By Tom Mann Job seekers are prone to embellishing their credentials on their applications, from overstating their experience to creating non-existent qualifications, according to research by recruitment consultants Chandler Macleod. Hiring such a fraud could lead to problems, but there are many steps you can take to avoid doing so.
As with most business decisions, hiring is made far easier if you plan and aim to achieve realistic goals.
1. Make a short list of applicants
There is little point interviewing everyone who applies; this will only put a strain on your time.
Give applicants clear instructions when inviting them to an interview. Make sure they know:
- Where you are and how to get there.
- What they should bring with them.
- Who they should ask for.
- How long the interview is likely to last.
Give yourself enough time between interviews to consider an applicant’s performance before sitting down with the next one. Make notes during and after the interview. That extra time will also help relax applicants: they won’t be idling together in the waiting room or feel they are being hurried through the interview so you can meet a timetable.
If it’s possible, have another employee or a business partner join the interview. If the position requires a particular skill it will be useful to set the applicant a short skills test.
2. Find a quiet space
Always find a quiet, private room to conduct the interview. Your applicant will most likely be anxious about the interview process and you need to make sure that they are comfortable. Ask your candidate if they’d like water or coffee, it’s a very simple way of putting them at their ease and, hopefully, more honest.
- Thank them for applying and coming in for an interview.
- Briefly describe your business.
- Briefly describe the role they would be playing in your business.
3. What to ask your potential employee
A job interview should not be considered as “just a chat” with an applicant, stresses Kevin Chandler, executive director of Chandler Macleod. Equally, it’s not suitable to run the interview as an interrogation or to play out any “good cop/bad cop” style scenarios. Nor should you talk too much.
Your role in the interview is to identify the applicant’s underlying job skills and give them a clear picture of what working for your business would involve.
With a crowded job market, Chandler, an organisational psychologist, is quick to remind businesses that the interview process also allows the candidate to review your business. You may offer them work but ultimately the decision whether to accept is theirs.
When interviewing, you are looking to learn about the candidate as a rounded individual. Ask about their family and leisure activities: how do their interests and values complement your business. Let the applicant talk: the more you speak the less you’ll learn about your applicant.
4. Ask open-ended questions
Standard questions will only elicit standard answers. Andrew Staite, executive general manager with Hudson’s, stresses the need for open-ended questions that require the applicants to tell the full story of their employment history.
It’s easy for an applicant to exaggerate their abilities in a letter; it is more difficult to maintain these false claims in an interview situation. Ask about specific roles and actions that they have undertaken in previous employment.
Staite’s experience has shown that employers tend to “hire on skills, fire on fit”, so it’s very important to focus on more than just applicant’s skills during an interview.
You’ve short-listed the candidate according to the skills set out in their resume, so the interview should be primarily about determining whether the person would “fit” into your business. Closed questions that limit candidates to yes/no answers also limit your opportunities to learn more about them. Similarly, avoid leading questions that suggest what you want to hear.
5. Expect them to answer:
- Why have they applied?
- Why did the advertisement sound interesting?
- Are they genuinely interested in working for your business and industry or are they simply seeking any work? Are they more focused on another aspect of your industry?
- What do they expect to be doing?
- Do they have realistic expectations of what the job entails?
- What stage of their career do they expect to reach in the next five years?
- Are they committed to this line of work? Are their career goals compatible with the work you are offering?
- Why are they leaving their current job?
- Are they looking for change? Have they advanced as far as they can in their current workplace? - Have there been problems between the applicant and their current employer? Are they just looking for a higher wage?
- What hours are they prepared to work?
- Are they willing to work overtime? Are they only seeking work during particular hours, such as nine to five?
- How would they handle a hypothetical work situation?
- Can they approach everyday working problems in a suitable and logical way?
6. Ask about gaps
Question any gaps on an applicant’s resume. Never make any assumptions about an extended gap. It could be the indicator of a number of things, including a jail sentence!
An extended gap could also mean the applicant's skills are out of date.
