Five common hiring mistakes and how to avoid them

by Rich Vurva

Most distributors believe people are their most important asset. Yet too many companies have a haphazard approach when it comes to hiring employees. Human resource expert Nancye Combs, president of HR Enterprise Inc. of Louisville, Ky., a STAFDA-endorsed consultant on personnel issues, says distributors typically make five common hiring mistakes. This article explains those five mistakes and offers advice on how to avoid them.

1. Trusting résumés
The first hiring mistake distributors make is to put too much faith in a job candidate’s résumé.

“Résumés are marketing tools. People create a résumé to sell themselves well enough to get an interview,” says Combs.

A study by the Society for Human Resource Management discovered that 25 percent of job applicants said they lied on their résumé. They most commonly lie about their level of education. Instead of relying only on what a candidate includes in his or her résumé, Combs strongly advises clients to require job applicants to complete a formal, written job application.

“Applications let employers make an apples-to-apples comparison of candidates. It’s fine to accept résumés, but require a formal, signed application. That’s the veracity statement. In more than 30 years, I have never seen an employer found liable for terminating an employee who lied on their written application,” she says.

2. Interviewing without structure
A second common hiring mistake companies make is to conduct interviews with no formal structure. Without realizing it, the job interview can easily fall into a social conversation instead of a process designed to gain information about the candidate’s ability to perform the job requirements.

Combs tells distributors to write down a dozen or so questions to ask in the formal interview. Focus on asking questions that help you determine the candidate’s work experiences and attitudes. Ask questions such as: Beginning with your first job, why did you leave each job? What would your last supervisor say to me about what you need to improve in order to be a better employee? When I call your most recent supervisor, what will he or she say about you as an employee? Of all the work you’ve done, what work has been most satisfying to you? As you look back on decisions you’ve made regarding your work, what would you say has been your biggest mistake? If you could go back to any job you had in the past, which job would you go back to and why would you do that?

“It’s so much easier to ask a question that is written down than to ask one that you made up during the interview. It’s much less intimidating. Then you can spend all of your time listening, because you’re not trying to think of what you’re going to say next,” she says.

Without a formal structure, interviewers also have a tendency to talk about things like marriage, children, health and age, which could expose the company to potential charges of discrimination.

3. Relying on instinct
Formal written applications and a structured interview can help distributors avoid the third common hiring mistake: relying on instinct. Without a disciplined approach to evaluating candidates, employers can fall into the trap of hiring someone simply because they seem charming or come highly recommended. One client of Combs hired a highly compensated executive after meeting with him for lunch at the local country club because he was a good friend of his brother-in-law’s wife.

When possible, involve a panel of questioners to help evaluate each candidate. If necessary, involve an outsource firm to assist in the interview process and to use assessment tools to evaluate candidates. Know what skills and personality traits you’re seeking in a job candidate.

“You’re really looking for three things. You’re looking for ability to do the job, a work style that lets them be an effective employee, and you’re looking for a person that will fit into your organization,” says Combs.

If you have an entrepreneurial management style, you don’t want to hire someone who demands structure and prefers to have every policy and procedure captured in a 500-page policy manual. A well-designed hiring process can help employers determine if the job candidate can fit in their type of organizational structure.

4. Failing to test candidates
Failing to test candidates is the fourth mistake that many employers make. Combs uses a number of assessment tools to measure a candidate’s mental aptitude and personality. The tools test factors such as mental acuity and problem-solving capacity to determine a candidate’s ability to learn new information; the candidate’s knowledge of business terms and vocabulary; memory recall; energy level; emotional tolerance and patience with people and events; questioning and probing skills.

“I use a test that tests for intelligence and personality together. It’s less than $200, which may seem expensive for a clerical position, but it is a drop in the bucket for a salesperson. There are many inexpensive tests that measure intellectual ability, a person’s ability to learn, to solve problems and make judgments,” she says.

The Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT) is a popular assessment tool developed by Wonderlic Inc. of Libertyville, Ill., that’s used by employers of all types, including the National Football League to determine if a potential draft pick has the brains needed to win football games.

The WPT is a short intelligence test that measures players’ ability to think on their feet, follow directions, and make effective decisions under the pressure of a time clock. It was originally developed in 1937 as a tool to quantify the mental abilities of potential job candidates, and today more than 2.5 million job applicants in companies across the nation are given the Wonderlic test as part of the hiring process. The test is especially popular with larger organizations because it’s quick and easy to administer and delivers accurate information about candidates’ intelligence.

5. Omitting background checks
The fifth common hiring mistake is neglecting to check an applicant’s background before hiring the candidate. One client learned the hard way why it’s important to conduct a background check. The company hired a receptionist to sort the mail and answer the phone. The woman diverted checks from customers into her own personal bank account. When the employer eventually discovered what happened to the missing checks, it fired the employee and sued the bank for allowing the receptionist to deposit the money into her private account. The bank’s attorney asked if the company had checked the woman’s background before hiring her and learned the employer had not.

“The bank had done a background check and found out she was terminated from two previous employers for misappropriation of employer funds. Since my client didn’t do due diligence, they didn’t have a leg to stand on because they were negligent. They didn’t do the background check because they didn’t perceive her in a position of risk.  They learned otherwise,” Combs says.

Combs says employers can check a person’s background in 48 hours for as little as $40. Her company also provides background checking services for clients. Combs also advises distributors to contact former employers to learn what they can about a candidate’s prior work experiences. When asked for references, many companies will only reveal a former employee’s start date and the date they left the company, but Combs says truth-in-hiring laws in 40 states permit former employers to share additional information as long as it is factual and not slanderous.

Say, for example, a company fired an employee because of frequent absenteeism. “If someone called me up and I said, ‘John Doe is a drunk. We get paid on Thursday and half the time he didn’t show up on Friday and Monday, so we let him go,’ that’s defamation of character. Being drunk is a legal term. Unless I’m ready to prove that, I better not say anything,” Combs says. “However, if I said, ‘We terminated John Doe because he was absent 56 times in 170 days,’ that’s fact. We consider that to be excessive absenteeism. That’s all I need to say.”

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2005 issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2005.

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