Hiring People_ Recruit and Keep the Brightest Stars - Kathy Shwiff [25]
After calling former supervisors, get in touch with other people the candidate worked with—including direct reports and colleagues. If you hear three positive references and one negative, dig a little deeper to make sure that the negative feedback is not from old rival looking to get even.
Checking Candidates’ Background and Academic Record
In recent years, it’s become common practice to run criminal checks on potential employees—especially since technology has made these checks easier and less expensive to perform. In fact, 80 percent of companies surveyed for a 2004 Society for Human Resources Management report said they run a criminal check on applicants. Of 8 million criminal checks run by the data firm ChoicePoint, which provides online and offline services to many large companies, 9 percent turned up felony convictions not disclosed by applicants. Nearly half of those surveyed also check motor vehicle records, and more than half verify education records. An applicant’s claim to possess a degree from a particular university can easily be verified with a phone call to the school.
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Behind the Numbers
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HOW EMPLOYERS CHECK OUT CANDIDATES
There are numerous sources for finding the truth behind a resume’s “smokescreen.” Which screening and assessment methods you use often depends on the job at stake. Here are some of the methods companies frequently employ to check for potential problems:
Method
Currently use
Increased use in past 5 years
Any screening
93%
48%
Background checks
79
51
Prescreening programs
57
51
Skills testing
56
48
Behavioral interviewing
54
56
Drug tests
50
54
Behavioral assessments
34
60
Credit checks
33
55
SOURCE: “The Spherion® Emerging Workforce® Study,” Spherion Corporation © 2006 Spherion Pacific Enterprises LLC.
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Credit Checks
According to the Society for Human Resource Management report, 35 percent of employers now run credit checks on potential hires, a sizable increase from the 19 percent reported in 1996. Some companies regard credit checks as a fast, efficient way to narrow the range of applicants, since people who earn good credit are assumed to have a strong sense of responsibility. If the credit report is poor, you might want to move on to the next candidate.
Personality Tests
Studies have indicated that assessment or “profile” tests can be a far more reliable predictor of employee performance than interviews and resumes alone. Yet for years these tests remained out of favor after their misuse led to discriminatory complaints and subsequent legislation to restrict them.
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Outside the Box
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IDENTIFYING “A” PLAYERS
How do you separate the wheat from the chaff during the hiring process? Industrial psychologist Bradford Smart uses a process he calls “topgrading” to weed out underachievers—or C players—and to identify superstars—the top 10 percent of talent available for a particular position in an industry. Smart advises his clients to hire only As and Bs, willing and able workers who can be coached to achieve higher levels. To determine strengths, weaknesses, and job expectations, and thus predict future performance, Smart pores over a candidate’s career looking for patterns, asking hundreds of questions covering every job, every success, and every failure. For instance, he asks them about every boss they’ve had and informs them that all their bosses from the past decade will be contacted—and then he does just that. The A players take it in stride.
SOURCE: Topgrading by Bradford Smart (Portfolio, 2005).
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Today they are definitely making a comeback; as a hiring tool that can indicate level of performance, and in many cases employee longevity, they are growing in popularity. Larger corporations have been giving assessment tests to applicants for more than a decade, and now smaller companies, schools, and other institutions are also starting to view them as a valuable screening mechanism. Financial advisory firms