Hiring Myths - OutMatchHiring Myths Myths, Misconceptions and Maladies of the Hiring Process Most company executives believe they have an effective hiring process in place and are

Hiring MythsMyths, Misconceptions and Maladies of the Hiring Process

Most company executives believe they have an effective hiring process in place and are preparedfor any hiring dilemma.

In reality, many ineffective hiring practices are currently in use at organizations across the globe. Business leaders and HR personnel are likely buying into the many myths that surround the crucial task of hiring employees, and whether they are aware of it or not, these deficient practices are likely hurting their bottom line.

Combating or avoiding hiring problems begins with identifying the myths and then prescribing effective talent management solutions. You must first find out which myths you believe, how much these misconceptions are costing your company, and how you can help relieve this malady before it becomes terminal. This paper will assist you in solving these common hiring dilemmas when creating your Dream Team.

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1. Companies believe they have a defined hiring process.

2. Companies believe they have realistic expectations of the time it takes torecruit, interview and hire top talent.

3. Companies believe that when a new employee isn’t performing, they willterminate that employee quickly.

THE TRUTH IS:

1. What many companies consider a ‘defined hiring process’ may consist ofhaving a place to post job listings, an employee to gather resumes, and amanager to conduct the interviews. Truly defining the hiring process,however, means investing time, energy and resources into researching andchoosing a proven, multi-faceted method for conducting the search, andtracking job positions and candidates. There are many HR-related softwaretracking pack-ages that can help with this endeavor.

2. Companies rarely take a retrospective look at how long it actually took tosecure top talent. The authors of Topgrading: How to Hire, Coach and Keep

“A” Players strongly recommend that companies try to fill every positionwith A players. Yet most companies continue to hire B’s and C’s—thusnever raising their talent bar. One reason for this is that some leadersbelieve it should only take 30 to 45 days to hire the right person. The realityis it can take much longer than that to find the right person. Rushing theprocess will not lead to long-term success.

3. Firing an employee is rarely a fast or simple procedure. Most companiesactually spend two to eight times longer firing an employee than they spenthiring the person in the first place.

Companies rarely take a retrospective look at how long it actually took to secure top talent.

Hiring Myths

THE THREE BASIC HIRING MYTHS ARE:



Some managers will give themselves the proverbial high-five when an onslaught of applicants apply for a position— even though the applicants are unqualified.

Sourcing Myths

A second group of myths deal with sourcing—or where and how to find can-didates. It is imperative to have a realistic and accurate idea of the right place and means of locating and identifying top talent.

THE MOST COMMON SOURCING MYTHS ARE:

1. Companies believe the job posting needs to “sell” the position and thecompany.

2. Companies believe that the more applicants who respond to a job opening,the better.

THE TRUTH IS:

1. Some companies routinely post job advertisements that sound too good tobe true. (i.e., come work for a fun, exciting, growth-oriented company! Earngreat money for doing very little! All you need is enthusiasm and energy!)That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea. This is not the way tofind serious, committed and loyal employees.

2. Even using a toned-down version of the above type of ad, it is no wonderthe wrong people show up—in droves. And some managers will give them-selves the proverbial high-five when an onslaught of applicants apply—eventhough the applicants are unqualified.

The biggest problem with this scenario? It costs money to process unqualified applicants.

These types of job postings don’t describe the job or the company, and the unqualified responders are too numerous to count. It is much more effective for companies to provide a basic, honest description of both the job and the company in the ad and ask for interested candidates who meet certain basic requirements. Having interested candidates take a basic online assessment up front can also filter unqualified applicants.



Interviewing Myths

THE THREE BASIC INTERVIEWING MYTHS ARE:

1. Companies believe they have an objective, unbiased interviewing process.

2. Companies believe they interview the candidate impartially, and don’tfocus on his or her personality.

3. Companies believe that performance-on-the-interview indicates perfor-mance on the job.

If these three myths were true, hiring managers could follow this plan and hire top talent and reduce turnover, therefore mitigating some of the costs associated with it. Unfortunately, most interviewers fall prey to the urge to size up a candidate by relying on their gut instinct—and then selling the job to them.

THE TRUTH IS:

1. They don’t have an objective, repeatable, scalable, and assessable inter-viewing process. In addition to investing in structured behavioral interviewtraining, assessments can help you figure out a person’s true strengthsand weaknesses. It is one of the few tools in the process that is completelyobjective and quantitative. When given early enough, assessments can alsouncover information that the interviewer can use during the interview.

2. Many hiring managers have tremendous difficulty separating the candi-date’s personality from his or her qualifications. They may spend too muchtime bonding with an amiable candidate, and then ask very few job-pertinentquestions. Worse, and this is most often the case, the interviewer spends 80percent of the time talking instead of listening, thus gleaning little informa-tion from the candidate.

3. The final mistake in interviewing is to believe a candidate’s performancein an interview mirrors his or her performance on the job. Candidates will beon their best behavior during an interview and will undoubtedly tell a hiringmanager exactly what they want to hear. This is quite similar to going on afirst date. It isn’t until the third or fourth date when you begin to meet thereal person you are dating. The same can be said for interviewing. Unfortu-nately, many hiring managers are fooled by a one-hour schmooze-fest andend up hiring the wrong person because they like the candidate… and theydon’t like interviewing. In their minds, the quicker the job is filled, the better.

Many hiring managers have tremendous difficulty separating the candidate’s personality from his or her qualifications.



Candidates sometimes stretch the truth when providing references as they believe most companies don’t check references—and unfortunately, they are correct.

