Published by Success Performance Solutions, Written by Ira S. Wolfe

Continued from June 2, 2004 - Putting Observation to the Test.
Last  week's column ended discussing how we see the world often biases our opinions and judgement, which significantly lowers the reliability of the interview in selecting the right people for the job.

In the June 8, 2004 edition of the Wall Street Journal, Columnist Joann S. Lublin wrote about "How Looks, Hygiene Affects Hiring". To read her column, visit www.wsj.com.

In her column, she and her readers describe our personal biases that are easily explained by our six motivators described in my new book, Understanding Business Values and Motivators, and personality assessment called Business Values and Motivators.

Employee Interviews - Looking Through Rose-Colored Glasses?

In addition to looking through our own rose-colored glasses, how likely is it that your mood at any one moment in time might affect your ability to interview fairly and without bias?

Suppose for a minute that you have an interview scheduled in five minutes. Just as you are about to go down to the conference room, you receive a frantic call from your son who was just arrested for drugs. Or you are waiting on pins and needles to receive the results of a suspicious biopsy? Or you just got off the phone with your biggest customer and they cancelled the contract for next year - could any of these situations affect your interviewing and observation objectivity? If so, then the interview does not stand up to the test of reliability required to be used alone in hiring and promotion decisions.

Any time your opinions and judgment can be affected by your emotions and/or the emotions of the candidates, then reliability goes down the tubes. The lower the reliability, the less defensible is your decision. And the less defensible, the more risk you and your company are exposed to.

As a result of the Internet, the interview is becoming even more unreliable than ever. We've all read at one time or other the list of what you can and cannot legally ask a candidate. (Download Our SPS Interview Guide to Questions You Can and Can't Ask.

Frustrated by not knowing what to ask a candidate, many managers hop on the Internet right before the interview and download a list of questions. The problem with using the Internet to build your bank of questions is that many candidates have raided the cookie jar before managers get there. Candidates simply are learning the ins and outs of how to use the Internet to get jobs faster than hiring managers are learning to use it for hiring.

The good news was that our traffic doubled during the month of May. The bad news is that ten times more candidates found our site looking for the questions they would be asked than managers were requesting information about how to conduct a more effective interview. Candidates have the time and motivation to prepare for their interviews. Managers don't. They are so busy doing other things that their good intentions get waylaid.

When working with candidates, it is also not uncommon for them to complain about how unprepared or unskilled the interviewer was at running the interview. When well-prepared candidates meet the inexperienced or untrained interviewer, the candidate actually controls the pace and direction of the interview, impressing the hiring manager with his or her confidence but essentially biasing the whole process. Many organizations are losing the battle for top talent because their selection process turns off the candidate. For top talent, it is still a candidate's market and businesses can't afford to let the good ones get away.

Another problem with just using questions that sound good is that great questions for one job may just not be that predictive of success in another. For instance, many times managers ask us to recommend questions to uncover self-motivation and the ability to work independently.

Here's the rub. By asking a candidate how he or she took initiative in a prior job and worked independently is only the first step. You as the interviewer need to dig deeper which means that you not only have to be good at asking questions but even more importantly at listening to how the candidate responds and then asking another question.

What happens all too often is that the inexperienced interviewer is impressed by the candidate's first response and they move on to another question. The skilled interviewer knows better - dig deeper to learn the how, why, when and who else was involved.

By accepting at face value the candidate's response to how they motivate themselves and work independently, managers often find themselves in for a BIG surprise. Those very employees who wowed you during the interview with their initiative often begin making decisions on their own without your permission and rarely asking for help, even when they need it.

That was probably not what you had in mind when you considered self-motivation. It's now apparent that taking initiative and willing to act independently have shades of gray and despite great questions and the right answers, the interview didn't pull out the information that you really needed to know - that is, how will the employee follow policy when no one else is around and how effective will these decisions be?

Employee interviews on the whole test for past behaviors; personality tests can help preview how they will respond in the future.

And one more thing. What makes the interview even more unpredictable is that not only does the interviewer need to be unbiased and objective, but the interviewee must be honest in his/her responses. HA! Isn't the job of the interviewee to sell you on their abilities? What are the chances that a candidate has not prepped for the interview, especially for more key and strategic positions, or will not stretch the truth anywhere from just a bit to pure fabrication in order to put his/her best foot forward?

The interview is laced with traps for falsehoods and inaccuracies and yet it remains in the minds of many managers as the best predictor of success and the safest choice for employee assessment.

What can a hiring manager do to lower the risk of hiring the wrong person? You'll have to wait until next week's issue of The Total View.....or call us today for a no-cost consultantion.

To learn more about hiring best practices, download the U.S. Department of Labor publication, TESTING AND ASSESSMENT: AN EMPLOYER'S GUIDE TO GOOD PRACTICES.

Reduce your risk and hire competence with confidence. Visit our assessment center at http://www.super-solutions.com/assessmentcenter.asp.

Not sure which assessments to choose. View on our online employee assessment guide including DISC, Business Values and Motivators, and TotalView at http://www.super-solutions.com/selecttherighttest.asp.