10 Ways to Spot the Ones You Should Avoid

Often our panic to fill a vacant role is driven by the fear that reduced staffing levels will negatively impact our customers, increase our own workload and ultimately impact our business’s results. However there can be some hefty costs associated with a poor recruitment decision so what can we do to ensure we pick the good ones and spot the ones we should avoid? Here are a few hints:

  1. If you have doubts – don’t appoint. Trust that gut feeling - if it feels wrong, it probably is.
  2. Have someone else phone the applicants to arrange the interviews and get their feedback. It is incredible how some applicants will behave if they think they are talking to a ‘junior’ employee.
  3. Have others interview the applicant with you. If possible have one person not asking any questions – their job is to just observe and listen. It is amazing the additional information you can pick up if you are not concerning yourself about what the next question is.
  4. Ask the applicant why they want to leave their current position. Is their motivation a pull to your vacancy, or a push from their current role? You want someone who wants to work for you, not someone desperate to leave another employer and you are their escape route.
  5. Get the team they will be working in to take the applicant for a coffee. In this more social setting the team will pick up on traits not seen in the interview.
  6. We know we should check references, but also check who the referees are. Are they the direct managers of the employee and recent? If not, asked the applicant if you can contact these people. If they say no, alarm bells should be ringing.
  7. Written references are of little value – follow up with a phone call.
  8. Ask tough questions. Don’t be afraid to dig deep at the interview. After answering a question delve further by asking ‘why’, or ‘what did you learn from that experience?’
  9. It is interesting to note psychopaths are great interviewees, being master manipulators combined with charm, and the incidence of psychopathy among CEOs is about four times what it is in the population at large.[1]
  10. Remember recruitment is not an exact science. The more selection tools you use, the greater the probability you will make a good choice.

 

To learn more, come along to our next 1-hour Tutorial on this topic which is being held on 23 or 24 July (Nelson and Blenheim respectively).  Click here for more details and to register.

[1] Jon Ronson, The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry, 2011.