Make no mistake: recruiting the right person for the job is no easy task. The recruiter requires honed skills just as the applicant searching for employment. If you haven't developed and refined those skills, you are destined to make hiring mistakes that you will regret.

Employee turnover can cause waste of time, can be disruptive and costly. Employers spend more than four times of a year recruiting new employees and filling new vacancies

Many managers complain on how difficult it is to find and hire good hands; but we must take the time to improve our knowledge and skills in this key area. We know the effect of a bad hire- money, time, and aggravation.

Let's go on a journey of hiring the right person

Know what you are looking for

Define the role you are recruiting for. What are your expectations of the new hire? This begins with a job description. A job description is a guide to the right candidate. The job description is not only for you but also for the candidates to understand the company's expectations.

Employees become lost when directions are not clear

Our job qualifications should contain desired qualifications- education , experience and skills. But is that really all that is needed to find the perfect hire? Are we just looking for a match to our pre-established description?

What about the soft attributes, attitude, company culture and potential? Beware of choosing someone with a great trainable skills with an unfit attitude. Being able to adapt into company's philosophy and fit into the culture is as critical as having the education, experience and skill for the job.

The right Attitude- this attribute cannot be overlooked and should not be underestimated. People with the right attitude are far more productive and easier to work with than Prima donnas. People with the right attitude can pick up additional skills fairly easy; training someone without the right attitude is more difficult.

Vital key to hiring is searching for the perfect “fit” for not just the perfect skill

How do I choose?

We have seen the CVs of our most recent graduates during recruiting. Unfortunately, this is nothing to be excited about. Most of our graduates do not have the basic skill for employment search. CVs are cookie cut for every position and every organization they are applying for. CVs are taken to copy machines for mass distribution. Some organizations receive letter of applications addressed to other organizations.

Then how do we choose the lesser of the evils? There are some silent alarms. One of the things that ring the alarm is multiple university degrees of the same level that are not related. You say why? Many people did not study their first choice but what they were given. While the first degree may not have been the candidate's preferred choice, the second degree should have been taken with a thought out plan. Two Bachelor's degree unrelated, two master's degree unrelated and PhD in view. The alarm is ringing-this job seeker is not a career seeker.

In the past recruiters were wary of candidates with several employers in their work history. But we know today that may employees are transient. Today's employee is not looking for a retirement plan but a career development plan.

Studies have shown upper credit, lower credit is no guarantee for a perfect hire. Intel's hiring policy did not accept candidates with less than 3.2GPA. In the book, The Pentium Chronicles: The people, passion, and politics behind Intel's landmark chips, by Robert Colwell, the author writes the data did not bear this out. It was clear that Intel did not hire engineers with less than 3.2GPA but once someone was hired, a higher GPA did not predispose its owner to faster promotions.

OK, if not grades, then what?

Look for related experiences to your company, transferable skills and broad work experience. Broad experience can be packaged in many ways- length of service in the industry, multiple positions in the industry or multiple industries in the career path. Remember, this is the first screening.

Let's talk- The Interview

The traditional interview approach is only 14 percent effective in determining the right person for the job? Most behavioural profiles only measure 36-38 percent of what can be measured. Behavioural interview based on the premise that the best guide to your future performance is your past performance.

When preparing for the interview, decide what skills and attributes are critical for the position and prepare questions accordingly.

During the interview, some of the key things to loo for are enthusiasm, drive, motivation and collaboration.

Enthusiasm, I want a person who is excited about coming to work- someone looking for new ways to do old things. A willingness to do new things is critical. Our teams are only as motivated as the least motivated individual.

Our organization needs people who will accept responsibility and accomplish great tasks. Look for people who see hurdles and jump over- not complain about how high the hurdle is.

Equally important is the individual's ability to execute and not just talk a great game; don't assume if someone can think and plan and sell their ideas, they can also deliver and execute.

You also want to hire people who can organize and plan their work and then execute it properly. If you don't pay attention to this, you end up hiring people that require constant baby-sitting and you end up doing most of their work anyway. People who have demonstrated good judgement and have an ability to anticipate problems.

Collaborators, people who can work closely with others. Real team players, not someone who just goes along with everyone's ideas; but someone who is willing to express his own opinions and disagreements but who also has an open mind to take in new information and reconsider their position if need be.

Whatever approach you use to interviewing- behavioural, traditional e-mail or telephone, ask questions to reveal these skills. Ask yourself : were they able to execute? Did they give up too early? Were they a hindrance to the team or did they motivate the team?