Verification Myths

THE BASIC VERIFICATION MYTHS ARE:

1. The resume is always an honest portrayal of the candidate’s experience.

2. Background/reference checks provide little value.

THE TRUTH IS:

1. Major mistakes are often made when validating a candidate’s information.The first rule when looking at a resume is: don’t believe everything you read.In other words, many resumes are great works of fiction—not fact. Eitherthat, or they are spun in a way to create the illusion that a candidate hasachieved results, when in fact that is only a partial truth.

For example, a candidate may write the following on his resume: “Grew ter-ritory from $1,000,000 to $12,000,000 in four years.” Sounds impressive. What this candidate isn’t saying is he was given a $9,000,000 house account to manage that wasn’t initially in his territory. Technically, he still increased revenue in his territory, but the missing details show that this salesman isn’t the superhero his resume is depicting.

2. Candidates also sometimes stretch the truth when providing references.They believe most companies don’t check references—and unfortunately,they are correct. Those who do check references have quite a few interestingstories to share—instances where high-level executives put down names ofpeople who turned out to be neighbors or golfing partners with strong titlesrather than business references who actually worked with the candidate.

Candidates may also misrepresent their degrees, training or certifications—and they get away with it because these things are often not verified.



How your company could be sacrificing a million dollars:

The Cost of Misconceptions

Falling prey to any of the myths described above can dramatically drive up the price of hiring, putting unnecessary strain on your organization. Once a candidate is hired, or mis-hired, increased costs are incurred, as illustrated in the following three examples. In the first example (nursing), we will look at the straight cost of turnover; in the second example (hourly worker), we will add in some soft costs; in the third example (sales), we will add in the cost of lost business.

EXAMPLE 1: Certified Nursing Assistant

Typical cost to hire a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) = $4,500 – $5,500

Typical turnover for CNAs = 70% – 85%

Cost of turnover for staff of 100 nurses = $315,000 – $467,500

EXAMPLE 2: Hotel Desk Staff

A study done by the Cornell University Hotel School for an $8.00-an-hour worker shows the impact of turnover, including customer service disruption, loss of morale, and burnout/loss of productivity of remaining employees.

Typical cost to hire a front desk worker = $5,688 – $11,609

Typical turnover rate for front desk staff = 40% – 80%

Cost of turnover for staff of 100 workers = $227,520 – $928,720

EXAMPLE 3: Sales Representative

When the cost of lost business is added into these scenarios, the number climbs exponentially. For this example, imagine a sales position with a salary of $50,000 and a territory valued at $250,000…

Typical cost to hire a salesperson = $3,000 – $12,000

Typical turnover rate for salespeople = 50% – 120%

Cost of turnover for one salesperson = $80,175 – $320,000

Bottom line: If your company loses three salespeople per year, you are sacrific-ing almost a million dollars!



One of the most difficult tasks for a manager is to hire once or twice a year—and do it well.

Relieve the Malady

As business leaders, how can you relieve this malady before it becomes terminal?

The hiring process begins with defining the position. The value of this task should not be underestimated. After the basic job is defined, the key Knowl-edge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs) an individual must possess to perform the job effectively must be identified. It may take research and/or consulting to come up with the specifics in these arenas. There should be a clear delineation between what your organization must have in this employee, and what would be nice to have.

Solution: Job modeling with tools like the Job Requirement Survey (JRS) use subject matter experts to build job models for accurate job descriptions. These approaches adhere to best practices by gathering input from several sources in a highly structured format.

Once the job description is complete, a process for tracking the flow of ap-plicants needs to be in place. This fosters consistency in hiring. It also creates a more efficient process by centralizing applicant data for ease of access and tracking purposes. It is also fairly easy to see if the hiring manager is following the process properly to foster accountability.

Solution: Tools like the Applicant Qualification System (AQS) keep candidates’ information and test results organized and can also include knock-out ques-tions, assessments or an online application.

Next, gather and analyze information on the candidates to make a hiring deci-sion. Typically the more structured information you have, the better quality decision you make, increasing your ability to hire the right candidate. Recom-mended steps and tools include an online application, followed by a resume review, phone screen, assessment, interview, verification and background check. Each step in the process provides a decision point to funnel candidates down to the final selection.

Solution: Online learning systems like InterviewRight™ teach interviewers how to conduct structured behavioral interviews with written exercises, videos and other resources. It is a cost-effective way to train hiring managers and it al-lows them to access the information whenever they need to brush up on their hiring skills.

Assessments such as Devine Salaried Selection™, Devine Hourly Selection™, and Devine Inventory Hiring™ provide quantitative information for use in conjunction with the resume and interview.



Visit www.devinegroup.com

to learn more about the

tools discussed in this paper.

Relieve the Malady cont’d

The final part of the information gathering process is verification (e.g., how does the interviewer verify references and the integrity of the resume?). The answer is simple, actually. Ask the right questions.

Instead of asking, “Can I call Bob and ask him about your job performance?” You might ask, “If I asked Bob what you enjoyed doing—what would he say?” or “If I asked Bob what you didn’t enjoy, what would he say?” This is important so that when you do call Bob, you have information to give and re-ceive. This can have tremendous impact not only on verifying the truthfulness of the answers you receive from the candidate, but also on the level of detail you receive from the reference.

Solution: The Devine Group’s Screening Services provide options from back-ground checks to employment and education verification to help you in the last step before you make your final hiring decision.

Bottom line: the hiring process is a structured, multi-step method that must be developed before the first resume is reviewed. Learn what you don’t know now so that these common hiring maladies do not become terminal to your bottom line.



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Hiring Myths - OutMatchHiring Myths Myths, Misconceptions and Maladies of the Hiring Process Most company executives believe they have an effective hiring process in place and are