Applicants should be able to answer your questions without sounding scripted. Try to prompt genuine answers to your questions rather than simply listening to what they believe you want to hear.
You should expect the candidate to have questions for you. It’s a fairly standard way for them to display their interest in the job and show that they’ve actually thought about it.
If you’re concerned that a question may be interpreted as discriminatory, don’t ask it. You cannot ask questions relating to religion, sexuality, age, race, national origin or disabilities. Even if the job unavoidably excludes certain people, be sure to pose your questions directly relating to the position. For example, you can’t ask about a person’s religion, but you can ask whether applicants are available to work on the weekends.
7. Final check before hiring
Don’t contact the candidate’s current employer unless the candidate has given you permission to do so. You could jeopardise their current working situation because they might not have told their employer they are seeking a new job.
Staite advises that you should never call call a referee directly on the number provided by your candidate. There are ways to make sure the referee is a creditable source of information.
Call their business through the receptionist so you can be sure of the referee’s job description and level of authority. A direct line could dial through to anywhere; the “genuine referee” could be your applicant’s best friend.
If the job requires specific qualifications, check these with the relevant industry bodies and organisations. Many educational facilities have strict controls on access to student records, so it could be difficult to verify qualifications. Ask to view school or graduation certificates.
Scrutinise the candidate’s entire work history. It can be illuminating to ask how old they were when they got their first job: it can show initiative and early entrepreneurship. However, you know the cliché: the best indicator of future performance is past performance’.
This catchcry of recruitment is echoed by both Chandler and Staite. You do not simply want to know whether the candidate could perform the duties expected in your business, but how well they related to other employees in previous jobs and the circumstances under which they left.
8. Check all references
See our reference checklist provided by VECCI, from the VECCI HR Toolkit, a tool for monitoring and managing a broad range of human resource issues. The HR Toolkit covers Recruitment and Selection, Employment Conditions and Benefits, Employee conduct and performance, Equal Employment Opportunity and Privacy, and Occupational Health & Safety and Employee Welfare.
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The staff you want are probably employed elsewhere, so you'll have to make them want to come and work for you. So where to find them? It might mean trade journals, the internet or recruiting agencies
By Tom Mann
Hiring is not just about finding the right people, it is about getting the best people. In a tight job market the people businesses want are probably already working elsewhere, so recruiting needs to be as much a selling exercise as a buying exercise. You must use the ad to market the business as an attractive place to work instead of merely listing the types of skills you require. A poor recruitment process will cost an entrepreneur time, money and be extremely annoying!
Online or print?
Hudson’s Andrew Staite sees little difference between advertising jobs online and in print media when the ads are located in designated employment spaces. In the modern job market newspapers and internet job services are reaching similar audiences; active job seekers will be looking at both. Many newspapers will automatically list your job advertisement on an online service when you choose to advertise with them.
Sometimes it is worth choosing one over the other. SmartCompany.com.au, for example, lists ads in newspapers when choosing not to be swamped with candidates. On the other hand, putting ads in newspapers does tend to attract more people with a low IT literacy.
Unfortunately, in a tight job market, the best candidates for your job many not be actively looking for new work. They are working for your competitors. If a better offer appears they might be interested. This is the passive market of job seekers, who can be persuaded to apply for new work if an ad catches their eye. You have to make them notice; they are not going to read the employment sections of the newspaper or browse job websites.
How to reach the passive job seeker
Deciding exactly where to place your job ad can affect the calibre and number of responses. Advertising for recruits is a process that should follow the same principles as any of your business advertising: you must consider your audience and target them appropriately. This process follows the same rules as targeting your advertisements to your potential customers.
For highly qualified positions, Staite suggests advertising in the news pages of the weekend papers. This way you can target potential applicants who may not be actively seeking work. Passive job seekers can also be reached by simply making sure that your current employees know about the job you are offering. Encourage them to spread the work through their network of friends, many of whom probably work in similar roles and industries.
Advertising costs can also be a factor, but remember that when you employ a new staff member you are making a significant investment in the future of your business. Cutting corners here could damage your business future.
