HR That Works Blog

Watch this short video of Don Phin discussing the single most powerful interview question you should ask every applicant in the hiring process.

Human Resources – 5 Ways Guarantee Hiring a Loser

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Click here to view Don’s Hiring 101 video along with free hiring tools.

Because of my background, a number of public relations firms in New York send me copies of their advanced books to see if we’d like to invite one of their clients on as guests for our Webinars. A few weeks ago, I got a promotional copy of Harper’s Rules by Danny Cahill, which will appear in your bookstores soon. It is an interesting book, really aimed at the managerial or executive level person looking for a six-figure job. To that end, it is an excellent book. Like other authors today (including yours truly), Cahill attempts to bring his pointers to the reader via a story. In this case, it’s an out-of-work and out-of-love 35 year old software sales executive. Of course, she lives alone with her cat and gets conflicted between the professionals who help her, the young guy at the gym, and anyone else who might be interested in her.

Here’s the bottom line: If you work with recruiters, this book can give you great insight into the way they think. If you are looking to get placed in a job and work with a recruiter, this can also give you an excellent insight into how they work. If you’re primarily interested in reading stories about drama and dating lessons, you’d be better off with something written by Nora Roberts.

Here are a few interesting insights I came out with from the book.

1. Hiring is just like dating. Something I’ve been preaching in my workshops since Day 1. This guy even writes a book about it so it must be true. My guess is there is as much misinformation being disseminated on Monster.com as there is on Match.com.
2. Cahill asked an interesting question: “Is your job one that you should stay at or leave?” He encourages us not to settle for “good enough.” In other words, don’t let your life go wasting by. What he doesn’t mention is that you have the opportunity to make that difference at your current job. I can tell you story after story about how individual employees have caused significant change within their organizations.
3. Employers must always understand that “something else is going on” with the people they are either hiring or managing. The character in this story has a lot of self-talk which affects how well she sells and relates to others. When she starts comparing her dating life to her job, I’d start being worried…because you can’t do anything about her dating life.
4. “Salespeople know a lot about making money. But what I couldn’t admit to Harper, what I have never admitted to anyone, is that I am terrible with money.” And so are two-thirds of all Americans. You can be a high-ranking executive and still be as dysfunctional with money as any rank and file employee. Very few of us outside of the financial profession or accounting position have a true understanding of accounting and finance. Remember, accounting is the number one most dropped and failed course in college. When I go in to companies and see a 50 percent utilization rate of their 401(k) plans that have up to $3,000 in matching funds, I know these are a financial failure on the part of the company and its employees. Bottom line: There is no excuse for not teaching your employees numbers. How they work at home and at the company.
5. Throughout the book, Cahill provides an excellent outline step-by-step of what you need to do to be prepared for finding a dream job. Quite frankly, it is as good as anything I’ve read in this regard. Like I’ve said, you can read the plot to amuse yourself if you choose, if not, you can get to his bottom line about what you need to get done.

Towards the end of my active litigation career I can remember a woman coming into my office that wanted to sue the law firm she had worked at for wrongful termination. Long story short: she worked for a named litigation partner at a local firm for 15 years. Feeling a bit unappreciated, she put her word out to the grapevine that she was hoping for greener pasture. Apparently,  at the same time, a partner at another firm lost his legal secretary with little notice. He was desperate for a replacement and put his word out to the grapevine and therein they met. A few days later they met for lunch. She is a pleasant woman and obviously knew what she was doing given her work history. So he hired her on the spot.

Then the “problems” began. Apparently she wasn’t as quick as his previous legal secretary. Within 3 months she was let go for her non-productivity. That’s when she walked into my office.

So here was a woman over 40, raising some kids on her own, steady job for 15 years, promises of green pasture and then out on the streets 3 months later without so much as a “sorry.” How would you feel if that was you…or your sister? How do think 12 jurors might feel about law firms who treat people this way?

