in advancing the company’s objectives. Regardless, the longer the position remains vacant, the more the company stands to lose.

Hiring managers are faced with an important question when they are charged with hiring new personnel. How can they ensure that they’ll get the best person for the job? Building reliability and confidence in your hiring procedures involves a series of crucial steps, and it begins even before the vacancy occurs.

Know and Understand the Job. To hire the right person, you must fully understand their job, the tasks they will be required to perform, and the skills necessary to succeed both in the position and the overall role in the organization. A valid and defensible selection system must include only those selection tools that are related to the job. If the job involves heavy lifting or driving to and from accounts, you need to ensure that these skills are figured into the selection process. If the job requires analytical skills, this must also be considered.

Begin the Selection Process Immediately. Your best employee just informed you that she received an offer that couldn’t be refused. Out of respect for you and for the company, she is giving you three week’s notice before she leaves the organization and has told you that she is happy to work closely with you on any transitional issues — transfer of duties, sharing knowledge about relevant job responsibilities, etc. This is the optimal situation.

Sometimes, you are faced with the opposite circumstance. An employee walks into the office and says today is his last day. He offers little explanation, and you are faced with searching for and identifying a qualified candidate to fill a now open position.

Whether it is only a few hours or a number of weeks, take advantage of whatever time is available. Quite often, organizations receive advanced warning that a key employee is leaving, but they wait until the last minute to find someone who will replace him. Waste no time in beginning the selection process. This includes planning for new hires as part of a start-up or expansion initiative. When it comes to volume hiring, planning the selection process can take anywhere from several months to one to two years. If you launch the process early, you may effectively minimize any potential service interruption for your customers or loss in productivity for the company in general.

Conduct Informed, Strategic Recruiting. First and foremost, you must have a clear picture of the position by developing a comprehensive job profile. This would include a full job description, an articulation of the core competencies required to fulfill the duties of the job, how much the job will pay, what benefits will be offered, and any unique job requirements, such as heavy travel schedule or shift work that may vary from day to day or week to week, etc. These relevant issues must be addressed in the early stages of the recruiting process.

The next step is to determine the most cost-effective method of creating a qualified applicant pool in a short period of time. Sometimes, the best plan of action is to employ several different methods. Placing an ad in the local newspaper or on a local radio station will garner attention for local entry-level and some mid-level positions. Using the Internet or online bulletin boards is a proven way to increase national and international applicant awareness for many salaried level jobs. You may also want to consider using organizations within the community. Your network of colleagues may be able to refer qualified candidates.

Streamline the Initial Screening Process. You have settled on a job description and salary. You have identified the core competencies necessary to be successful at the job. You have even embarked on an aggressive recruiting process. What should you do when the applications and resumes start rolling in? What should you do if your phone begins ringing constantly with candidates who have questions or want to know if they are under consideration?

Consider implementing an initial screening process that quickly assesses a candidate’s abilities and determines if he or she should be advanced to the next stage in the hiring process. Cost-effective methods include the use of an interactive voice response (IVR) system, an automated telephone application tool, or a similar Web-based tool. Candidates use a touch-tone telephone or the Internet to complete a 10-minute application process, saving you precious time. Some IVR and Web-based application products also offer candidates the opportunity to automatically schedule themselves for the next step in the hiring process if they successfully pass the initial application stage. Again, this saves your hiring manager precious time and pre-qualifies candidates who deserve a closer look with minimal touch points.

Perform the Motivational Test. Once you have developed a qualified pool of applicants, it is time to thin the herd. One way to do so is to perform a motivational fit test on candidates. Determine if they are interested in performing the tasks and fulfilling the responsibilities associated with the job. Find out if they have a work ethic similar to the standard developed by your organization. See if they react positively to the work environment you have established, the expectations your organization places on its employees, and the compensation package you have identified for the job.

Studies show that motivational fit is the single biggest predictor of absenteeism, turnover and overall employee satisfaction. People whose beliefs and value systems are consistent with the organization will feel connected to the company and vested in its success. If they are satisfied in their positions and pleased with their compensation, they will be more productive. Your company will be more productive as well.

Check for Crucial Skills. From garbage collectors and landscapers to corporate executives, we all must make a series of important decisions each day. In most cases, we must also interact with others to get the job done. When it is time to hire someone new for the organization, you must determine if that person has both interpersonal skills and problem-solving skills.

Use structured behavioral interviews and validated testing to answer the following candidate questions:

• Does this person display a pleasant demeanor and a willingness or ability to interact in a positive, productive way with others? Can he/she serve effectively as a member of a team?

• Does this person engage in socially acceptable discussion?

• Does he/she avoid acting defensively? Does he/she have a tendency to be confrontational?

• Can this person understand the cause-effect relationship between certain circumstances?

• Does this person have the ability to make a sound, reasonable decision after evaluating a variety of information?

• Can this person find his/her way to the root cause of a problem and solve it?

• Can he/she evaluate risks and opportunities effectively?

A Cutter, a Maintainer, or a Builder? At work, most people fit into one of these three categories. Builders are highly motivated, proactive, honest, committed to an organization and display high levels of energy. Maintainers are dependable, but they tend to focus on the task at hand. They’ll get the job done, but they’re not necessarily interested in advancement or promotion. Cutters tend to be cynical or negative. They complete the minimum amount of work necessary to avoid detection, they make excuses for their shortcomings, and they often blame others for something that has gone wrong.

Conducting a behavioral interview can help you determine which title effectively describes a candidate you are reviewing. Create specific scenarios that the person might have encountered in a previous job, and ask him to tell you how he handled the situation. Concrete examples will help you categorize your candidate and determine if he deserves further consideration.

Perform Background Check. Companies in many industries are facing more and more negligent hiring lawsuits. If your employee hurts someone, your company could be held liable. It could cost you thousands of dollars and ruin the reputations of other people in your organization involved in the hiring process. Research shows that up to 70 percent of people lie on either an application or in the interview process. Protect yourself by conducting a background check, which in some industries is required by federal and state law.

Consider Medical and Drug Screenings. Certain pest control jobs require physical strength or stamina. Without a medical examination, you have no way of knowing whether a person has an existing medical condition or a former medical condition that would prevent them from getting the job done.

Employees who use illicit drugs bring a host of problems with them. Almost all Fortune 200 companies conduct pre-employment drug screenings. Consider implementing this step in your hiring process as a safeguard.

Document the Process. You may never be placed in a position where you must legally defend your hiring practices or procedures, but this should not prevent you from preparing for that possibility. Ensure that you have documented evidence demonstrating that your hiring process is fair, nondiscriminatory and job related. It may save you thousands of dollars in legal costs and protect the company’s overall reputation and brand.

The author is co-founder and executive vice president of Select International (www.select
international.com) and author of the best-selling book, "Hiring Great People."