HIRING THE BEST PERSON FOR THE JOB

Jun 1, 2000 12:00 PM, Samantha Hoover

No doubt you've experienced it before: You catch an employee you know is bright and capable playing solitaire during work hours. Or how about that salesperson who, on her resume, claimed to increase sales for her last employer by 500 percent? For you, she's cut leads by 50 percent and takes two-hour lunches. And let's not even talk about the customer service representative (CSR) who seemed to be a veritable Pollyanna during her interview. After two weeks on the job, she's cussing at clients-when she's not making lengthy personal phone calls. If only you could have known then what you are dealing with now-but how could you have known?

There's no longer an excuse for hiring poor performers. Prescreening offers employers the capability to isolate the ideal candidate for a job and their business. From crafting a well-aimed help-wanted ad to administering a revealing personality profile, prescreening can be as simple or complex as an employer needs. It's ideal for quick printers with an important position to fill: salesperson, CSR or an experienced press person. These positions can be the most financially damaging if you place the wrong person in them. Many employers, however, use prescreening on all of their job candidates, including delivery people and entry-level help. It's a way to prevent hiring mistakes from happening the first time.

Starting out Before you post a help-wanted ad, consider what responsibilities the vacant position entails. If a job description exists, review it and decide how accurate it really is. If there is no description, determine what you'd expect the new employee to do, and what type of person is ideal for the job. Ask employees who are in that position to identify their most important tasks, and what qualities they feel are necessary to succeed. Get input from anyone who will be working with the new employee-they'll know best the type of co-worker who will thrive in the job and complement their own strengths.

"Decide what personality type you need for the position," suggests Debra Thompson, former owner of a quick printing business and president of TG & Associates (Tucson, AZ), a company that assists printers in placing and retaining employees. "A lot of times, we hire for the skills and fire for the behavior. The person may have all of the skills, but no one will work with them."

Often the desired personality traits are obvious: aggressiveness for a salesperson, attention to detail for a prepress hire. But you need to consider not only the qualities that will make the employee successful in his or her job, but also those traits that will complement the rest of your staff.

Also, what's the working environment? Is your business team oriented, or are employees rewarded chiefly for individual achievements? Do you need someone who likes working with others, or someone who's independent? These workplace environment issues will figure in to how successfully the new employee adapts to your business, and how long he or she be inclined to stay.

"You can eliminate a ton of screening by making sure your ad is tailored to the sort of person you'll need for a particular job," notes Mary Ruth Austin, vice president of marketing and communications for The Omnia Group (Tampa, FL), which provides prescreening tools to employers. When you draft the help-wanted ad, make sure to add the responsibilities you specified in the job description, and the minimum experience required. This acts as a preliminary screen, inviting those who have the stated qualifications to call, and those who don't, to keep looking.

Decide how you'd like to handle the phone calls and resumes that will begin trickling in. "If you have phone calls coming in, you need to have a list of questions to ask these people right off the bat," warns Thompson. "There's no sense bringing in candidates who don't meet the minimum requirements." When screening applicants over the phone, you can also help them determine whether they're really interested in the job.

A good way to eliminate applicants who will just end up wasting your time is by looking for warning signs or "red flags" in submitted resumes. These include unexplained time gaps between jobs, inconsistent or vague information, job-hopping or major career jumps, and, of course, typos and spelling errors. Take a close look at the applicant's job history. Did he or she have five jobs in two years, or serve in an entry-level position for four years without being promoted? Although many times such items can be explained, keep them in mind if you decide to call the person in for an interview.

Personality: 25 percent of the equation Many employers are first introduced to prescreening after they experience a series of a failures in their own hiring. Whether it's lack of time, being unable to accurately "read" a person, or bowing under the temptation to fill the position as quickly as possible with a warm body, owners can expect much grief and frustration ahead with one poorly chosen employee. Also, there is the tendency for people to like others similar to themselves, and this also applies to people who are hiring.

"I didn't know whether I was doing it consciously or subconsciously, but I was trying to hire people who were like me, who I felt had the same strengths and weaknesses I had," says Peter Marcus, owner of an Insty Prints in Tucson, AZ. By having an outside source choose their job candidates, employers can be more confident that their final applicants are the result of impartial opinion, rather than personal bias. Marcus decided to retain Thompson at TG & Associates for prescreening job applicants. A preliminary search on the Internet can connect you with a list of other companies offering impartial, educated help (See sidebar below). Keep in mind, however, that no assistance comes without a price. You should also stick with prescreening firms that have experience in the printing industry, as they'll better appreciate your business' needs.

