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