Arrive Magazine - January/February, 2012

3 Conduct rigorous interviews.

“Interviews should be fact-finding expeditions, not casual conversations or get-acquainted sessions,” Anderson says. Having a highly structured interview process keeps things on track and prevents you from talking too much—a fatal interviewing flaw, says Anderson. If you go into the interview with planned questions that dig into past behaviors, with the objective of uncovering both character and competence, you’ll be off to a great start.

The interview process should reveal whether someone has the five “unteachables.” Although you can teach skills and knowledge, you cannot teach talent, attitude, character, energy or drive, which are essential to success, says Anderson. Consider past performance more than past experience. You make poor hiring decisions when you like the applicant too early in the process and stop assessing him or her as a result.

candidate was a project manager at XYZ Company, but it does not mean they will be successful in your company. Can they collaborate? Are they a good match for your manager’s style?”

6 Be honest.

Let candidates know the challenges and opportunities at the business and in the job. Talk pay and compensation early, suggests Flora. If a job averages 48 hours per week or requires 25 percent travel, tell the candidate. Set expectations in the interview, says Walters.

8 Check them out. “Do your due diligence. References and background checks are essential, yet many smaller companies overlook them simply because they do not have staff or the time to complete,” says Flora.

4 Score candidates for integrity, judgment and self-motivation. “If any of those three are missing and you have just hired the person, at best you are getting an average employee,” says Don Paullin, president of consulting firm Hiring Firing Experts in Grayslake, Ill.

5 Consider cultural fit. “People get hung up on credentials,” says Barbara Baill, an executive coach with consulting firm Mariposa Leadership in San Francisco. “Maybe a

7Team up.

Hiring is so important that there can’t be too many cooks in the kitchen. Team interviews continue to be popular.

“We strongly recommend team interviews to clients,” says Joyce Gioia, president of management consulting firm The Herman Group. Give a variety of people who will work with the candidate a chance to evaluate him or her.

9 Tap the overqualified. Many companies are concerned that the overqualified person will not be happy in a lesser role and will leave for a better position when the job market opens up, says Flora.

Employers often have a bias against hiring overqualified people, says Baill. “I think this is to their detriment.” However, if that person is egotistical, she says, the arrangement may not be ideal.