Management Research News

Emerald Article: Effective hiring Rashmila Gurumurthy, Brian H. Kleiner

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To cite this document: Rashmila Gurumurthy, Brian H. Kleiner, (2002),"Effective hiring", Management Research News, Vol. 25 Iss: 6 pp. 60 - 68 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409170210783313 Downloaded on: 28-05-2012 To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com This document has been downloaded 2826 times.

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Biographical Notes
Rashmila Gurumurthy Brian H. Kleiner

Effective Hiring
by Rashmila Gurumurthy and Brian H. Kleiner Effective hiring begins with the hirer How we hire is a reflection of ourselves. It is a fact that we are attracted to those who have the most desirable qualities, whether we actually possess those qualities or not. Can you, as the hirer, objectively evaluate yourself? What are our strengths and weaknesses? Many hirers have difficulty being objective. Making an objective assessment is important to hire effectively. What did you learn from your previous bad hire mistake? Some mistakes could have been: not analysing the job properly, not screened resumes effectively, not checked references, maybe your company has a bad reputation and so does not attract the best, and so on. Are you an effective listener? Can you filter out unnecessary information? Can you delegate? Failure to delegate implies that you do not trust your subordinates and also indicates personal insecurity. Such a person could feel threatened by a confident and competent prospective employee. Can you make a decision after reasonable deliberation? Indecision leads to delays in hiring and you could lose a well qualified candidate to the competition. A complete understanding of the companys needs for the vacant position is important. A written description of the duties and responsibilities of the job, the time the employee will spend at each, and the relative importance of each is extremely helpful. Studying this will help you determine, whether you actually need to hire or whether you can delegate these tasks to the current employees in the department. If you need to hire, analyse what went right with the previous employee and what did not. Write down your thoughts of an ideal employee for the job. Then, study it objectively. Is it possible for one person to have all these qualities? Next, make a realistic list, which can determine the hiring criteria. What sort of experience is truly necessary to perform the job effectively? What educational background is necessary? How intelligent must the person be to perform the job? For example, Microsoft hires people, who have an ivy-league education and whose intelligence is above average. What kind of personality is required for the job? As it is well known that different jobs require different personality types. Looking at the personal profile of an individual can help reveal basic character traits. For example, a person having high energy generally implies that this person gives the extra effort in the small things as well as the important things. A study of the professional profile can reveal whether the person is loyal to a cause, person or company, and so on. Does the candidates personality conflict with the prevailing personality mix in the department? A study of the business profile will reveal whether the person understands that you are in business to make a profit. There are many behavioural models which help shed light on the candidates personality, not only during the hiring

and can be contacted at the Department of Management, School of Business Administration and Economics, California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, California 92834 9480, USA.

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process, but also help with the counselling, training and motivating these employees later in the workplace. Next, determine two or three characteristics that will have the most impact on the candidates ability to do the job. These are not the only criteria for selection, but narrowing down the list of qualities you are looking for, to the most important ones, will reduce the amount of time involved in the hiring process and introduce efficiency. Determine the salary offer. When possible, be flexible when you have found the right person. There are many ways of recruiting the best candidates. The key is knowing where to look, and the benefits of each option. One could recruit within the company, through personal recommendations, recruiting services, and recruiting through advertising. Legal Ramifications When establishing criteria for selection, make sure that these criteria do not exclude people on the basis of race, religion, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, or physical handicap not directly related to job performance. One of the best ways to avoid making a mistake is to include in your job criteria only those factors that relate to the ability to do the job. Also, have an attorney review all application forms, testing materials etc. Because of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the use of psychological, personality, and intelligence testing in employment has been reduced. The concern here is that, certain tests have in-built cultural or ethnic biases that can, when interpreted and used as the basis for hiring, result in discrimination. It is safer for employers to use tests that have been subjected to considerable validation and reliability surveying by a professional, or use tests that have been approved by the EEOC. It is generally wise to have an application form that clearly states that employment will be solely at will and not for a lifetime or specific period of time. This statement should be in bold type and should be placed just above the applicants signature. This protects the employer in the future when he has to fire the employee. During an interview, there are specific questions that cannot be asked. Reading the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Title VII, and also the amendments in 1968 and 1972, will make the hirer aware of the basic dos and donts. The human resource department generally, is well versed in these legalities and it is helpful for the hirer to have them involved in the initial selection process. Screening process The screening process begins with evaluating resumes. The objective of a resume is to generate enough interest to get an interview. Almost all resumes serve as advertisements for candidates and they rarely give an accurate picture of a candidate. Simply reading a resume is not enough. One has to read between the lines - see through the cracks. There are four basic styles of writing a resume: the functional resume, the general resume, the chrono-

