Secrets of finding and keeping good employees: "To do the best job possible, it is important for America's hiring professionals to challenge their interview processes." (Business & Finance).

• Author: Sirbasku, Jim

EVERY JOB IN A COMPANY is important, or it wouldn't exist. In other words, there is a good job for everyone--one where each individual makes a valuable contribution, regardless of where that job is in a company's structure. Finding that person, though, requires a scientific process. That conviction comes from over 35 years experience recruiting, interviewing, and selecting nearly 10,000 sales-people.

Many people believe gut instinct works like magic in selecting key personnel. This is especially true when the person doing the hiring is also successful at doing the job. For example, a top sales producer may think that he or she is the best person to pick other people who will be able to sell successfully. In reality, that likelihood results in less than a 50% success ratio. With stats like that, a toss of the coin could save recruiters a lot of time, energy, and money.

In most job searches, those responsible for doing the hiring sell the job before they select a candidate. This approach is backwards. Why sell the job to someone who isn't a candidate? After all, a savvy applicant may be a good "interview"--well-groomed, friendly, professional, enthusiastic, interested, a good listener, etc. What happens in this case is the recruiter starts doing the talking, telling about the job requirements before the interview starts. It's the candidate who's doing the listening, learning how to appeal to the recruiter. The result is that, since most individuals can mask their true tendencies for at least 45 minutes, the interviewer rarely gets an accurate picture of the job candidate. Alternatively, why not learn profiles of interviewees before taking the time to sell the job? Then, it may not be necessary to disclose job specifics once this information is gathered if the candidate doesn't represent a good fit.

By selling the job before selecting a candidate, the individuals responsible for hiring often fall prey to pre- and postselection variables. It's a sink-or-swim philosophy that says, "Recruit them in masses; train them in classes; and roll them out on their hockey skates" That is postselection. This method is not effective, so some people camouflage it to make it look different. Preselection is when one tries to learn about the candidates and gather information before putting them on the job. For instance, accountants typically have personalities that are relatively high-energy, usually indicate a good learning pace, and show an interest in working with numbers and data in general. Yet, these traits cannot be assumed simply because a person is interviewing for an accountant position. The only way to really determine, at the end of an interview, if a job candidate is a potential match is to take the time up front to learn about an interviewee.

The art of interviewing is and always has been highly underrated. Many people can ask good questions, but those aren't always as specific to the position as they could be. For example, if you are hiring an accountant, there are questions designed specifically for determining whether a person is capable of offering what an employer needs. By knowing the position requires conscientious behavior and discourages spontaneity, interviewers can design and ask more-targeted and appropriate lines of inquiry, such as: Describe what you've done in the past to make your job easier, or Explain the types of circumstances in which you have felt it necessary to overlook some policies or procedures because they got in the way of reaching a goal. The responses to such inquiries can help uncover whether a person believes that rules can be interpreted loosely.

Similarly, if the position requires an organized individual vs. a reactive one, questions should be asked to zero in on those behaviors, such as: What system do you use to ensure nothing is lost or overlooked?, or Typically, how much time do you spend on planning and handling the small details at your work? The answers here help clarify whether the person...