This is a roadmap to the journey of hiring the right employee. Along the way, you may fall into potholes, or stumble into a roadblock. Avoid the pothole of gut instinct-sometimes, it may lead us to a good talker and not an executer. Look out for the roadblock of the highest scorer who gets the job- check to see if they have the attributes you need to work in your organization.

If you are not nervous for a job interview, you’re probably dead. Everyone else is though they might not show it. It’s perfectly natural to be nervous.

Nervousness is excess energy, which is not channelled properly. Use your nervous energy properly and increase your chances to getting what you want at the interview.

So, you’re waiting there about to be called for the job interview and you would really like the job.

• Check that your dress, shoes, hair are OK and hands are clean

Do this ritual just once. Then tell yourself that these things are OK. Nothing to worry about any more.

If at this stage you notice that you’ve left your file with the supporting documents at home, don’t panic. It’s a mistake, but you just have to do without them now. You can send them later. All documents are supporting documents only. The impression you make on the interviewer and how you manage at the interview is the deciding factor. So concentrate on that and forget things you forgot.

• Be the profile for the job

How will the interviewer profile you as a candidate? Are you a globally famous expert in your field, a beginner with only summer job history? Are you going for a marketing job, which would require superior people handling skills or an accountant’s job, which would require meticulousness?

The impression you make on the interviewer should be the same as required for the job you seek. If you give the impression of a meek and shy person, then the interviewer wouldn’t rate you high for the direct marketing job. It is very likely that you would create a bad impression, if you want to be an accountant but are late and sloppy or have spelling errors on your CV or application. Visualize yourself in the job and assume the profile of the person doing the job. Your message “Yes, I can” should remain with the interviewer even after you’ve left.

• Greet the interviewer politely

In most cultures, it is polite and necessary to look in the eye (but not stare) and shake hands firmly when meeting. Many people in some Asian cultures like Japan do not appreciate eye contact from subordinates, and they are not very eager to shake hands either. Observe the body language of the interviewer. If s/he is not eager to shake hands, just nod politely and respectfully. Remember, you must always stand up when the interviewer walks into the room.

• Listen to the interviewer carefully

Be present and pay attention to the interviewer/s. If you don’t understand one question fully, ask a clarifying question like “Do you mean that why do I have the three-month gap between the last two jobs?” or say “Sorry, I didn’t get that, would you please repeat your question?”

• Engage the interviewer

Observe if the interviewer is interested in you. Show interest and enthusiasm for the job and for the organisation by asking detailed questions. Ask questions that show you are really visualizing yourself doing the job. “So there are two teams. One of them is overseas and that means we should have virtual meetings when it’s office hours for them. This means I should arrange late working hours one day per week, doesn’t it?”

Don’t ask questions like “What is your website address?” You are supposed to have done background research before coming to the interview. Avoid saying things like “I absolutely love your company and would be the best candidate”. This does not sound very convincing.

Discuss with the interviewer how your skills and competences would be suitable for the job – “Ah yes, I could make good use of my Spanish skills then with the Chilean customers” or “My experience in using Excel Pivot Tables would really come in handy here”.

• Thank the interviewer

No matter how the interview goes, remember to say that the interview was a good experience and thank. That particular interviewer might become your next boss, or client. In my previous job, I interviewed a person I did not hire then. Years later she became my client and hired me. She said this was because she instantly remembered on seeing me that I had treated her nicely and with dignity.

Wishing you success in your job interview.

Where I work there are only a handful of employees. We have to work side by side and get along fairly well in order for the day to be productive. For the most part it is one of the better places where I have ever worked because we would all rather get along than fight, however some issues, and differences of opinions, come to the front at social events such as the "Staff Christmas Party".

For a few days following these events some feathers remain ruffled but we go back to getting along very shortly. I am well aware, however that in some work places the staff are not so tolerant of each others beliefs. In fact in some places they form up into sides based on political opinion or religion.

If people work together, they will be more productive if they want to help each other, rather than harbor any feeling of hatred or wanting the other person to look bad.

image source

What are your employees talking about or fighting over when they gather at the water cooler?

Not everyone is passionate about politics or has strong political views, but for those that do, their opinions are more than just political ones. If you support a party that is high on supporting environmental causes, chances are you are too. Therefore you are not going to want to be working with a bunch of people who drive Hummers two blocks to work, and who are generally wasteful people. If you support a political party that believes wealth should be shared equally among the people, you are not going to want to work with people who think that rich people deserve more or are more important than everyone else. You get the picture.

