Choosing the best applicants: The more you know, the less you risk
Part II: How to hire the best for your company
Now that you’ve had an unbelievably huge response to your advertising and promotional campaign, how do you decide which of these candidates to hire?
"The key," says Houston-based Hire Tough president Mel Kleiman, "is to recognize that interviewing is not hiring. Just because a guy took you out to dinner and was on his best behavior doesn’t mean that what you saw is really what you’re going to get. You don’t have to like people to hire them. It may be nicer if you do, but that’s not one of the criteria. Know that whatever you see in an interview is better than what you will ever see from that person again in your entire life."
Studies done at the University of Chicago show that most employers make a hiring decision within 14 seconds. "My opinion is that when you’re really hard up for somebody, your decision time is closer to two seconds," says Kleiman. "But there is so much liability and responsibility in the private duty home health care industry that you really can’t do that. The biggest problem you could have is a negligent hiring suit."
He points out that there are two ways to get the information you need. The first is through talking with the applicant. The second is through having the applicant write answers to a list of questions.
Trust your gut only when it says no’
Most people who have a negative gut feeling about an applicant will honor it and not make that hire. However, Kleiman says that when your gut feeling is positive, you should doubt it. "The key to good hiring is developing a hiring system, not positive feelings; the first step in a good hiring system is eliminating the unqualified candidates as swiftly as possible. A good set of preliminary screening questions will do this for you."
Let’s assume you made it easy for people to apply to you for work. The first way in which they will apply is over the telephone. You can begin a telephone screen by thanking the person for applying, then asking for his or her name and telephone number. What to ask: What made you respond to our ad? What made you think you might be interested in this position?
Let them know up front that your hiring process is demanding, and specify what it entails. Kleiman suggests a script along these lines: "Home health care takes hiring very seriously. You will be required to do an intensive interview, complete an attitudes and personality survey, and take a drug test. We also do a criminal screen and a thorough background check. This process may take several hours. Are you willing to go through this extensive a hiring process?"
What’s the message you just gave? That an applicant had better be clean on all fronts to work for you. A lot of people will just go away, so you’ve used your system to bring in good but also to eliminate some of the bad. The same script will convey to others that your agency is a good place to work.
Decide what your most important job qualification is and design your screening questions around it. An automated telephone recruiting and screening service can help save you time and money. (See related article, p. 128.) For example, if your employees need certification and you don’t plan to certify them yourself, your first preliminary screening question is, "Are you certified?" In private duty home care, the next one you need to ask is, "Do you have reliable transportation?"
To begin weeding out the applicants who won’t qualify for your hire, you can follow with:
• What is your minimum salary requirement?
• What hours, days, and shifts would you prefer to work?
• What hours, days, and shifts are you available to work?
• What hours, days, and shifts can’t you or won’t you work?
• If you have a criminal record, please tell me about it.
• This job requires taking a drug test. Are you willing to be tested for drugs prior to and any time during your employment here?
• This job pays between $7 and $14 an hour, based on previous experience. Is this an adequate salary?
Never interview from a resume
The next hiring step is the written application. Kleiman cautions against ever accepting a resume in lieu of, or even attached to, an application. "Resumes contain what people want to tell you. If you interview from a resume, applicants control the interview because what they want you to ask them about is what’s already on the resume. Application blanks cover what you want to know. They are very, very important documents and you need to comply with the laws regarding them."
Keep all applications on file for at least a year. (Federal law says you must keep an application for 180 days, plus which the applicant has up to 180 days to file a claim against you for employment.)
If you give an application blank to one person who asks you for one, you need to give one to everybody who asks.
As a screener, you should never write anything on the candidate’s application form.
Provide written instructions for filling out the application. These should be in a cover letter or separate page given out with the application. State clearly that if the application is not filled out completely you will not proceed to an interview. Don’t allow applicant to write "see resume" or leave anything blank.
Realize that everything you do is a test
Studies have shown that testing is the best predictor of job success, much more valid than interviews, but many employers make testing the final step. "We say, prescreen, application, test, then interview," Kleiman says.
That way, if the candidate doesn’t meet your qualifications, you haven’t spent time doing an unnecessary interview and you will have more information to work from when you interview.
Remember that the U.S. government defines everything you, as a potential employer, do in the hiring process as a test. For example: "I ask you to fill out an application blank completely. What did I just do? Under government rules and regulations, I gave you a test. What was my test? It was, Can you do this and do you follow directions.’ I need somebody at 4:30 in the morning, so that’s when I set up the interview. I set up a test that showed me how an applicant would do a job," Kleiman says.