Having a clear idea of your ideal new employee, and their abilities, will greatly assist you in making sure the right people know that you are offering work.
Where will your ideal employees seek employment information?
If you are seeking employees with specific industry skills, advertise in the trade journal that caters for your industry.
If you are seeking local applicants, advertise in a local newspaper.
If you require employees to have certain qualifications you should advertise in the places where people are studying and learning those skills. Contact the educational facilities that offer this training and advertise in their student bulletins or even on their faculty notice boards. Many universities provide a job search facility for their students, often as an online forum or bulletin board.
Some providers of internet job advertisements also offer job candidates the opportunity to submit their resumes so that employers can actively seek them out. This function allows you to screen applicant’s resumes without having to advertise.
Advantages of internet ads:
- Displayed and accessible to your potential applicants over a long period.
- Applicants can search for ads by industry, location, and income, allowing them to find jobs that fit their ambitions.
- Job search sites will often provide templates to assist you to write your advertisement.
- You can request statistics that gauge the interest in the job, telling you how many people have viewed your ad.
- You will have the ability to make adjustments to the ad once it has been issued; this can be a great help if you receive applications that are not meeting your expectations and you want to make an adjustment in the ad in order to stress a particular point.
Disadvantages of internet ads:
- Limited ability to direct ads to particular applicants.
- Simplicity of application often results in large numbers of unsuitable applications.
- Reaches people beyond your target area.
There may be little difference in who reads online and print ads, but there are differences in the numbers of people who will apply. Online advertising will produce a far larger number of applicants. Though these applicants may not serve the interests of your business. It’s extremely simple to respond to an online job advertisement: with just a few clicks a browsing job seeker can forward you their application.
As a result of this simplicity people will often apply for jobs that they are unqualified for, and perhaps even uninterested in pursuing. They are making the assumption that by applying for many jobs they increase their chances of finding employment. This is not the case because you as an employer will only seriously contemplate applications that address your business requirements. However, you will still have to sort through these applications and that process will be an unnecessary demand upon your time.
Displaying job vacancies on your business’s website can be an effective approach to job advertising. The people visiting your site are likely to be interested in your business or industry, so they are likely to be interested in seeking work with your business. You could even suggest that if people are interested in working for you, you will accept resume applications at any time. You may not have a role for them now but if they could be useful in the future. Even if they manage to find work with another business, you will have their contact details and may be able to approach them with a job offer when the time is right.
Recruitment agencies
Many businesses rely on their networks to fill jobs and do so with mixed success. Some companies offer staff a small commission if they introduce a worker who turns out to be a success. Staff, who know the organisation’s culture, can often introduce people who fit in quickly. On the other hand, employees may bring in people who will boost their own position or reinforce a culture that they do not want changed.
Recruitment agencies can be useful if you need to spread the net wider or to bring in specialist. “If you want a tap fixed, you go to a plumber; if you want a job filled, go to a recruitment agency,” suggests Hudson’s Andrew Staite. While there are additional costs associated with hiring a recruitment agency, they can be a solution to your businesses recruitment issues.
Staite claims that the costs of using a recruitment firm should be viewed as part of your businesses investment in your staff. While there may be a greater upfront cost to use a recruitment service, but Staite warns that the costs of hiring the wrong person choice can be far greater.
The cost of a failure to fill a position can quickly escalate and this increasing financial pressure can lead to poor decision making. Forced into making a decision you will often be tempted to hire a candidate you are not sure about. Experience has shown Staite that businesses that commit to decisions they are uncertain about almost always come to regret the choice. Often a business will approach a recruitment agency with this problem, only seeking professional advice when their recruitment process has failed.
A recruiter is focused on placing people within a certain field and will have the industry knowledge to find the perfect fit between employee and employer. If you’re looking for new accountant you can seek the advice of a recruiter who specialises in matching accountancy and personal skills with particular businesses.
