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Quick Hiring Decisions Can Backfire on Employers

At the risk of falling into a male gender stereotype, we’re not shoppers; we’re buyers. We don’t browse. We know what we want, go directly to it on the store shelves, grab it, and head for the cash register — almost always without trying it on.

Most employers feel the same way about hiring. No one wants to spend any more time than necessary recruiting, interviewing and selecting new employees. You want to get your new employee in the door and on the job.

The cost of a bad hiring decision is much more than some of the fashion disasters that have resulted from our impatient shopping technique. Sure, careful hiring can take time away from your many other responsibilities, but putting just any warm body in a vacant position may cause you a lot more work down the road. Take a little extra time to pick the right (and avoid the wrong) person for the job.

Audio Conference: Behavioral Interviewing: HR’s Essential New Tool for Selecting the Right Employee

Conduct critical interviews
Too often, precious interview time is wasted with stock questions for which the candidate has prepared stock answers: “It’s been my goal since childhood to be a human cannonball.” We see a lot of creative questions out there that don’t permit fluff answers and make candidates think on their feet. There’s nothing wrong with making them a little uncomfortable — you’ll get a much better picture of how they’ll perform under the stress of the job. You can even ask a question for which there is no answer to see if they’ll admit when they’re stumped.

Ask where they want to be in five years. If they’re interviewing for a dead-end job and want to be CEO, it’s a bad fit from the start. If they express content with where they are in their careers, they shouldn’t be hired for fast-track management positions.

Give them difficult scenarios from the job and ask how they would react. For many jobs, you’re not as interested in the answer as you are in how they approach the question. For others, you may want to gauge their composure under pressure.

If the job demands relationship skills (such as in sales), don’t evaluate candidates based on the usually friendly interview exchange. See how they handle you when you’re difficult and uncooperative. Whatever the job, figure out what’s important and use the interview to test (not ask) whether the employee has the right stuff.

Audit your interviewing policies and practices with the Employment Practices Self-Audit Workbook

Don’t be too easy
There’s a temptation to declare victory when the first passable candidate clears the interview process. Unless it’s time sensitive or a fungible job, be patient and see who else may be interested. You may find a better candidate, or you may confirm that you’ve already found the best available. Either way, you develop a sense of what’s out there — which in turn gives you a better sense of how much you can and should demand from the person you hire.

If the pickings are slim, you may need to work harder to develop a new hire whose warts appear after he starts the job. If the market is good, you don’t have to tolerate as much disappointment.

HR Guide to Employment Law: A practical compliance reference manual covering 14 topics, including hiring

Explain your expectations
Once you hire a new employee, make sure that he understands what you expect from him. Many job expectations aren’t as obvious to a new employee as they seem to those who have worked there for years. Companies in the same industry order their priorities differently – efficiency, quality, customer service – and therefore expect their employees to organize their work accordingly.

Let new hires know what matters to your organization; don’t assume they already know. To help with this, pair them with your best veteran employee so they see how you like it done.

Basic Training for Supervisors: easy-to-read guides on employment law for supervisors, including new hires

Use the introductory period
Almost every employer declares the first 90 days of employment as its time to evaluate whether the employee is right for the job and the company. We prefer to call it an “introductory period” rather than the traditional “probationary period” since the latter makes it sound like the new employee gains a vested right at the end.

Audio Conference: Surviving the First 90 Days: Keep Your New-Hires With Effective On-Boarding

Although it is strictly a creation of the employer, employees and government agencies (like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission(EEOC)) treat the introductory period as if it’s sacrosanct – that the employer has complete discretion to fire in the first 90 days and that right magically disappears on day 91. Even if the notion is fiction, take advantage of it.

Every employee puts her best foot forward during the first 90 days. It doesn’t get any better than the honeymoon. If she can’t make it to work on time or get along with coworkers at the beginning, she never will.

Now, you should expect that she may take some time to acclimate to your ways of doing things – so allow time for substantive learning. But basic job attributes (like punctuality and work ethic) should be there from the get-go.

Few employers actually use the introductory period. Many ignore the early warning signs and hope that the employee will improve. Once you’ve hired a new employee, there’s a natural tendency to feel invested in her. No one wants to admit they made a mistake in hiring or go back to the beginning of the hiring process to start over again. Get over yourself. If you make a mistake, admit defeat and move on. Hire someone else.

Audio Conference: Surviving the Next 90 Days: Retain Your New Hires With Long-Term On-Boarding

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