As anyone who has worked in more than one organization knows, in addition to job skills, successful long-term employees tend to act and think similarly. You can think of it as “culture.” Personal success depends on both personal and environmental factors, each of which is important in its own way. Personal factors include having the... [full article »]

For some strange reason, Todd Raphael, the ERE Editor, sent me an article on yet another wacko idea pretending to facilitate hiring. He must think I have an axe to grind against wrong-headed hiring ideas. Imagine that! Well done, Todd. This one ranks right down there with handwriting analysis. The article cites a lady who specializes... [full article »]

Every time I encounter customer service that is so bad that I just have to write an article about it. (I call it cheap psychotherapy). You see, I think most organizations cause their own problems because they hire the wrong people to represent them on the phone. In this article, I refer to my experience turning... [full article »]

People are always writing articles about the best interview questions. One author (who positioned himself as a hiring expert) actually advised, “In terms of ‘canned’ interview questions, my suggestion is to select a few questions you like and ask them.” This is a fine strategy for making friends, but absolute nonsense for a recruiter (I had... [full article »]

Any manager who takes an honest look at individual performance knows all employees are not created equally. About 20% of employees rise to the top of the heap; 20% drop to the bottom; and the rest hang around in the middle doing only enough to attract attention. Employee-productivity differences have attracted their share of researchers. Most... [full article »]

What test instrument can quickly assess a candidate’s personality preferences; is cheap; available to almost everyone; marketed by dozens of vendors under a variety of names; and, is recommended “unreliable and untrustworthy” by most testing professionals? Yes, there are others, but I was referring to the DISC. (Although this article focused on the DISC, you could... [full article »]

The idea of redirecting recruiters toward internal movement and succession planning seems like a good one, but I’m afraid it is another dead-end recruiting street unless some basic principles are applied. Wrong-Way Thinking There is a common fallacy among a significant number of people that anyone can do anything: a good-looking applicant will make a high performing... [full article »]

Time and again I read recommendations for evaluating quality of hire. Ask the managers, ask the employees, ask an astrologer. None of these things will ever give you more than a subjective opinion about the kind of information you need to improve the quality of hire. Here’s why. Imagine advertising for superheroes. There are a dozen... [full article »]

The phone rings. Someone on the other end says he or she wants to build (or buy) a Web-enabled hiring test. Let’s say it will be for salespeople (generally the caller is a recruiter or HR manager, but sometimes he or she is a gopher). After discussing the idea for a few minutes, I make a... [full article »]

Every so often, I come across shameful hiring information included in newsletters. I always thought journalists were supposed to research their facts; however, in a recent career newsletter, there were three articles that immediately got my attention. If any readers come across articles like these, may I suggest you flame the author for reporting pure... [full article »]

Get used to it: unless your organization hires everyone who applies, you are testing. Some people (even attorneys who should know better) vigorously deny that their organizations test applicants (pssst?interviews are tests!). Whether an organization uses verbal questions or written questions, they both have the same objective: to separate qualified applicants from unqualified ones before spending... [full article »]

It’s a common assumption. A good sales manager should first be a good salesperson, right? Wrong. It is a big jump from being a skilled “doer” to being a skilled “coach of doers.” In many cases, the top sales person is an enigma. Salespeople are ego-driven and competitive and want to be recognized and rewarded. But... [full article »]

Decreasing turnover and increasing productivity can be a natty problem. Solutions usually come in one strength: weak. That is, incentive programs, public awards, and social get-togethers generally fail to make a long-term financial impression. I won’t claim that employee appreciation programs aren’t a nice touch; after all, everyone wants to feel appreciated. But such recognition does... [full article »]

I really don’t like being a resident doomsayer, but organizational hiring and promotional practices are generally so abysmal that I am compelled to make it a big issue. Take EEOC tracking, for example. Most people think all they have to do is send in routine normal reports. Not so. They should be monitoring adverse impact... [full article »]

Once a week I get called by someone, usually an administrative assistant, asking if I have a personality test. When I try to get more information, she usually tells me her boss wants the test and she just wants the price. I tell her, “Sorry. I sell solutions, not tests.” [full article »]

Sure, it’s easy to say engineering, legal, IT, or actuarial jobs require technical degrees. People in these professions need a substantial amount of education to practice their trade. But we all know from watching folks in these professions that it takes more than a sheepskin to be successful. Sometimes, it takes certain personality factors to... [full article »]

A large number of readers recently rushed in to confirm that military hires were “slam-dunk” employees. Almost every story was backed with a personal anecdote and criticism was branded downright unpatriotic. I spent a few years in the military and have the highest respect for those who put their lives on the line. I encourage every... [full article »]

Some of you might have heard or read about Google and its bio-data applicant screening process. As cited in a recent New York Times article, its basic approach is supposed to be simple: [full article »]

Assessment! What a concept! Imagine a world where job applicants are screened for their job skills?before being hired! Wow! Assessment = Judgment = Test = Interview = Application = Resume [full article »]

Almost every sales applicant experiences interviews and tests. Is this good or bad? It’s hard to tell. Although it would take dynamite to separate most hiring managers from their favorite test, few organizations have conducted studies showing whether its scores predict performance. High production takes more than just “selling the pencil.” It takes a combination of... [full article »]