In personality profiles, applicants are asked to rank themselves on certain personality traits, such as creativity, obedience, ability to A tool that can help predict an applicant's behavior after he or she has signed on as an emp loyee is a personality profile. This prescreening aid reveals a person's natural behavioral tendencies, which may differ greatly from the confident, polite demeanor he or she exhibited during the interview. "All of us can stretch our natural behavior," says Austin. "We can do things that don't come naturally to us over a short a period of time. The greater we have to stretch, however, the more uncomfortable it becomes. Either the employee will become uncomfortable enough that he or she will start looking for another job, or the employee will stretch so far into behaviors that he or she can no longer handle them and get fired."

adjust to change, and discipline. When answered truthfully, it accurately reveals how closely the applicant's personality will match the position's desired attitude. What compromises this accuracy is when an applicant selects answers that he or she thinks are most desirable to you, the potential employer. The applicant figures that if he or she only ranks himself highly on all "good" characteristics and low on "undesirable" characteristics, he or she'll be more likely to progress in the interviewing process.

To combat this, some prescreening providers suggest you administer the personality profile before you tell the applicant any details of the position they're applying for. Some profiles appear skewed when an applicant has lied, and the prescreener can alert the employer to that suspicion. If this is a serious concern for you, be sure to ask your prescreening provider on possible safeguards. Also, to protect yourself should any applicant dispute his or her resulting profile, make sure you administer the test to all of your serious applicants, and choose a test that has been validated by an independent source to be free of any type of bias. Some prescreening firms will back up the legality of their profiles in court; check for this when considering profiling help.

Because personality profiles are not 100 percent accurate, whether it be due to falsified answers or a stressed applicant, prescreening experts suggest that you consider a profile as only 25 percent of your final decision (see "What personality profiles can't predict," p. 83). Other factors, such as an applicant's basic and technical skills, work experience and references should be weighed more heavily when deciding whom you call back for the interview, second interview and job offer.

verify, verify, verify Although the final steps in the prescreening process are the most crucial, they're often botched. Consider the interview. "In terms of interviewing, one of the most common mistakes is not being properly prepared and not having a set list of questions that you ask each applicant for the job," says Austin. "You would be surprised how many employers wing it, read the resume walking in to the conference room, have no set of questions, have given no thought whatsoever to what they are going to ask this person and, rather than have a game plan, proceed willy nilly." The result is you don't get the answers you need to determine whether the person you just interviewed is a prospect.

Another mistake that was cited by Austin is when interviewers talk too much and do not write down any of the interviewee's responses. Often, this is because the interviewer is nervous. The employer may feel uncomfortable with any moment of silence, and refrain from writing while the applicant is speaking because it seems rude. If you are speaking with two to three applicants a day, however, it becomes difficult to place the responses with a particular applicant. Take detailed notes-they'll be all you have when evaluating the success of the interview. If you feel uncomfortable writing while the applicant is speaking, use a tape recorder and transcribe the responses later.

If your applicant is applying for a technical position, consider testing his skills. The applicant may claim to have operated an imagesetter for five years, but you won't be able to determine how well unless you see him in action. Thompson suggests inviting an applicant to work for a day at your business, paid, to perform the responsibilities of the job. "I've had people come in and then leave for lunch and never come back, because they didn't have the skills they claimed they had," she relates.

Another commonly misused, or rather, underused, prescreening tool is the reference check. "You would be surprised by the number of employers who try to check references once or twice, get frustrated and say, 'What the heck-we'll go ahead and hire them!'" says Austin. This common mistake prevents the interviewer from determining how truthful the applicant was on his or her resume and in the interview. If you have taken detailed notes during the initial interview, you can verify any of the applicant's numbers or claims. "There are many resumes out there that are more fiction that fact," Austin notes. "Verify, verify, verify before you put anyone on your payroll."

Resist the temptation What if you've just lost a highly skilled and experienced employee? Can you afford to wait two, three or four weeks for that ideal applicant? Unless you have a formal training program and the time, money, and employees to wait for an inexperienced hiree to come up to speed, it's better to hold out as long as possible for a qualified individual.

When you've just lost your best press person, CSR or salesperson, you might feel so panicked to fill that crucial position that you'll hire the first person who comes along. "For the owner of a business in crisis, it's really tempting to put a Band-Aid on the situation with someone you have right in front of you, rather than go another week or two until you find a real solution," agrees Marcus.

Sheri Feinberg, Printex Printing & Graphics owner (Laguna Hills, CA), has begun prescreening applicants after a series of hiring mishaps. "You can't be quick to place a warm body," Feinberg says. "You really have to make sure you've thought it through and found the best possible candidate."

