And Their Solutions!
I hope you had a chance to read my last post where I shared the best interview question I know.
Hopefully you have had a few minutes to think about it – and maybe even test it out in a real interview. With a little practice, I guarantee that you will get some very revealing insights into your candidates. Here it is again.
Today I’m going to give you solutions to a problem that every business owner and HR professional faces – it is becoming increasingly difficult to find and identify high quality candidates and, at the same time, the cost of hiring mistakes is increasing.
No longer can you easily replace someone if they don’t turn out to be as good as you expected. The cost of recruiting and training is spiraling out of control and the potential legal problems attached to terminating someone can cause you to hold on to employees who are only average… or worse.
Here are some trends I am seeing right now along with strategies that you can use to adapt to these challenges in the coming year.
The Candidate’s Goal is to Get the Job, Not Help You Hire the Right Person
Of course, this has always been the case, but today the consequences of hiring a poor performing or even “average” employee is increasing.
Solution: Use the latest advances in psychology and technology to turn the odds in your favor. This is my area of expertise and I’ll be glad to help in any way I can.
Applicants are Better Prepared and More Practiced Than Ever
Today an almost unlimited amount of interview preparation resources are available online. Sites like Glassdoor report the exact interview questions used by leading companies while Amazon offers over six thousand books with interview questions and advice!
If you are using the same interview questions you have always used (even good, behavioral ones), there’s a good chance that you are going to get a prepared answer rather than one that will help you make the best possible hiring decision.
Solution: While the interview will always be a critical part of the hiring process, the type and structure of questions must be updated. In a future post, I’ll talk about the five major mistakes made in interview and give you my proprietary interview question creation formula.
The Process Hasn’t Changed For a Hundred Years
Most companies are still using the traditional application/resume > interview > reference / background check methodology that has been used for at least the last one hundred years.
Solution: Add a validated assessment to your process to give you insights that are difficult or impossible to obtain using a traditional interview process. This doesn’t replace what you are doing now, it just adds an extra step that gives you valuable information that you probably can’t get any other way. Once again, I can help.
The Pressure to Fill Open Positions Is Increasing
This can lead to a temptation to hire the best candidate you can find, not the right one.
Solution: Calculate the true cost of turnover in your organization. One of my clients found out that the true cost of filling a minimum wage job was $13,000! Once they knew this number they made a business decision to slow down their hiring process and be more selective instead of thinking that if someone didn’t work out they would just hire someone else. Turnover is an unseen tax on your profits and 2017 is the year to stop paying it.
Note to HR Professionals: Having analytical data showing how you contributed to profits will make you a valued business partner in your company.
Which of these solutions will you put to use in 2017?
As always, I’d love to hear your comments and questions!