The “old” Don would have loved to mess with this firm. They weren’t especially nice to me on a case I had litigated against them a few years prior. If I could have somehow squeezed past all the motions to dismiss, etc. and taken it to a jury it would be game over. However, this being the kinder and gentler me, and someone who has learned that litigation is a poor substitute for the taking of personal responsibility and moving on, I asked a different set of questions. Like “What was your responsibility in all of this?” “Were you crystal clear about what it took to be a success in this position or did you simply have your fingers crossed?” (As Mary Kay so famously stated “Most folks spend more time planning their vacations than their careers.”)

What does a litigation secretary do 80% of the day? Type. Did the firm or partner have a typing test requirement? Of course not. So what do you think the typing standard was for that job to be a success in it? The client was astute enough to say “My guess is the speed met by the previous legal secretary.” And what was that? Who knew? When I asked what her typing speed she said approximately 80 words per minute in a test she took herself some years ago. (Just an OK typing speed for a high-end legal secretary. I never hired under 100 wpm.) When I tracked down the previous legal secretary she said at least 100 wpm.  So there you have it. This legal secretary was a failure the first day on the job and nobody knew about it!

How many employees, not just legal secretaries, are failures on their first day of hire? Fact is, there is no substitute for testing on all aspects of employee performance. For example, you can do an online typing test of your existing secretaries to generate a hiring benchmark and to see who may need some additional training. Here’s an example of one such test: http://www.previsor.com/pdf/FactSheets/Fact_Sheet_Typing.PDF. While you are it, have the attorneys and legal secretaries create a substantive knowledge test too. If it’s a litigation secretary test their procedural knowledge. If it is a secretary to an estate planning attorney you can test for the relevant knowledge there too. I bet half of all applicants and half of all employees will do better than the other half.

There you have it. A simple formula: Test for it if it’s important to you. The failure to do so will guarantee failed employees.

The IRS has issued form W-11 to use when employing someone under the HIRE Act. To view the form and learn more about the law go to http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=221036,00.html.

We often think about preparing questions for an employee in an interview, but spend little time on being ready to answer questions that they might ask us. Consider these samples:

• How many employees do you have?
• What are your annual sales and profitability trends over the past three years?
• What percentage of managers are promoted, rather than recruited?
• Why is the position open? Did someone quit or get fired? Is this a new position?
• How would you describe your company’s culture?
• Where do you get your greatest satisfaction in working at the company?
• What frustrates you at times working for the company?
• How does your performance appraisal system work?
• What training programs do you offer employees?
• When is the last time you faced an employee claim?
• How often does the CEO meet with the management team?
• What type of office parties and social events do you have?
• Do you publish career ladders for the position?
• What effort have you made to find out about me before the interview? (i.e., have you done a Google search?)

P.S. As a fringe benefit, preparing these answers will tell you a lot about your company. 

Demographic studies reinforce our daily experience: It’s getting harder and harder to find good employees — but not for everyone! Whether you’re a local contractor or national airline, there’s an employer of choice in every market; these companies find good people knocking on their door because they enjoy a high “Attractiveness Factor.” For example, Southwest Airline and Jet Blue are probably getting far more qualified candidates than United, American, and Delta because they have a business model and culture that attracts employees, rather than repels them.

Survey after survey reveals that one third to one half of the employees in any industry are looking for a better employer — a far higher figure than the 5% to 15% unemployment rate in those industries. Why would these people, who already have jobs, leave them to come work for you? Your Attractiveness Factor is related directly to the job satisfaction of your employees. As we stated in a recent newsletter, Baldridge Award winners have approximately a 66% job satisfaction level, while Great Places to Work Institute Award winners are up to an 82% average. You can bet that the recruiting offices in these companies have a far easier time than their competitors.

To improve your Attractiveness Factor, we’d recommend these steps:

• Put the right people on every seat of the bus. No excuses. Nothing upsets team members more than management placing the wrong employee on their team — especially without their input.

• Have your employees market on your behalf. Referrals from existing employees are a great source of leads. Also, get employees involved in the hiring process by using such tools as group interviews.

• Show employees that you care by asking them what they need to be successful and to take pride in their work. This applies even when they’re leaving. On average, one dissatisfied customer will tell seven people about their grievance — and it’s no different with dissatisfied employees. When you terminate someone, do it with grace and understanding. Conduct exit interviews to correct any potential resentments that might fester into a lawsuit.