Remember that you ultimately are responsible for your hiring decision. Even if you enlist the help of a prescreening provider, you and your employees will have to manage and work with the new recruit. It's a good idea to have final candidates meet with their potential co-workers-even if the tests indicate that the applicant is a perfect fit, ultimately it is the working environment that will determine the permanency of your new hire's stay.

"It is a bit dicey using a personality profile as the sole determinate when you're screening," says Mary Ruth Austin, vice president of marketing and communications with The Omnia Group, a prescreening tools and services provider (Tampa, FL). "That is something we never recommend because any type of personality profile is really a snapshot in time." Applicants who are under a great deal of stress are unpredictable-they can ace a personality profile with shining colors, only to reveal their personal problems once on board.

Peter Marcus, owner of an Insty Prints in Tucson, AZ, uses personality profiling on all of his applicants, and is satisfied with the results. But profiling couldn't predict the outcome of one of Marcus' seemingly perfect hires: "One person we hired was in the midst of personal problems that didn't come out in testing. He was going through a separation from his spouse. He went to lunch one day and didn't come back. He otherwise tested well, was qualified, intelligent, pleasant and honest."

Although a personality profile may suggest that an applicant has the ideal behavioral traits required for a position, it can't determine their intensity. "This one woman looked wonderful, like she was going to fit in really well," relates Nancy DeDiemar, president of Printing Resources of Southern California (Upland, CA). "The profile indicated that she was meticulous, took a lot of attention to detail and carried projects through to completion. The misfit: She couldn't do it in the timeframe we needed." The employee was so meticulous that she stretched a business card print job usually completed in a couple of days to a week and a half. DeDiemar eventually had to fire her.

If you'd like to try personality profiling, understand that, depending on the prescreening provider, each profile typically costs around $100 to process. To save money, Austin recommends profiling only your serious candidates. Users of profiling, however, insist that you're paid back in the long run: "If you look at it in retrospect, it's such a small price to pay when you compare it to all of the problems and mistakes you make by not hiring the right person," says Printex Printing & Graphics' Sheri Feinberg. "I kept a guy on for six months whom I hired for the typesetting department. I kept thinking maybe he'd get better, but he was horrible, and I finally had to let him go. So all of the time that was spent and mistakes that were made because I didn't let him go would have paid for the prescreening several times."

Following are prescreening, profiling, recruitment and retention consulting firms that assist in the employment process:

The Omnia Group | Provides individual assessment tools to help clients in their hiring and employee management decisions. Its main offering is the Omnia Profile, an employee selection tool that identifies job candidates who are most compatible with a position. The profile typically takes 15 minutes to complete. Contact Omnia at (800) 525-7117 or visit www.omniagroup.com.

TG & Associates | Offers a series of tools that coach management through the recruiting, interviewing and hiring process. Products include the Personal Profile Analysis, which helps employers evaluate prospective and current employees; and the Human Job Analysis, which provides a framework for determining job requirements. The firm also authors The Communicator, a free e-mail newsletter that discusses human resource topics. Contact TG & Associates at (877) TGASSOC; e-mail: info@tgassociates.com. Its website is www.tgassociates. com.

PathwaysUnlimited! | Specializes in consulting and products on hiring, developing a team atmosphere and improving employee retention. Offers the Motivational Appraisal for Personal Potential (MAPP), a computer-based tool that assists in a range of human-resource related tasks, such as making hiring decisions, creating job profiles, improving employee development, strengthening morale and productivity, organizing teams and promoting strategically. A demo can be downloaded at the company's website, www.pathwaysunlimited.com, in the HR Tool section. You can also reach Pathways at (877) 446-2068, or e-mail Path@PathwaysUnlimited.com.

Objective Management Group, Inc. (OMG) | Develops tools for evaluating, recruiting and measuring the growth of salespeople. Offers the Dave Kurlan Sales Force Profile, a profiling tool specific to sales that helps evaluate a candidate's selling skills and weaknesses. The company's website (www.objectivemanagement.com) is thorough-visit it to order a free copy of the "Corporate Recruiting System for Sales Candidates," a 133-page manual on CD-ROM that discusses how to recruit and identify the ideal salesperson. You can also contact OMG at (888) 4-OMG-INFO, or e-mail dave@objectivemanagement.com.

Wonderlic, Inc. | Offers the Wonderlic Personnel Test, which aims to measure an applicant's general intelligence so employers can match individuals with positions that best suit their level of mental aptitude. The determined aptitude can then help predict how satisfied an applicant will be with a position, and how long he or she may stay at a company. The firm also sells a series of skill tests, personality profiles and team-building tools at its online store at www.wonderlic.com. You can also contact Wonderlic at (800) 963-7542, or e-mail contact@wonderlic.com.