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logical resume, and the combination resume. Each style has different capabilities to highlight certain strengths and leave weaknesses well hidden. Look for evidence of achievement and accomplishment. Like the stock market, the best indicator of successful future performance is successful past performance. Examine what the resume tells you about the candidates stability and career direction. Frequent changes indicate instability in some, and in others, the candidate could have bettered himself with each change indicating a reasonably high level of competence. Examine how specific they are in their job descriptions. Some negative indicators are: lengthy descriptions of education; obvious gaps in background; trivia in the personal section; phrases such as knowledge of, assisted with, etc., usually indicates that the candidate does not have hands-on experience in those areas; self-righteous tone; resumes that stand out from all the rest; etc. These are just highlights, and you should refer to relevant books/information, as this would update your skills, and sharpen your awareness. Next, sort these resumes into reject, maybe, and definite piles. This helps create a phoner list. Read the definite resumes again. Write down any questions for any areas that you feel need clarification or probing. Interviewing With the phoner list, you can conduct brief telephone interviews to determine the essentials, so that you meet only the probable candidates. This is, sort of, a fact-finding process to verify all flagged areas in a resume. It is important to find out employment dates, salary progressions, and reasons for leaving different employers. The goal here is to determine as much as possible about the candidates capability. Make sure you can call the candidate at a time that is convenient for him/her. This way you can have a more responsive interviewee. At this time, do not say what you are looking for. Ask open-ended questions. Make sure you listen carefully. At the end of the telephone interview, you should be able to determine if the candidate is able to do the job, or that you are still not sure, or that the candidate seems able and possibly willing to do the job. Those who seem able and willing to do the job should be called in for a face-to-face interview. When arranging a face-toface interview do set some ground rules such as: you expect punctuality; you would like to be informed if for any reason the candidate cannot make the interview; that all information shared with you will be confidential; and that you intend to check references. This is a critical part of the hiring process. Begin with evaluating/developing your own interviewing style that is comfortable to you. Since each person is different, you have to have the ability to be flexible in your questioning techniques. Another important point is to listen actively. Take notes, so that it will help you better evaluate the candidates when all the interviewing has been done. Remember that just as you are evaluating the candidate, he/she is also evaluating your company through you and determining

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whether he/she would like to work at your company. Some basic suggestions are: * * * * * * * * Have a plan. Follow a logical sequence; i.e. greet the candidate and escort him/her cordially to your office. Create a proper interview environment; put the candidate at ease with brief small talk. Give an overview of what you want to accomplish in the interview. Get information about the candidate, you should talk less and listen more, and know how to ask questions effectively. Describe the job. Answer any questions from the candidate. Close the interview pleasantly.

Effective Hiring

One of the biggest mistakes some of us do, is to do most of the talking. The general rule to follow when interviewing is, you, the interviewer, should do no more than 20% of the talking. The different types of questions to ask are: * Open-ended questions. How do you feel about ....?, What do you feel are the reasons for these troubles?, Would you share with me....? Leading questions. Do you not think it is important to....? How do you handle stress? Questions about past performance. Share with me an experience when..., Give me an example of... Hypothetical questions. What if....? Multiple questions. Tell me about your last work assignment. What went well and what did not? What did you learn from it? If given the chance to work at it again , what would you do differently? Negative-Balance questions. What is one personality trait that you are not proud of? Negative Conformation. Your answer to the last question was very interesting. How did this effect your work? Reflexive questions. Dont you agree? Adding wouldnt you? couldnt you? etc. These help forward the conversation and help you maintain control of the conversation.

* * * *

* * *

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* Effective Hiring *

Mirror statements. This is a subtle form of probing which can be used to counter silence. Just repeat the substance of the candidates answer, then sit and wait for the candidate to expand on the mirror statement. So you solved the problem with.... Loaded questions. This is especially useful to judge a candidates decision-making approaches. What would be your approach to a situation where...?

Always remember to keep your reactions to yourself and stay in control. Keep the interviewee on track. One of the ways to handle a flustered candidate or awkward situations, where the candidate cannot come up with an answer promptly is to say pleasantly. Thats all right. Take your time to answer. Then sit quietly and wait for the answer. To handle talkative candidates, interrupt the conversation with, Thats very interesting, and that leads me to ask you about... or interrupt and begin redirecting the conversation to your next area of questioning. Ask questions about: areas of study, academic performance, attitudes, motivation, work experience, job performance, job responsibilities, and social activities. Write down your general impression of the candidate, his/her manner of answering questions, body language, intelligence, temperament, and confidence. Lastly, close the interview by giving an indication such as, This is my last question, or by asking if the candidate has any questions. Be courteous. Stand up and thank the candidate for coming, and walk him/her to the door. Generally there are four interview styles. Situational, Personality profile, Stress, and Behavioural. Situational interviewing is based on the theory that the closer you can get to a real situation, the better your evaluation will be. The Personality profile style is based on the theory that key traits are very important to the success of each individual job. Stress interviewing evaluates poise and quick thinking under pressure. Behavioural interviewing bases all questions in the past, and requires the candidate to give specific examples from work history. The theory is that past behaviour can predict future actions. Again there is no one best way to interview. It depends on the situation. The best approach is to use the best aspects of each style and form a comprehensive strategy. Ask yourself if the candidate matches the job. Be aware of the legality of the questions you ask. Due to the scope of this article, it is not possible to go into great detail, however, the bibliography will list further reading materials. Also, treat this as a learning process. Analyse your interview each time so that you can learn from it and be better next time. Example of Microsoft The company, Microsoft, is fanatical about hiring the right employee. For a long time, Bill Gates himself would do all the recruiting. Now other top executives like Steven Ballmer, etc., and sometimes Gates, do the hiring. For technical jobs, they hire young people right out of college with a background in science, maths, or computers. They choose specific recruiting grounds such as, Harvard, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

