New Jersey Enterpreneur - Small Business, Entrepreneurs and Venture Capital

Even though most people know their spouse a year or two or more before marrying, 50% of U.S. marriages end in divorce. With that track record, how can you expect to hire the right employee in two or three hours of interviews? Even worse, research shows that most hiring decisions are made within the first three minutes of meeting the candidate.

The key to getting the right people on board is putting objectivity in the hiring process. Establishing a hiring process that takes gut reactions and first impressions out of the equation is the key.

First determine exactly what skills and competencies you need. Yes, consider technical skills, industry experience and education. But the most important, and most difficult, thing to figure out is how good the candidates are at getting things done. Psychologists call this “conation” defined as “the aspect of mental processes or behavior directed toward action or change.” While intelligence (IQ) and interpersonal or emotional skills (EQ) are important, conative skills are most directly related to success in the work environment.

One way to approach this challenge is “behavioral interviewing.” This involves finding out exactly how your candidate solves problems or achieves goals. Some call it the “STAR” process: asking about the Situation or Task, the Action taken and the Result achieved. Instead of questions like “tell me about yourself” or “describe your strengths and weaknesses” ask for stories about past performance. If you?re trying to determine how well a person handles details, use something like “Tell me about some detail-oriented projects you have worked on. How did you deal with the details?” Or “We all have overlooked details when working on something. When has this happened to you? Causes? Results?”

Prepare an interview outline before you sit down with the candidate. Structure your questions around the most important competencies required for the position. Write them down for consistency. There are lots of great sources for behavioral interviewing questions on the internet. Some of these incorporate a wizard that lets you fill in the blanks and delivers a professional interview guide ready to use over and over again for a specific position. Make sure you?ve incorporated some objective rating criteria against which you will score each candidate.

A more scientific and accurate way to determine conative strengths is to use a predictive testing instrument. These tests, usually conducted on-line via the internet, tell you something about the candidate before the person walks in your door. This helps dampen emotional reactions to the candidate?s appearance or personal presentation style and clues you in on what kinds of behavioral questions to ask.

Some of these assessments can be used for initial screening. A counter productive behavior index will give you an idea if hourly workers will show up on time, be honest and trustworthy. Skills testing can weed out the people who just plain can?t do the job. This can include basic math, writing and computer skills such as Windows and Word. Other screening instruments are designed around data bases of large numbers of successful people in many businesses. There are tests for retail store clerk, customer service agent, administrative assistant and many, many more. Screening assessments range in price from $10 to $30 per test and take about 10 minutes for candidates to complete on line. Scores are delivered automatically via e-mail.

Finally the most sophisticated tests fall into a category called “job matching”. This is a process whereby you define a profile for your specific job or you test your star performers to create a benchmark against which you can hire more like them. Job matching tests are typically used at the end of the hiring process to confirm what you?ve learned through interviews. It?s the final clincher in predicting success. Because of their sophistication and high degree of reliability/validity, these tests are pricier -- $250 and up ? and take anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours for the candidate to complete.

With the sophistication of PC software and internet access, hiring tools and tests are getting more accurate all the time. They have also become easier to use and affordable for even the smallest business. You don?t have to be a psychologist to interpret the results and a very small investment can save thousands of dollars by avoiding a bad mistake.

Think about how much it costs to hire and train a new employee. Wouldn?t it be worth spending a few dollars making sure you get the right fit?

Susan T. Gauff is Founder and CEO of The Growth Solutions Group