Hired or Fired
by Dera DeRoche-Jolet

You naturally expect to have some employee problems. By using the proper management wisdom you’ll deal with situations, and hopefully, work out effective solutions. But some employees that you have problems with should never have been hired in the first place. Some are great workers but they are in the wrong position. Looking back, if you knew then, what you know now, you would have made some different decisions.

The time to choose the right employee is during the hiring process. Unfortunately, many employers are not skilled in interviewing applicants. If you have ever interviewed a candidate who seemed perfect for the job only to fire him a month or so down the road, you’ll know what I am talking about. You thought you were a good judge of character and the applicant’s qualifications seemed to fit the job description. How could you have been so mistaken?

If you are like many other employers, you probably started out on the wrong foot by not first determining the specifications for the job. What skills and qualifications does the applicant absolutely have to have? Know exactly what you are looking for before you look at any resumes. This way you won’t be swayed by an impressive resume from someone who is unsuited for the particular job. Then, automatically disqualify those resumes that don’t meet your specifications.

Another mistake employers make is interviewing applicants without being prepared. If you are simply asking questions that are already answered on the resume you are wasting everyone’s time. Plus, after the interview is over, you still won’t know how qualified the applicant is. Your best bet is to know the position and plan your questions around those guidelines.

Sometimes, without meaning to, you might ask "leading" questions. When you do this, you can never be sure if you are getting accurate information or the applicant is simply responding to the tone of your voice and your body language. Often, the answer is so painfully obvious that the question is meaningless. For instance, what do you expect an applicant to say when you ask, "How do you think you’ll be at dealing with the stress of a monitoring station?" The obvious answer any applicant who wants the job is, "I handle stress very well." Once the applicant is hired, you’ll soon learn how honest his answer was and just how capable he is at handling stress.

Now that you’re asking the right questions, give the applicant a chance to talk. Don’t dominate the conversation. You won’t learn anything about the applicant if you do all the talking. And, make sure you listen.

Don’t settle for inadequate answers. You’ll have no more information than when you started and you’ll wind up making the wrong assumptions. You might feel awkward and uncomfortable pressing for answers. However, the answers you receive to these questions may be essential to your decision. If you need to know, you need to ask.

Don’t stereotype the applicant or assume anything. You might have a picture in your head of the perfect person for the job. But the best candidate may not fit your picture and the one that does may not be the best candidate for the job.

Another mistake employers make is to hire people simply because they are likable. Some people just naturally have winning personalities and you find yourself liking them right away. But, as likable as they might be, they may not be the best qualified for the job.

The same holds true for people with similar backgrounds and personalities as you. We have a tendency to choose people like us not only in business but in our personal relationships as well. A person who loves golf as much as you do does not necessarily make the best candidate.

Be objective. It’s best to rate applicants according to the guidelines you set up beforehand rather than comparing applicants with each other. For example, the first person you interview may not have the right qualifications, but you both hit it off. You spend most of the interview talking about mutual interests. You’ve made up your mind to hire this person for the job before interviewing anyone else.

During the rest of the interviews (which you now consider a waste of time), you’re not really listening and when you do pay attention to the other candidates, you compare them unfavorably to the first applicant.

First impressions can be inaccurate and incomplete. Don’t make any decisions until all interviews have been completed. Keep an open mind. Hopefully, once you’ve hired someone, you’ll look back after a few months and know you made the right decision.