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Carnegie Mellon, and University of Waterloo. In all 15 universities in the U.S., four in Canada, and six in Japan are targeted. IQ tests are necessary but not a sufficient condition. To hire 200 people, vice-president of human resources, Mike Murray, goes through at least 20,000 resumes. During a phone screening, Microsoft personnel ask a series of open-ended questions: Whats your typical day like? How many hours are you awake, and what do you do in those hours? How do you feel about projects that do not get done? They want the person who would answer the last question like, God, I just hate that! They look for what people did with their time, and the amount of energy in their voice. They are first interviewed on campus and later when selected, are flown to the Microsoft headquarters for a brief visit to experience the actual working environment. They look for candidates who have drive, initiative, crisp thinking, and high IQ. Candidates are asked difficult questions that have nothing to do with programming. To find out how smart he/she is, they often ask a logic question in the middle of a conversation to throw the person off balance. They ask game theory questions, to see if the person can think. For example, a candidate has to guess a number between 1 to 100 that the interviewer has selected. The candidate is told if the guess is high or low, and continues until guessing the correct number. It is a mathematical strategy for getting the right number in the fewest possible guesses, which is about seven. Candidates are asked tough technical questions. They give them a piece of paper and pen, and ask them to solve the problem, while they sit back and do not take their eyes off the candidate. They hire people who can solve problems under pressure. Once, they find the right candidate, they do everything in their power to hire him/her. Despite the long working hours, Microsoft has one of the lowest employee turnovers. They are not paid overtime, but choose to do so voluntarily. Hiring effectively, does not end after hiring, but it is an ongoing process to retain employees. The company does everything to keep an employee comfortable. If they hire a person who has to relocate to their location, they assign a human resource employee to the candidate, to help find a house, they connect them to real estate agents, connect them to good schools for their children, banks, medical specialists, show the wife the grocery stores etc., and generally help them adjust in the shortest time possible. They dress the way they like and have freedom to decorate their offices any way they like. They have game rooms to take breaks and release stress. In fact, their corporate headquarters is like a college campus. They invest in time and money in the hiring process, because skilled people are their number one competitive advantage. Ability and willingness to do the job Having gathered all the information, the hirer should evaluate ability again. Does the candidate have a performance history that will let him or her function appropriately, even outstandingly, in that position? What sort of re-

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sponsibilities did he/she have? Through this, the hirer can gain insight into skills, special knowledge, and relative strengths and weaknesses. The cumulative result will enable you to get a clear picture of the candidates essential capabilities. What kind of achievements were made? How was his/her communication skills? Is his/her experience sufficient for the job at hand? If the candidate has the ability, then the next question is to ask yourself whether the candidate seems willing to do the job? It is important to differentiate the willing from the merely able. Although they might have the ability, they should be willing to get the job done, to work smoothly with the rest of the department, to meet problems logically and fearlessly, and to complete tasks with energy and with calmness. Questions to determine this are based on self-esteem, understanding the job, and what it takes to get it done. Introduce him/her to the department members and ask the candidate whether he/she would like working in a group. Questions about the types of people he/she gets along with, his/her idea about co-operation, causes of team failure, etc., will help determine his/her willingness to work and fit in your department. Analytical abilities, resilience, and certain aspects of emotional maturity can be evaluated when you ask questions about problems and problem situations. Questions about planning, organisation, time management, and energy levels will help evaluate what it takes the candidate to get out there and actually do it. It is important to re-evaluate the motivation, confidence, and his/her desire to succeed. All answers to these general questions help identify willingness. Manageability The candidate may be able and willing to do the job, but can he/she be managed. A manager gets the job done through others, so if you, the hirer, as department head cannot manage a person who is able and willing, you can never manage successfully. A managers future promotion also depends on how he/she hires others to work for the company. It effects the hiring managers career, because top management watch how managers hire, counsel, and manage employees. As Martin John Yate writes in his book, Hiring the Best, the successful manager builds a three-dimensional picture of the short-list candidates. First, he looks inside, examines the skeleton with questions designed to reveal ability to perform the jobs tasks. Then he puts flesh on bones and gives colour and personality with the questions that determine a persons willingness to do the job. Only then does the successful manager get a chance to see the candidate as a whole person. And only by seeing the whole person can the manager decide whether this naked person is going to be manageable [3, p.119]. This also depends upon the type of manager you are. For example, if you are an autocratic manager, you will be unsuccessful in managing a creative candidate. Questions about his/her previous supervisor can help determine his/her management preferences. This not only helps now, but also later in counselling, as the employee works and problems arise.