• Brand your company as a great place to work. For example, many Circuit City stores have a banner over their entrance that states, “We’re Always Looking to Hire Great Employees.” Southwest Airlines brands the fact that their employees Love the Work They Do Every Day. What’s your brand? How do you show it?

Lighten up. Whether you label it fun, joy, love, or nonsense, find a way to enjoy! Many of us are looking for that something extra out of our daily grinds. What’s yours?

There’s a major distinction among people who view their disabilities as a challenge to overcome and those who can’t wait to turn their challenges into a disability. Company after company has proven that hiring the truly disabled is a wise business decision that can also inspire non-disabled workers. Unfortunately, ADA restrictions lead many employers to perceive disabled applicants as either not up to the job, potentially burdensome, or a future legal liability. All three of these perceptions are often untrue.

Most accommodations for disabled employees cost less than $500, and the return on this investment tends to be very favorable. Experience shows disabled employees have a greater sense of loyalty and lower turnover than their non-disabled counterparts, and are far less likely to get caught up in petty workplace drama.

You can also find federal and state tax incentives for hiring, including disabled access credit, barrier removal deductions, and work opportunity tax credits. For more information visit the Web sites of the IRS (www.irs.gov), US Department of Labor (www.dol.gov), the Job Accommodation Network (www.jan.wvu.edu), or check with your state vocational center.

We recommend that employers conduct pre-hire and return to work “fit for duty” exams. To balance the employers’ need to know with the employee’s right to privacy and disability protection, the EEOC issues guidance in Enforcement Guidance on Disability-Related Inquiries and Medical Examinations. In the case of Indergard v. Georgia-Pacific Corp. the 9th circuit helped clarify the distinction with physical agility exams which are not subject to the guidelines.

Determining whether a test is a medical examination depends on these factors:

• Whether the test is administered by a health care professional
• Whether it is interpreted by a health care professional
• Whether it is designed to reveal an impairment of physical or mental health
• Whether it is invasive
• Whether it measures an employee’s performance of a task or their physiological responses to performing the task
• Whether it is normally given in a medical setting
• Whether medical equipment is used

The EEOC Enforcement Guidance states that, although in some cases a combination of factors might be relevant in determining whether a test is a medical examination, in “other cases, one factor may be enough to determine that a test or procedure is medical.” It then provides a list of tests that are considered medical examinations, including “blood pressure screening and cholesterol testing” and “range-of-motion tests that measure muscle strength and motor function.”

The EEOC Enforcement Guidance states that certain employer-required tests are generally not medical examinations – including physical agility tests, which measure an employee’s ability to perform actual or simulated job tasks, and physical fitness tests, which measure an employee’s performance of physical tasks, such as running or lifting – as long as these tests do not include examinations that could be considered medical (e.g., measuring heart rate or blood pressure).

In the Indergard case, the court ruled that the employer did have to comply with Medical Examination guidelines. Click here to read the case.

There’s no way around it — the American workforce is aging. In fact, this is such a major issue that the AARP publishes an annual list of those companies that do the best job with supporting senior workers. Such companies have these common characteristics:

• Help older workers adjust to the fact they might be managed by employees 20 years or more their junior.
• Tap into their wisdom and share it.
• Realize that senior workers like flexibility as much as working parents and others do.
• Place these workers in a mentoring position and give them a junior employee to mentor them on subjects such as technology and marketing trends.
• Invest in ergonomics that can make their jobs less tiring.
• Reconsider mandatory retirement programs.
• Think long term — their older employees do!

Older Americans want to work longer and many of them have to. Employers need dedicated and loyal workers willing to stick around for a while. If properly managed, this can be a win/win solution for all involved.

Caveat: A recent Jury Verdict Research Report reported three age discrimination verdicts in the amounts of $120,000, $120,000, and $500,000. That does not include the time, cost, and emotional investment associated with putting up the defense. When it comes to older workers, be careful not to step on the Age Discrimination and Employment Act landmine; realize that at times it might be cheaper to keep them, even if they’re not performing up to standard.