This Tip introduces three criteria for selection and two screening methods that will help managers make better hiring decisions.
“Hiring people is like making friends. Pick good ones, and they’ll enrich your life. Make bad choices, and they’ll bring you down.” Jason Fried
Make Better Hiring Decisions
Resume and Reference Aren’t Enough
In the past, we primarily based hiring decisions on a review of the candidates’ resumes and their references. Unfortunately, neither of those sources are completely reliable. Professional resume writers abound who can transform poor qualifications and/or experience into new and misleading statements.
With regard to references, many companies limit a reference response to simple confirmation of the candidate’s employment. In addition, unless the hiring manager knows and trusts the reference, it is possible that the current manager may speak highly of an employee that they want to leave the company.
The resume and/or reference may accurately confirm the candidate’s qualifications to perform the job.
Three Hiring Criteria
However, there are still two other criteria that must be considered in order to ensure the candidate is the best fit for the job:
- They are qualified for the job, based on past training and experience.
- They will perform the job in a manner acceptable to the organization.
- They share the organization’s values.
Two Screening Methods
There are two screening methods that can help you determine if all three criteria are met: an Achievement History Questionnaire and Situational Interview Questions.
Achievement History Questionnaire:
To determine if the candidates are qualified for the job and share the organization’s values, because of past training and experience, use an Achievement History Questionnaire (AHQ).
There are many different formats for resumes. It can take a manager a long time to read through the resume to find information relevant to the position. In many cases, the resume may not clearly state information about the applicant’s qualifications.
An AHQ is a structured method to obtain applicants’ past job-related training and experience in a consistent format that a manager can easily screen and rate.
Targeted Open-Ended Job Related Questions
It uses targeted open-ended questions about the key responsibilities of the job to quantify and qualify an applicant’s past job-related training and experience. In addition, it determines whether the applicant will fit into the organizational culture.
It is an excellent preliminary screening device for higher level professional, supervisory or managerial positions. This is particularly true if they require specialized training and experience.
Applicants have to be qualified to respond to the questions or otherwise they screen themselves out. As a result, 25% of the usual number of applicants will respond to an AHQ. However, most if not all of the respondents will be highly qualified to move to the next level of screening.
How it is rated: Pre-determined benchmark answers provide a basis for rating and ranking the applicants’ answers. These benchmark answers identify buzzwords. These will clue the rater if the applicant has the necessary training and/or work experience. They will also indicate if the applicant has the knowledge, skills and abilities, to satisfactorily perform the job.
Situational Interview Questions:
To determine if the candidates will perform the job in a manner acceptable to your organization and share the organization’s values, use Situational Interview Questions.
During a hiring interview, managers may ask questions that are too general or not completely related to the job. In these cases, what the manager considers an acceptable answer can be swayed by their subjective response to the candidate. A candidate who answers the first question poorly but gives great answers to the second question may benefit from a halo effect. As a result, after the interview, the manager may only remember the good answers.
Open-Ended Job or Value-Related Questions
Situational Interview Questions are open-ended job-related or value-related questions. We use them to determine how a candidate would perform on the job and whether the candidate shares the organization’s values.
They ask the candidates to describe how they handled or would handle typical or challenging situations. These are situations that arise during the performance of the key responsibilities of the job.
How they are rated: Pre-determined benchmark answers provide a basis for rating candidates’ responses as acceptable or unacceptable.
Examples of an AHQ with rating guide, and both job-related and shared-value Situational Interview questions with rating guides can be found at https://laurelandassociates.com/whitepapersarticles/
May your learning be sweet.
Deborah
