Good Hiring Isn’t About Luck
Is this you? You hire someone who doesn’t work out, and then you look back at the hiring process for that individual and decide it was just a case of “bad luck”?
There’s no such thing as bad luck when it comes to hiring. Whether a job candidate turns out to be a good hire or not is all within your power; it’s your own fault if the candidate fails.
And that’s a good thing, because if it’s under your control, you can fix what went wrong and never make a poor hire again.
First, think back on the poor hires to ascertain where you went wrong in the hiring process. Did you fail to do your due diligence/research before posting a job? Were the job responsibilities ill defined? Did you ignore personality issues/team dynamics?
Next, sit down with any other people involved in hiring for your company/department and create a clear and concise job description, one that provides a detailed list of the position’s responsibilities, management’s expectations and your department’s accountabilities.
Once you’re interviewing, you may want to consider putting your top candidates through some sort of psychometric testing. You also should think about performing psychometric tests on all your current employees too so that you can create benchmarks for high performers. This also can help you figure out who will best fit with your team.
Also, conduct background checks in all states, not just your own.
In addition to contacting all former employers (as stated on the resume/CV), look for gaps in employment and be sure to bring them up during the interview.
Speaking of the interview, have an objective set of questions ready. These should be questions that you ask each of the candidates. You also should ask questions about hypothetical situations such as, “If you knew that your supervisor was completely wrong about something, how would you handle it?” This gives you insight into a particular candidate’s communication skills. You’ll also want to study non-verbal cues, such as pauses and eye movement.
