THE #1 SECRET TO ELIMINATING HIRING MISTAKES

Most executives would agree that finding and attracting strong people is critical to building and/or running a strong business.  One of the difficulties in accomplishing these things is determining how strong a candidate really is.  Of course, effective interviewing and demanding proof of competency and accomplishments is important.  However, the #1 secret to eliminating costly hiring mistakes is something entirely different.

In the business world, we frequently hire people who are great personalities, but can't deliver the expected results.  We also exclude candidates from consideration who appear nervous during the interview session.  We fail to realize that interviewing personality is not necessarily true personality.  This is why controlling emotions in an interview is so important.  We make emotional decisions in the first five to ten minutes of an interview, and spend the rest of our time finding ways to justify an often inaccurate and premature conclusion.

Imagine this: someone who appears to be a strong candidate begins an interview. The candidate makes a great first impression, has good paperwork, is prepared, and is on time. Furthermore, the candidate is attractive, assertive, affable, and articulate, and has made pleasant remarks to everyone she or he has met. In addition, the candidate has a firm handshake, is confident, makes good eye contact, and is poised and professional. The interviewer immediately likes this candidate.

It is just at this moment that the biggest chance for a hiring mistake is possible. The interviewer instantly relaxes and starts to sell the candidate, talks too much, accepts generalities as facts, and assumes competency, motivation, and good team skills. Why not? The person is outgoing, bright, self-confident, and appears very interested in the job.  The interviewer fails to ask the appropriate probing questions that would otherwise reveal that this candidate is all talk and no action.

Now imagine another scenario:  someone who doesn't appear to be a strong candidate begins an interview. While the candidate has good paperwork, he or she is a bit nervous, is not as attractive, isn't as comfortable, seems to ramble, isn't very prepared, and might even have been late to the interview. The interviewer is immediately turned off by this candidate.

It is just at this moment when the biggest chance for a hiring mistake is also possible. The interviewer instantly tightens up and feels uncomfortable, then asks some obligatory questions with the underlying intent of trying to find some reasons to end the interview early, or to look for some facts to exclude the candidate from consideration. Why not? The person is an obvious misfit. The interviewer fails to ask the appropriate probing questions that would otherwise reveal that this candidate has produced extraordinary results, in spite of the candidate's perceived personality defects.

Most hiring mistakes are made in the first 30 minutes of the interview, when our conduct is based on nothing more than first impressions, intuition, and gut reaction. With an underlying like/dislike bias, it is always possible to formulate enough evidence to prove whatever case we want to make.  The solution to eliminating such misjudgments is to postpone hiring decisions for 30 minutes, when you can set emotions aside and be fully objective.

Go out of your way to explore the candidate's competency, achievement and motivation.  If you do, you'll be able to see true personality emerge through the candidate's actual performance.  For many candidates, interviewing personality is like party personality. Many people can be friendly and outgoing for at least an hour. But for others, interviewing is a bit stressful. Under these conditions, strong candidates can sometimes become forgetful, superficial, and lacking in confidence. After 30 minutes of objective interviewing, however, most candidates return to their true selves. Staying objective and getting to that 30-minute mark is difficult, but it's worth it.

Here's how:  as soon as the interview begins, note the candidate's first impression and the impact it had on you. Then change your frame of reference. If you like the candidate, go out of your way to be more probing and challenging. This will be hard, but it will offset your natural reaction to be more open and forgiving. If you don't initially like the candidate, do the opposite — assume the candidate really is very competent, and force yourself to look for proof. This is also hard to do, since we naturally strive to disprove competency.

After 30 minutes, or at the end of the interview, consciously measure how you presently feel about the candidate's personality and fit within your company. Then examine your "before" and "after" notes. The difference in the candidate's first impression on you and the delayed more objective impact can be quite revealing. You'll immediately see how your personal biases affect your judgment. If you can force yourself to forget personality and look strictly for competency in that crucial first meeting, your interviewing accuracy will soar.

Once you've tried this technique out and proven it for yourself, train others on the interviewing team to do the same thing. This is the real challenge, but necessary if you want to stop making costly hiring mistakes. It's a good lesson for us all — performance and personality are both critical to job success, but we must measure performance first. By measuring performance before personality, you'll discover some great candidates who appeared pretty average when you first met them. (You'll also discover some friendly, outgoing and enthusiastic people who are not qualified to do the work required.)

Wait 30 minutes and measure performance before personality.  It will change everything.

Credit for excerpts of this article is generously given to erdaily and Lou Adler, creator and CEO of Power Hiring – Best Practices for Hiring Top People.