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Decision to hire Before you make the decision to hire, check all references thoroughly. Due to increasing law suits, many companies are hesitant to give information about the candidate. Serious reference-checking is an art and a battle of wits. It is time-consuming and often frustrating. Be friendly, it helps loosen up the other party. Always speak to the candidates boss and not to the personnel department, because you seldom get negative facts and they really do not know anything about the candidates work activities. Be wary of glowing references, because it could be possible that the company can not wait to get rid of a problem employee. There are three ways to check references: by mail, in person, and over the phone. The most direct and effective way to obtain reference information, although impractical, is in person. They are much more candid, and meeting the candidates previous employer helps you judge his/her personality, and thus you can better evaluate the candidates performance under his/her past supervisor. If a personal meeting cannot be arranged, then the next best thing is to get a reference over the phone. All information should be kept in confidence. If there are substantial discrepancies between what you learn in your reference check and what the candidate has told you, simply drop the candidate from your consideration. If there are not too many, give the candidate a chance to explain. Reference checking is not foolproof. Ultimately the decision is to be made by you, through cumulative information gathered in the entire process. Making the final decision on whom to hire is not easy. If you have developed the right criteria, recruited effectively, screened objectively, and interviewed prudently, then you should be able to bring some logic to the final process. Is the person suitable for that particular job? Match the job characteristics to the personal character traits of the person. Is the person able and willing to do the job? Can the person be effectively managed? Remember that, you can manage some people all of the time, but you can not manage all of the people all of the time. Can the person be compatible with your companys corporate image and policies? Do not be fooled into hiring clones of other good employees. There should be a balance, and you should look to add depth to your team. There are many interview skeletons for different job requirements which can be easily accessed at any library. There is no perfect employee. The steps outlined in this article are to help you, not make, the mistake of putting the wrong person in the wrong job. Ultimately, the hire/managers credibility and stability of the department is at stake. Bad hires can effect your departments ability to contribute effectively to the company, and threaten your future career advances in the company. Finally, once you have made a decision, do not delay the offer. Steven Ballmer told InfoWorld magazine in a 1983 interview, There is a standing policy here. Whenever you meet a kick-ass guy, get him...... There are some guys you meet only once in a lifetime. So why screw around? Effective Hiring

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Conclusion Effective Hiring In the book, Help Wanted, the authors talk about the coming workforce 2000 and future skilled worker shortages. Companies need to focus on finding the right employees to get and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage through worker skills. Jack Welch, the CEO of GE, has made the remark that, number one employees belong to the number one company in the marketplace, number two employees belong to the number two company, and cannot be allowed to remain in the number one company. Successful hiring takes time and money. However, the return on this investment can be very high. In summary, make a commitment to each hiring situation and give it the top priority. Become familiar with legal ramifications in hiring. Be clear on what you need for the job. Be realistic and objective. Invest in the recruiting process and monitor or do the screening process yourself. Learn to become a better interviewer and to be an effective listener. Check all references yourself and do not delay the decision. Bad hires effect the company in many ways. Each year American companies spend vast amounts of time, money and energy on newly hired employees who either quit after the training or are terminated. Does your company use resources to train employees who will eventually leave, and work for your competitor using the skills you taught? Effective hiring not only involves hiring them, but also retaining them and helping them better their skills for the companys advantage. Also, ineffective hiring leads to employees who do not quit and are not terminated, and do not make a single meaningful contribution to their companies. The labour department studies show that approximately 50% of new hires last only six months in their new jobs. Quality workers, will be a companys most important tool for building up productivity, capturing new markets, and staying ahead of competition. Quality workers are becoming a key competitive advantage to companies. References Preston, P., Employers Guide To Hiring and Firing, Prentice-Hall, Inc., New Jersey, 1982. Bolick, C. Hopkins, K. and Nestleroth, S., Help Wanted, McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, 1991. Yate, M., Hiring The Best, Bob Adams, Inc., Boston, 1988. Dobrish, C. Wolff, R. and Zevnik, B., Hiring The Right Person For The Right Job, Alexander Hamilton Institute, 1984. Half, R., Robert Half On Hiring, Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, 1985.

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