Although the main advantage of hiring a recruitment agency is the ability to focus on other business issues and trust problems of hiring to specialists, you must engage an agency that understands the specific needs of your business. The agency should prepare a detailed report on your business needs, asking questions so that they can find applicants who suit your idea of the ideal candidate.
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Philip Weinman has leant plenty about hiring the best people in the course of building seven businesses. One trick: ask an unexpected question in the interview and see how they cope.
By Amanda Gome
When Philip Weinman was 21, he walked out of his first job in disgust. His boss kept stealing his ideas and presenting them as his own. He vowed to never be employed again – and to treat his own staff differently.
Now at 51, has built and sold seven businesses, including CTS Travel and has made millions of dollars. His success? Brilliant hiring and maintaining the DNA of his startup – even as growth goes gangbusters.
Philip Weinman tells his story:
One of the first questions that I ask when employing staff is: ‘Are you intelligent?’ It is out of the box and they are not expecting it. I wait for a look that says that’s a silly question and then I wait for them to tell me they are intelligent.
This quickly establishes the fact they can think fast and deal with something unplanned. It also means they have self-confidence and they can back themselves in business.
Hire the successfully employed
I hire young people – either straight out of university or under 30. They are always successfully employed so we head-hunt them. We head-hunt people or ask our employees for recommendations because they know what is expected.
By the time they are 30, most people are set in their ways and have bad habits. They have usually worked for a corporate and are used to rules and saying no. People I hire never say “no” or “but”.
I don’t want people talking in the interview about their old boss and I don’t want to know why they are leaving their old job. I never want to hear about why they were unsuccessful at their past job. This shows they are not loyal and they won’t be loyal to me.
Break some rules
I also do something I shouldn’t in an interview. I always ask about their families. I lighten up the interview and get them to talk about their values and their lives. I want to hear their thoughts on politics because I want people who can express an opinion and are not afraid to do so. I don’t want people who try and tell me what I want to hear.
I also hire people who haven’t worked in the industry. For example, when I started CTS Travel, I was a frustrated business traveller and felt I could start a company that was very professional and understood the needs of business travellers.
I didn’t hire travel agents, as usually their motivation for taking jobs in the travel industry was to get cheap travel. Instead I hired secretaries who were organised, had a nice manner and who knew the repercussions of bad travel management because in their past lives it meant their bosses had to stay overnight somewhere.
Don’t pay too much salary
We pay market rates and I give them a budget and when they exceed the budget, they get profit share. I had people earning over $100,000 when their counterparts in the travel industry were getting $35,000. Too much salary and they don’t succeed.
When people start in my companies, we give them six months training. We have poached these people from successful jobs and we feel we need to back them with training so they have the best chance of success.
I never bring someone from outside the company and employ them over the top of people. I always employ from within. One bad apple can bring whole team down.
My PA is running the company
We head-hunt people or ask our employees for recommendations because they know what is expected. We make up teams of four or five people. The best performers become the team leader. Then they move up and someone else takes over as team leader. It’s like a wave of talent that keeps sweeping over the organisation. There is very little turnover and lots of room for advancement. My PA became the HR manager, then operations manager and now runs all my companies. She knew what I was looking for.
I once made the mistake of bringing in an outsider to run the HR function. They didn’t understand the culture so now we create the HR function from within.
The only danger comes from the entrepreneur. If you start to lose leadership or vision, you can go off on your own agenda. Then you can’t get the staff behind you.
I recently did a very challenging acquisition of an online business. I had bought the business MindAtlas in 2002 and had inherited a “creative” culture. The people had no goals, vision and little discipline.
We had to slowly weed out people who didn’t want to take on responsibility and accountability. Two years later none of the original staff were left. I recently sold that company and did very well out of it.
Now I have three new businesses: one is Vitamin Me which has four stores and is growing rapidly. The second is an employment company, JobCapital, and the third is Goal Management, a sports and elite management business. A few will be floated in the next few years.
Have fun, make profit
I am in business for two reasons: to make a profit and to have fun. Making sure you have the right DNA and keeping it while you grow makes sure you achieve both goals.
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