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References: Bridge The Information Gap

By Don Phin

When asked for a former worker’s dates of employment, 99% of businesses will provide a response. About one-third will state whether the employee is “eligible for rehire.” Unfortunately, less than half of employers will indicate the reason why an employee left their job, whether they’re qualified, or have good work habits and personality traits.

These statistics, courtesy of the Society for Human Resource Management, reveal a truism: although businesses want to learn as much as possible about job applicants, they’re reluctant to give prospective employers information about their former workers.

These recommendations can help you make informed hiring decisions:

• Look for inconsistencies when reviewing dates of hire. A gap in the applicant’s work record could mean that the person is trying to hide a former employer who might give them a poor reference.
• Find out if the former employee is eligible for rehire. If two out of three businesses are willing to answer this question, ask it every time. The answer will speak volumes.
• If the former employer is reluctant to provide information, offer them a release of any potential claims signed by the job applicant.
• Don’t give up. Contact all former employers listed, even from jobs many years ago.
• Ask informed questions. During the interview, ask the applicant if any past employers would be reluctant to provide a job reference. If they don’t have a letter of recommendation, ask why. Find out if they have copies of their termination notice or performance appraisals. Ask them about occasions when they had to deal with something “unfair” in their previous jobs. The response should help reveal their character.

Hiring Decisions — Play it Cool!

Although most employers realize the need for pre-employment testing, character assessment, background checks, and extensive interviews before hiring a new employee, too few businesses follow this sound advice. If your company doesn’t adhere to standardized hiring procedures, you’re asking for trouble. Bear in mind that the cost of a single poor hire could easily exceed the cost of properly screening dozens of applicants.

Emotion, rather than logic, drives most bad hiring decisions. Here are five of the most common emotional traps that can skew the process:

• Desperation: Most desperate decisions are foolish. If you’re desperate to fill a position, have the person hired through a temporary employment agency. Don’t add anyone to your payroll who hasn’t gone through the standard hiring process.
• Infatuation: Studies show that employers generally make the decision to hire during the first 10 minutes of an interview, then spend the rest of the time justifying their choice - similar to the way we buy cars. To avoid the perils of infatuation, always involve more than one person in the interview. Bear in mind that even total losers can often generate infatuation during the hiring process. If you find yourself liking somebody perhaps a little too much, beware!
• Laziness: It’s not that we’re lazy. But there’s already a ton of work to do without having to worry about hiring someone. When job responsibilities become overwhelming, it’s all too easy to view the hiring process as something to “get over with.” In our haste to get back to work, we create a hiring waste.
• Stereotyping: “A woman can’t operate a forklift.” ̶A male can’t make a good head nurse.” “Females and minorities don’t belong in the boardroom.” This type of pigeonholing impedes effective hiring decisions. For example, after the New York Philharmonic began using “blind auditions” (in which musicians played their instruments behind a curtain so that the conductor couldn’t identify the candidate by gender), twice as many women were hired.
• Networking: Don’t short-circuit an effective hiring process just because someone else recommended an applicant. Make sure that this person has the skills, character, and background to become a trustworthy member of your team. This is true even when dealing with placement agencies or temp firms. Find out what process they went through before recommending the applicant. Then fill in the gaps or ask that they do so.

A final note: If you don’t have a written hiring process, then you don’t have a hiring process! Put it in writing, follow it to the letter every time, and you’ll avoid 99% of hiring disasters. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Don Phin is an attorney who for more than 16 years, has specialized in the litigation of employment and business cases. He has represented hundreds of employees, partners and companies in that time. Don has litigated wrongful termination, race and age discrimination, sexual harassment, whistle-blower, trade-secret theft, fraud, partnership dissolution and many other cases to a successful conclusion. In 1995, Don obtained the status of a Certified Professional Consultant to Management (CPCM). Since then, he spends a large part of his time consulting, writing, speaking and coaching.

Don’s seminars, workshops and reports have been delivered to such groups as the International Risk Management Institute, Insurance Marketing and Management Services, The Executive Committee, The CEO Club, The Society for Human Resource Management, Foundation of Enterprise Development, The National Human Resource Association and The National Association of Professional Consultants to Management.

Risk management is about possibilities and probabilities. It’s about assessing the 80/20 of exposure and then committing the strategies and tools needed to protect yourself. I hope these insights will help those of you battling on the front lines. If you have any questions regarding the trials and tribulations of managing in today’s high-risk environment, e-mail or give me a call at 800-234-3304.

riskVue | The webzine for risk management professionals
April 2002