Deborah L. Kerr, Ph.D.
We are thrilled to present another guest column this month, from our friends at Affintus. Author Deborah L. Kerr, Ph.D. is President of Affintus and serves on the graduate faculty at Texas A&M. (She got her last degree from UT, so that’s ok.)
Hiring is one of the most important and challenging tasks in business – ask any manager who has ever made a hiring mistake.
But the hiring practices most companies use are, for the most part, both vague and unreliable. In research published by the Harvard Business Review, executives explained they rely heavily on subjective personal preferences or on hiring traditions – ones that are “…often based on false assumptions.” Some conventional wisdom about hiring turns out to be not so wise in practice. Here are seven myths that may be getting in the way of hiring the right people for your team and your company.
Myth 1: Résumé information is useful in talent decision making.
Reality: A résumé is a limited, self-reported representation of a person. It tells you where someone worked and how long she held each job. It cannot tell you about the quality of work performed or its relevance to the job you are trying to fill. Studies show that résumé information does not predict job success at your company. That is especially understandable when you know that as many as 50% of resumes contain erroneous information.
You don’t have to use a résumé in the hiring process. Some companies have stopped using them and started using more accurate data sources. For example, Colorado-based www.StickerGiant.com makes résumé submission optional and instead uses online tests that deliver an accurate evaluation of skills and culture fit.
Myth 2: Experience is a good indicator of future job success.
Reality: Contrary to conventional wisdom, past job experience does not relate to success in future jobs. The two experience factors managers most often use to predict candidate success are work experience and years of education. In reality, both factors predict success about as well as flipping a coin (with validity coefficients of .18 and .10 respectively in case that kind of thing interests you).
Instead of looking at experience, think like Southwest Airlines. They figured out what skills and abilities make their star performers shine. They have designed ways to identify people who have the same qualities, then they teach them job duties after hire.
Myth 3: If we interview people enough times, we will know…
Reality: Face to face interaction helps you evaluate a candidate’s communication skill and how she handles conversation with someone she doesn’t know, but not much more.
Some companies favor multiple candidate interviews and involve a panel of employees who question the candidate and evaluate oral presentations. Making a decision based on interview data has about a 20% success rate. Highly structured interviews are more accurate – about a 50% success rate, but many companies do not have carefully designed interview systems.
With the help of your human resources professionals or an outside consultant, create a structured behavioral interview process that reflects the demands of the job and the qualities important to success. With the right structure, you can reduce interview time while increasing the utility of face-to-face meetings.
Myth 4: Candidates referred by current employees make the best employees.
Reality: Referred employees perform at the same level as non-referred employees according to numerous studies. Referral candidates do tend to be interviewed more often, but after they are hired, there is no evidence they perform better or stay longer in a job. In fact, if the employee who made the referral leaves, the likelihood that the referred employee will also leave goes up.
Myth 5: If the hiring process is too demanding, good candidates will drop out.
Reality: There is a reason that ultra-successful companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple make it a bit challenging to get a job – they want the best employees and they have designed systems to identify them, using valid, objective selection methods.
You can use technology to streamline the hiring process both for you and your applicants. There are a variety of time saving, cost effective pre-hire assessments that deliver highly accurate data about future success, so you streamline your process and avoid wasting candidate time.
Myth 6: I can just tell who is going to be a good employee.
Reality: Gut feel is important, especially if your gut says, “Don’t hire this guy.” But if your gut says, “Yes! Best hire ever!” beware.
Research shows that we decide whether we like someone within 14 seconds of meeting. But liking someone is not a job success indicator – ask the Austin entrepreneur who hired and fired his best friend…twice. Liking someone can make you hesitate to ask the hard questions – we don’t like to disprove our own first impressions! If you like a candidate, great. But don’t stop there – continue the search for information that will accurately predict how well the person is likely to perform in your job.
Myth 7: A change in the selection process will drive up cost to hire.
Reality: It is already expensive to hire. Most executives would be astonished if they totaled up how much it costs to hire one employee. Experts agree that when all costs are tallied up (including hard costs, new hire training, and productivity ramp up time) hiring someone costs between 25% and 200% of annual salary, depending on the position. Hiring for a $30,000 a year job, for example, costs about $7500 to get to “yes” from the candidate.
No one can build a great company without great people and effective hiring is not an exercise in amateur psychology or intuition. Alan Davidson, a San Diego industrial psychologist, says companies should “hire hard …then manage easy…and that means doing a lot of work up front.”
You need accurate data to hire smart. Go beyond the resume review and interview – they don’t predict success. Use proven tools and rigorous screening methods (like defining what the job really needs, behavioral interviewing, and pre-hire assessments) so your hiring managers have what they need for data driven decision making and you reduce time and cost to hire. It will be worth it: people who are a good job match are 10% – 50% more productive and that translates to higher sales revenues, fewer errors, less rework, better client relationships, and less drama in the office.
