Welcome to the September edition of the Hire Score Newsletter. As always, welcome to all our new subscribers and welcome back to our regular subscribers.

I am on a plane (there's a surprise!) flying from San Francisco back to Seattle. I just finished delivering a couple of presentations for CEO groups. There was one gentleman who really got me to thinking about how much misinformation there is on the subjects of recruiting and hiring.

This very knowledgeable man just insisted that he was going to ask candidates to "Tell me about yourself?" He said that this was the only way he could figure them out. I thought I would share my response to him and discuss a number of other "disconnects" with you this month.

My immediate response to him was to ask if he was a trained behavioral psychologist. His answer was "no", so I then asked him why he would want to put himself in a position where he had to figure someone out.

Going into an interview with the intent of trying to figure someone out is a bad idea. There are a number of reasons why. First, as I mentioned above, you have put yourself in a position you are not qualified to be in. We are not trained behavioral psychologists so we shouldn't act like as if we are.

The second reason is candidates are becoming more and more sophisticated about the interview process. They are better coached, they are reading more books and with all the career sites on the internet, they are being bombarded with tons of information about how to get a job. It has been my experience that the candidates today are better prepared than most interviewers.

The solution is to not "play the game" at all. Instead of trying to figure them out, simply go into every interview with the goal of gathering as much data as possible. Ask great data oriented questions and chronicle the person's behavior and your results will be much better.

The next disconnect I want to deal with is the belief that interview behavior is a good predictor of job performance. NOT TRUE!!! Another person asked me why he should not put a sales candidate under pressure in the interview since most sales jobs involve a lot of pressure.

On the surface this seems to make sense. But let's dig a little deeper. If you employ this "add pressure" tactic to your interview, you are making the assumption that the situation emulates the real world. But this is definitely not true. There is not much about the interview situation that models the real world.

First, you are assuming that your interview pressure is the same as the pressure of a sales call. But, there really are a number of differences. On a sales call, the sales rep understands the "rules of engagement". Not many people, on either side of the desk, understand the rules of engagement during an interview. Both sides are guessing at the rules, which is not the case on a sales call. During a sales call, sales reps handle objections that they are familiar with and are prepared to defend. In an interview when a candidate gets an objection they immediately know it is the start of a game.

I have a great story that illustrates this interview behavior myth. Years ago I was interviewing people for a training administrator job. This person handled massive quantities of details and worked under tremendously difficult deadlines. I needed someone who worked independently and could handle the pressure of the pace.

A young lady came in for an interview. Two minutes into the interview she started crying. Now this is not a great indicator of someone who can handle the pressure of the job I was trying to fill. But, being the professional that I am, I gave her an opportunity to compose herself. After a few minutes I continued with the interview. It turned out that she was a fabulous candidate who ended up being a top performer on the job. Her only shortcoming was that she was panicked any time she had to sell herself. If I had assumed that her interview behavior (crying under pressure) was going to be repeated on the job I never would have hired her.

Instead of testing the candidate with fake pressure and then making assumptions, I recommend you ask effective questions about how the person handled similar situations in the past. If you want to know how the person handles deadlines, ask about how they handled deadlines in the past. If you want to know how they handle objections in a sales cycle, find out how they handled them in the past. You are always better of chronicling the person's past behavior because it IS the best predictor of their future behavior.

A final word on this subject. I had a very senior sales executive respond to this explanation by saying, "I don't care what you say, I am going to poke them and prod them to see how they react!" To which I responded, "Do you want to hire people who say smart things, or would you rather hire people who DO smart things?"

A quick rant before I get to the question of the month. I just finished reading a new book on how to interview people. One of the key techniques put forward in the book was to ask all your interview questions at once. Now I sure hope I am not the only person that thinks that is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. Put yourself in the place of a candidate. If you walked into an interview and the interviewer asked you 20 questions all at once, what would you do? The misinformation just keeps piling up.

With the critical shortage of people and our desperation to find the people to drive our business strategies, new experts are sprouting up all over the place. You know I am a firm believer in continuing to expand your knowledge and skill base when it comes to recruiting and hiring. You should read everything you can get your hands on. You should practice the things you have learned from me. But please apply the "common sense" test to everything you are exposed to. If it doesn't pass your common sense test, throw it away!

Question of the Month
"Should I be conducting background checks on my candidates?" Sam D San Francisco
Absolutely! My philosophy on hiring is to make your decision based on as much data as possible. And you want that data to be valid. Conducting a background check makes sense from a selection perspective and from a legal perspective. You want to do everything possible to protect your company from unpleasant situations. At the very least, I would validate degrees, diplomas, certifications or licenses and check for criminal background.

It is very easy to get this information, as there are numerous companies that specialize in quickly providing you with the necessary data. If you need a recommendation for a source to accomplish this, send me a note and I will get you some information.

Finally, I am off to Hawaii for 10 days to work on the new version of our Selecting Winners workshop. (OK, so I will sneak in a few rounds of golf) Many of you have attended our workshop and I want to openly ask you for suggestions. Is there anything you would like to see added, deleted, beefed up or reduced. I would appreciate any suggestions. As a matter of fact, I am even willing to bribe you. Send me any suggestion for the workshop and I will send you a free copy of my "Smartass Answers To Stupid Interview Questions" book. If you f you already have a copy of the book, I will send you something equally valuable. Send your suggestions to shamis@selectingwinners.com

Have a great month recruiting!

Barry Shamis

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