While on a recent business trip in New York, I took a break to visit my daughter, who lives in Manhattan. I hadn’t seen her in several months and was excited to hear about her work at PWC and other mother/daughter catch-up talk. To begin our day, we met at a trendy (highly rated by Zagat) coffeehouse just around the corner from her apartment. As we made our order at the counter, we were laughing and chatting to one another. The clerk must have taken our preoccupation with one another as a sign that I wasn’t paying attention. Wrong. Watch the video to see what happened.
As the CEO of Assessment Leaders, an organization that provides best-in-class talent assessments, background checks and surveys to hire, promote and retain the best employees, I couldn’t help but take this unfortunate situation as an opportunity to talk to this Coffeehouse’s leadership about the power of our tools… and what could be fixed in their hiring process. Come to find out, they do use background checks as part of their hiring process. That’s great news but, unfortunately, background checks just aren’t enough to filter out the bad eggs…as this situation clearly illustrates. Not just a bad hire, but one that commits fraud! 
There are three things a hiring manager can do to increase their chances of a good hire, beyond a strong background check.
- Ask the candidate to take a low-cost (as little as $30), highly effective and validated pre-hire assessment to measure their personal integrity, attitude towards substance abuse, reliability and work ethic. This assessment also includes an interview guide based on the results of the individual assessment. To learn more about this best selling pre-hire assessment and view a sample report click here. Another pre-hire assessment that is popular is the Job Fit, which ensures the applicant has the necessary basic experience and possess the core traits and attitudes that you have found to be predictive of success in that job. To learn more about the Job Fit and view a sample report, click here.
Pre-hire assessments aren’t 100% foolproof, but they will compliment a background check and aide in the hiring process. It’s worth every penny! If anything good can come of this story, I sincerely hope hiring managers will make a small investment in ensuring new hires not only pass all the required background checks but also possess the core traits and attitudes that they found to be predictive of success in that job.
- Gauge the candidates’ problem solving skills and past performance by using behavioral-based interviewing. Ask situational questions on how she/he would handle (or would handle) certain circumstances that reflect the position and company specifically. For example, an upset customer, team assistance, honesty, or good vs. bad decisions.
- Ensure that the hiring manager covers the core values of the company and ask the candidate to respond on how they would model each value. You are trying to ascertain whether the candidate is aligned with the company’s values.
Experts estimate that the cost of a bad hiring decision—measured in high turnover, lost opportunity, damaged reputation, and more—can range from 20 to 200 percent of a year’s salary (depending upon the position). The stakes are simply too high to rely on gut decisions or traditional methods alone. Use Assessment Leaders’ scientifically developed and validated assessments to:
- Reduce the risks associated with hiring
- Weed out poor candidates before the interview process
- Reduce turnover and absenteeism
- Minimize employee theft and dishonesty
- Reduce training costs
- Achieve higher productivity
- Improve customer satisfaction
- Improve teamwork
To learn more about why and how to utilize assessment tools to attract, retain, advance and develop employees at all levels, click on the link below to view the slides. Assessment Leaders – Measure the Total Person