People cannot help the way they believe, or how they feel on certain issues pertaining to everyday life. Those issues are then put forth into our political views. This goes hand in hand with how we think in our daily lives. Most of us have friends with similar views.

Again, having co-workers who get along is very important to the running of any business, particularly a small business where people are often working along side of one another in, what should be, a co-operative manner.

While maybe it is illegal to ask a person what there political views are, and illegal to hire based on this, it might be something we should be aware of when staffing. Similar minded people will get along better. People of opposing views might just try to sabotage each other, and thereby hurt the company in the long run.

• Files all property tax forms with the state and federal government.
• Helps you properly set up your business in the beginning.
• Ensures you're allocating your expenses correctly.
• Correctly handles the depreciation schedule.
• Assists with the disbursement if you have partners or investors involved.
• Writes off repairs and depreciates the major improvements.
• Knows your long-term plans for each investment property.

Like anyone else you hire, request clients' names and telephone numbers so that you can call for references. One of the most important things is that you feel comfortable with his or her approach, background, and ability to take care of the accounting of and taxes for your rental properties.

Well, if you need to know, in my future hypothetical company people won't be hired that way. Why? Let's see.

What do academic qualifications mean? A lot of textbooks read and a lot of assignments written. Sure that's good stuff but consider this: do the right academic qualifications mean that the prospective employee or manager would “do” the job?

I've seen so many times a disparity between qualifications and ability, unfortunately.

Now for the work experience: if it's relevant it's great but I consider that someone without any relevant work experience could do excellently if given the opportunity. Sometimes ability is disguised behind a poor work history. So, work history is not all.

Next, the long imaginative questionnaires. They're interesting, but hiring someone on that basis is ludicrous because, if you're smart, and I mean this, you could answer all questions right without being the right person for the job.

So, what would you do?

It's simple. You should look for two crucial qualities: ability and compatibility.

Ability means that you can do the job and you're probably the best at that. You may have all the right qualifications and experience and imaginative questionnaire answers, and this is the easy situation, or you may or may not have some of the above at all or to some degree.

You might then ask: “so, how can I know that someone is right for the job?”

My answer is: by feeling. You must talk a lot to the candidates, not only about work but about anything you fancy and then sense their style. You could interview him, not in an office, but in a garden if there's one. Or you could take him to the pub. You could try to know about his life, his plans, his achievements and his failures, his passions, if any. Then judge by feeling.

Usually, capable people feel capable and others don't, if you know what I mean, and you should look for such signs. Cumulatively, you could put him through some test job just to sense his style.

On the other hand, ability is not everything. There's also compatibility.

The candidate must feel compatible with the boss and this with him, and at least also with some other critical co-workers. Compatibility is crucial because without it the mechanisms of work dynamics just don't function. A new worker must be able to communicate with people easily and meaningfully. So, these people should also meet the candidate and talk freely to him to find out about compatibility with them and decide by feeling alone.

Such is hiring on the basis of ability and compatibility.

 

1. This may be obvious to most folks, but make sure you clean yourself up for an interview.

   Shave, shower, put on deodorant, do whatever it is that would make you look (and hopefully smell) better than normal. This is partially because you want to look good in front of the interviewer, but more importantly it is also because you want to “feel good”. Doing well in an interview is all about being prepared mentally and physically.

2. Make sure you get a good nights sleep!

   You want to be bright and alert for the next day's interview. If think you might have trouble sleeping than read up on some good sleep relaxation techniques. There are many good ones and they work really well.

3. Make sure you arrive to the interview at least 15mins ahead of time!

   I have interviewed many a good candidate that was completely frazzled because they were a mere 5mins late. Don't add undue stress on your day, arrive early.

4. Eat a good breakfast.

   You will need that energy later in the day. Likewise, throughout the day make sure to take opportunities to have a snack and at lunch time relax and eat a good meal. This will help keep you alert, and also will show the interviewer(s) that you have a well balanced diet and take care of yourself.

5. Mentally prepare yourself for the interview!

   I can't stress this enough; make sure that mentally you are prepared to talk about yourself, your experiences, and your skills. Good interviewers will smell bullcrap a mile away. If you faked something on your resume or aren't prepared to go in-depth on your history you're going to have a long and painful day.

