Interviewing Job Applicants Can Be Hazardous to Your Wealth

1st Fact: Interviewing applicants is the most common way companies decide whom to hire. 2nd Fact: Research proves most interviewers do lousy at predicting if an applicant will succeed - or flop - if hired. 3rd Fact: Research shows that customized pre-employment tests do great at predicting if an applicant may succeed or fail on-the-job. 4th Fact: Since you must interview applicants, even if you use tests, you need to make better predictions based on interviews. If you do not learn how to do this, it will prove hazardous to your wealth! When you hire the wrong person, you will pay a huge price. Your business financially suffers, and you can destroy your management career. WHY MANAGERS DO ROTTEN INTERVIEWS Unfortunately, most managers base hiring decisions on interviewing job applicants. But, most managers do not know what they are doing. They often do not know 1. talents the applicant needs to succeed on-the-job 2. questions to ask 3. how to take useful notes 4. ways to stop applicants from lying about work experience or skills CUSTOMIZE INTERVIEWS FOR EACH JOB Since you still must interview applicants, let's pinpoint how you can conduct useful interviews. Start by listing key talents a productive employee needs in the job. I use a 35-item checklist to help managers identify crucial talents. For example, one company desired to hire better salespeople. Using my checklist, the sales executives chose crucial seven talents their salespeople need to succeed: 1. Mental Abilities 2. Friendliness 3. Persuasiveness 4. Flexible about Following Rules & Procedures 5. Optimism 6. Desire to Make Lots of Money 7. Desire to Control Sales Situations INTERVIEWING MADE VASTLY EASIER With the job talents list, make a customized interview guide form. This helps you conduct an insightful interview. It includes these parts, as shown in the accompanying example: 1. Job-related talents, such as Friendliness and Desire to Make Lots of Money 2. Place to insert test scores, e.g., scores on the Forecaster