Look at how you test. You should test for skills, job capacity, personality, and attitude. Attitude testing is probably one of the fastest-growing test areas. Understand that jobs have personalities, companies have personalities, and managers have personalities. The more effectively you match those, the better off you are.
Kleiman stresses that "you want to be sure that people can manage their personalities. Every day, successful people do things that unsuccessful people don’t like to do."
Position’ applicants before interview
Telling people what’s going to happen in the interview and what you expect from them makes them comfortable. The next step is building the interview, using structured questions that will find you what you need to have and can ask of all the applicants. Kleinman advises:
• Make the applicant feel relaxed. "When a prospective employee comes for the interview, I make sure to tell my receptionist — within the applicant’s hearing — that I’m going to be in an important meeting for the next 30 minutes, so unless there’s an emergency, please make sure I’m not disturbed." This lets the applicants know you consider the interview important, and that makes them feel good.
• Don’t sit behind your desk. Desks are barriers. Come in front of the desk and sit next to the applicant, or sit at a table. The applicant stays relaxed — and you can monitor their body language in total, not just from the waist up. You’ll get a much better picture of what the applicants are saying and how they really feel about it.
• Position them to tell you the truth. For example: "Mary, there are several things I want to do in this interview today. I want to gather some information from you. I want to tell you about the job and the company. I want to answer any questions you might have."
• Set the expectation level. "But before we start, let me tell you what’s most important about Private Duty Home Care Inc. — and that’s being honest and truthful. I’m going to be honest about the job and the expectations, the hours, and what we require. I need for you to be honest with me. It doesn’t matter if you’ve ever had a conflict with a former boss or teacher, just tell me about it. If you don’t tell me about it, and when we do our background check we find out about it, I can’t hire you. Do you understand that? It doesn’t matter if you have a criminal record — we’ll take it under consideration. But if you don’t tell me about it and we find out, I can’t hire you. Or if we hire you and then find out, we’ll have to let you go."
Ask core questions for informative results
The Hire Tough group advocates building core questions. A good core example — because who people are now is based on what they were when — is to ask applicants to tell you about the first job they ever had. "Most interviewers will ask about the applicant’s last job," Kleiman says. "But the most important job is the very first one they ever had because it contributed significantly to their work values. You need to know what their values are. Asking what the three most important things they learned from that job will give you a lot of valuable insight."
As you proceed through the applicant’s chronological job history, a pattern of work ethics and growth will appear. Accompanying this recital with questions such as, "What did you like most (or least) about that job?" and "What boss or teacher got the most out of you? (Or taught you the most)" and "How did they do that?" The answers applicants give you will tell you how to manage them best.
Break down both the skills needed for the job and the job itself into core parts and walk the applicant through them. The key is to build a structure and build questions that are going to get you the information you need so you can make sure you hire the best employees you can get.
The question How did you learn to do that job?’ gives you information about how — and how well — the applicant learns.
When probing into the applicant’s skills, a good core question to ask is, "On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being perfect, how would you rank yourself in taking care of patients as a private duty home care worker?"
"Let’s say you get an eight’ for that self-score," Kleiman says. "Your next question should be, What would it take for you to become a nine?’ Notice I don’t ask people about their weaknesses. I ask about their strengths, then ask what they think it would take for them to become better. People will readily tell you about what it will take for them to improve their job performances. Most hate talking to anyone about their weaknesses."
Inquire about how applicants do the things they say they do well. If, for example, your applicant says she deals well with trust officers, ask her to tell you about a time when she had to deal with a problem that involved a trust officer.
Ask about how the applicant deals with challenges on the job. "Sometimes, in private duty work we have to deal with some very cantankerous people. On a scale of one to 10, how effectively do you deal with people who are cantankerous or very upset?"
Kleiman’s favorite interview ending is, "I’ve been asking you a lot of questions. If you could only ask me one question, what would you ask me?"
Then he uses a sales technique called reversal by countering the applicant’s question with another of his own — namely, "That’s interesting. Of all the questions you could have asked me why did you ask that one?"
"If you allow applicants only one question they will ask what is most important to them," he says, "and the point of this exercise is finding out why it’s so important."
(Editor’s note: Next month, we will discuss how to get the references you need.)
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