Subject: November Hire Score Newsletter

Welcome to the November edition of the Hire Score Newsletter. Let me start by thanking all of you who responded to last month's contest. You were all right on the money in tearing apart those ridiculous questions (those of you who are new to the newsletter should visit www.selectingwinners.com and view the October newsletter).

Trying to decide who wins the grand prize was not easy because everyone who responded did a great job. But I have to choose, so the winner is: Mandi Wild of Kaasco Inc in Mukilteo WA. Here is just one of Mandi's answer's: What will your employer tell us is the area where you could use improvement? Applicant Response: Hygiene? Why would you ever ask an applicant this question? Do you expect an honest answer - and if you get one, what will that tell you about the applicant that will let you know if the person is the right fit in your organization? This is a question that goes nowhere and tells you nothing.

Way to go Mandi!! Please contact my office to arrange for your consultation.

Now on to business. I delivered a number of presentations in the last 30 days and a familiar question keeps popping up. The question concerns creating scenarios in the interview that the applicant has to respond to. This is a form of real-time testing. The problem with doing this is that it relies on the assumption that interview behavior is indicative of job performance. Unfortunately this is simply not true.

You are assuming that if people can sell themselves in the interview they can sell your product. Or, if the person is overly talkative in the interview they will be overly talkative on the job. This type of assumption is a direct path to a hiring mistake.

Believe it or not, people sometimes tell you what they think you want to hear. Occasionally they make things up. And every once in a while the person is nervous and behaves out of character.

An interview is not a situation where people are well versed in the rules of engagement. Most people are nervous and everyone is attempting put only the best foot forward. This leads to some very strange behavior in the interview. Most importantly, the behavior you witness in the interview is NOT the best predictor of success on the job.

Let's never forget that your goal is to hire someone who will be successful on your job. Success is defined as handling the tasks and situations of the job (behavior) in the best possible manner. So your job in the interview is to predict success (behavior) on the job.

This is best accomplished by gathering as many examples as possible of past behavior. How has the person handled the same or similar situations in the past? The more examples of past behavior you can get, the more accurately you can predict behavior and success on your job. Do not get sucked into believing you can "figure the person out" in the interview.

Here is a little tip that helps keep you focused. Try not to evaluate in the interview. View the interview as a data gathering session with the evaluation to happen after. I know this is difficult to do but this little tip will help avoid many mistakes.

Let me end this section with a statement that summarizes my philosophy on successful hiring: "Determine the behavior necessary for success on your job and find out if the person behaves that way!"

Please visit my www.hiringmadeeasy.com site for information about how you can handle this and other, similar recruiting and hiring problems.

I had the opportunity to spend some time with a CEO of a very visible technology company that has suffered through the meltdown of the tech world. Over lunch he shared with me his comeback plan. Interestingly the entire strategy depended on having the right people in the right jobs at the right time doing the right things. (Sound familiar?) He was absolutely crystal clear in his understanding of how important it was to have great people if he was going to build a great company.

This attitude has to be at the core of your thinking as well. For the 15th consecutive month I am going to tell you that you have to be thinking about upgrading and improving your staff if you want to come out the back end of this difficult economy at full speed. It is the quality of your people more than any other single factor that will determine your success or failure.

One quick announcement, if you haven't visited the site for our rental house in Hawaii, you should check it out at www.ehokulele.com. The site was redone and you might enjoy the view!

Have a great month recruiting!

Barry Shamis