6. Mentally prepare yourself to work for the company!

   Once again, this is absolutely essential. Don't walk into company A without the faintest clue on what they do. If you really want the job than research the company, the product line, the position, heck even the type of employees that work at the company.

7. Give the interviewer the impression you would do “anything” for the job.

   Per #6, research the company extensively (even study at night). If you show a desire to work at the company the interviewer will reciprocate and want to hire you on.

8. Be open, direct and honest; in fact be terribly honest.

   If you don't know the answer to a question tell the interviewer, “sorry I don't know the answer to X but I definitely am interested in learning about X”.

9. Show emotions!

   Smile, frown when you concentrate, rub your chin, talk, open up, and show the interviewer you're human.

10. Be confident!

    Remember that they wanted to interview you because they are impressed with your experience and skills on your resume. You've already gotten through the hard part (which is to get an interview), now you just need to show them the person behind the paper.

Personality profiles have become an essential tool for employers who want accurate assessments of potential employees. “Nearly three quarters of UK companies now rely on psychometric profiling when recruiting.” States the British Market Research Bureau in a recent article in the Times. It is standard for employers to use profiling to understand, enhance and improve personal and team performance.

But which one do you choose? There are so many psychometric tools from which to choose it helps if you are clear about exactly what it is you wish to measure. Based on a recent on line poll the most popular uses of Personality Profiles falls into three distinct areas:

Recruitment and Candidate Selection

Mainly to provide insight and reduce risk.

Employee Growth and Development

To ensure employers retain and make the most of key staff.

Temperament and Team Building - significantly improve interpersonal communication and productivity both internally and externally.

There is no doubt that personality profiles can provide insight in these areas and generate measurable improvements. Yet this trend is not a modern phenomenon as the basics of personality profiling has been around for a long time. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator was developed in the 1950's and is still popular now even though this was based on the work of Carl Jung in the 1920's. The lineage of personality profiling can be traced back through the centuries, right back to Plato around three hundred and forty years before the birth of Christ.

Surprisingly the basic nature of all personality profiles has remained surprisingly static in all that time. They measure an individual's psychological attributes using one of two different styles or instruments:

Aptitude Tests: These mainly consist of "right" (like me) or "wrong" (not like me) answers. They are constructed to measure a person's ability or aptitude. Some tests gauge someone's verbal or numerical skills and are used when a particular skill or aptitude is required to do a job. So, aptitude tests tend to be used to measure “hard” skills.

Open Ended Questionnaires: Typically there are no right or wrong answers because questionnaires consider someone's characteristics or how they prefer to behave. Open Ended Questionnaires tend to be used to measure “soft” skills.

So whilst it is true that a psychometric profile may provide some rigor to the process of recruiting, give confidence in making the right decision and perhaps help to appoint the right person. They are not always an objective mechanism to short list candidates or eliminate those individuals without the right temperament.

When Profiles Go Bad

The issue is not the process but the nature of how the information is gathered. Both test and questionnaire based profiles use a linguistic base to drive the profile. And these questions, or variations of them, have been around for a long time. People who are exposed to them are becoming used to the style, pattern and content. Cheating is common place, in fact you can by books and attend courses in how to answer the questions in a way that changes the profile.

Results are easy to manipulate, even without any detailed "inside knowledge". For example the question below was taken at random from a widely used and popular test. Does interacting with strangers (a) energise you or (b) tax your reserves?

Frankly, it doesn't take much understanding of psychometric profiles to realise that this question is measuring your preference for social interaction. Most popular profiles would define this trait as Introversion or Extroversion. If you have a basic understanding of personality profiles you could predict the employer's requirements, modify your answers and alter your profile. As familiarity with the questions and interview coaching increase the effectiveness of profiles increasingly diminishes. This is a growing concern for employers and the profiling industry.

To combat this trend modern psychometric tests are emerging that record the subject's response to non-verbal stimuli. The techniques used work at a deeper more unconscious level, which makes them much harder to predict or second guess. There is even a suggestion that the answers given are more accurate, eliminating the other issue with traditional profiles which is the number of questions that need to be asked. Instead of spending ten, fifteen or thirty minutes often a visually based psychometric profile can often be completed in less than a minute. You can try an example of this style of test at personaliteye.com. Another advantage of this "non-verbal" style is that the applicant's language skills are less of an influence on the result.

If words and questions are being replaced by images and preferences, perhaps this will make psychometric profiling not only faster, fun and more accurate.