How To Pick A Winner

One of the manager’s most important responsibilities is that of interviewing new employees for the team. While it may seem a trivial and tedious part of your job (often, it seems to be nothing more than asking questions from a list), hiring the right people for your team is crucial for your success. Poor selection can have one of two negative impacts on your team and the organization as a whole:

First of all, if you hire a person who is a poor match for the job or the team, they are likely to soon leave (or be terminated), resulting in a higher turnover rate. Higher turnover is tantamount to wasting money. How much money? There are recruitment costs for the replacement, training costs, lost productivity costs, new hire costs, lost sales costs, and costs due to the employee leaving. In some cases, replacement costs may easily reach 150% of the employees’ annual compensation figure. This means that given an employee making $50,000, the cost to replace them can easily reach $75,000. The costs for managerial or sales positions can be significantly higher.

If replacement costs are so high, why not just bear with a difficult situation? This brings us to the second point; if the poor performer does not leave the organization, it will still result in higher costs – both direct an indirect. The obvious costs are those associated with paying under-performers at the same rate as everyone else, which leads to paying too much money for poor production. Hiring the wrong person will also leave better performers overworked and feeling unappreciated; they may reduce their own efforts as a result.

There is no escaping it – employee selection is a critical part of a manager’s job. A manager is literally only as good as the people they hire and train. Knowing how to implement an effective hiring process in the first place will make your job easier and your team better.

Far too often, the entire recruitment process falls flat on its face before the interviews even take place. When a position becomes open in their department, this represents a crisis for most managers. Until the position can be filled, the work load must be redistributed, productivity may fall off, employee errors may increase because of the extra work, and important projects may lag behind. This represents a great deal of stress for the manager, who certainly has plenty of stress already.

So, in such situations, there is a great deal of urgency to fill the position quickly. The temptation may be very great to hire the first person that HR sends over or to take the first person who answers the ad in the paper. Even if a manager is not so foolish as to settle for the first body that walks in the door, it is still likely that he or she will settle for less than they really need simply because the sense of urgency can be so overwhelming.

Managers can minimize this pressure – and the temptation to settle for less than they need that it causes – by following the simple outline below:

1. Make a list of the characteristics your ideal candidate should have
2. Rate each applicant in each of the characteristic categories; after evaluating the applicant, total the ratings you assigned in all of the categories
3. Set a minimum overall score that would be acceptable to hire
4. DON’T HIRE anyone who doesn’t at least receive your minimum acceptable score! (Even if they seem to be a nice person)

Knowing what you want in a new employee BEFORE you start interviewing makes all the difference.

Interviewing Tips

1. Prepare the questions and interview location in advance– The key to a good interview is preparation. Going in and just "winging it" will leave you with many awkward pauses and result in a short interview.
2. Allow enough time and study the applicant beforehand– Not having enough time and appearing as if you are in a hurry gives the impression that the applicant’s time is not valued.
3. Be upfront if there are reasons they might turn down the job– It is better for them to turn down the job now before you turn down other applicants.
4. Tell the applicant what the next steps are–Whatever the process, be sure to stick to it and follow through.
5. Avoid using "you" or personalizing the job–Though it is human nature to do this when explaining the job duties, it can easily mislead the applicant and unnecessarily raise their expectations. Do not do this unless you are 100% sure you will hire him/her.
6. Check references – This is ideal to use when you are choosing between two similar candidates. However, you would be surprised to find out how many people use inaccurate, out-of-date, or overly honest references.

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September Management Quick Tip of the Month – Play By the Rules

Recent actions by the Justice Department and the Office of Homeland Security are placing employers under heightened scrutiny regarding the hiring of undocumented workers. Employers can face civil and criminal penalties for knowingly employing any alien not authorized to work in the United States. Anti-discrimination provisions provide employer sanctions for discrimination against “foreign-looking” job applicants. Regarding employment, it is unlawful for a person or other entity to hire or continue to employ an alien knowing that the alien is unauthorized. The employer is required to verify authorization by examining documents produced by the applicant: a US passport, a certificate of US citizenship, a certificate of naturalization, a resident alien card, or specified combinations of social security card, US birth certificate, driver’s license, and documentation of personal identity. The government is increasing efforts to identify and act against employers who violate these rules.