Hiring tips, management help and the role that compensation plays in recruiting, from the Humetrics blog.
A new survey finds just over half of the respondents have not gotten a bump in salary over the past 12 months, despite a tight labor market that’s making it harder for employers to find workers. On
the other hand, employees with more education and higher incomes are more likely to have received a raise, the Bankrate.com survey shows.
According to the phone survey of 1,009 employees conducted Nov. 1-5, 52% of those polled didn’t see their paychecks increase the past year. Thirty percent got a raise at their current job; 10% landed a better paying job; and 8% scored both within the 12-month period. Thus, a total 48% of those surveyed saw their wages rise either at their current workplace or by switching jobs.
Even though the sample is small:
To get a good read on a job applicant’s attitude toward taking responsibility, ask: “What do you think accounts for your success so far?” After the person answers, ask the more important, follow up question: “What’s kept you from being even more successful?”
The person will either take personal responsibility or blame some circumstance or person.
“In the past five years, what is something that has happened to you that you had absolutely no control over and how did you deal with it?” (While a person may not have any control over an event, they do have control over how they deal with/respond to it.)
The sneaky thing about biases is that, for the most part, we’re unaware we hold them. To wit, “I am not prejudiced and I hate people who are.”
One way this undermines your judgement in the hiring process is what I call the “comparison bias.” If the last person you interviewed was an unmitigated disaster, the next interviewee is bound to look fantastic by comparison.
And, vice versa, of course. An above-average applicant won’t look as promising when compared to the superstar you just interviewed.
“Just get ‘er done,” may have its place, but it’s not during training. When you train for speed (whether it’s waiting tables or making sales calls), you hinder understanding and quality. Always train for process (not only the hows, but the whys) and the speed will follow.
Most of the time, it’s better to ask “What happened?” rather than “Why?” That’s because “why” places blame. So, the next time you’re trying to figure out what went wrong so it doesn’t happen again, instead of asking: “Why did you…?” Ask: “What happened (or what caused you to)?
