No one can agree on who to hire because there is NO alignment on what success looks like for a position. Hiring is very simple and easy once we all agree on a common definition of success.
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Hire Top Talent
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Discover how to find, attract, engage, and interview top talent
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Barry Deutsch
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People are your biggest investment. How do you ensure you're getting the right ones? It’s sounds like a cliché, but it’s true: People are your biggest, and often most important, investment. Hiring the right people can transform your business and your bottom line – and hiring the wrong person can end up costing you time, productivity and, ultimately, a lot of money. There’s no foolproof way to avoid hiring mistakes, of course, but pre-employment screening can go a long way to weeding out potential bad apples. However, getting the most out of your pre-employment screening involves more than just making sure candidates on the shortlist sign the consent forms. Here are our tips for making sure your screening program is working harder for you. Put a screening policy in place. If your organization has more than one hiring manager - or if department heads and other managers often make hiring decisions without going through the HR department - it's important to establish and communicate a clear (and concise) screening policy, and ensure that anyone involved in the hiring process is aware of it. This can help reduce the kind of hiring mistakes that happen when inexperienced managers bypass the vetting process. Know what you want to know Many employers engage a screening company to check references and maybe confirm previous employers. But if you’re in a sensitive industry or hiring a senior executive for a specialized role – especially if you’re offering a substantial compensation package – you may want to consider screening that also verifies education and professional credentials. (This is a bigger area for fraud than most employers realize.) Taking the time to consider what you really want and need to know about a candidate could help you avoid a big mistake. Know exactly what the job will involve This seems obvious, but the truth is that in many cases, pre-employment screening isn’t as useful as it could be simply because the screening didn’t include a key qualification or skill, such as a driver’s abstract. If you need the new hire to have a clean driving record or credit history, it’s better to know this during the initial screening process. Be up-front with the candidate about what you’re screening for Being honest with the candidate about what information will be involved in their screening will not only give them a chance to address any potential issues, but will also help to protect you from damages if the candidate is not hired and tries to take action based on ‘improper’ screening. Know what information is a deal-breaker Your prospective new hire got one lukewarm (or even a little negative) reference from a previous employer. Does this automatically disqualify them from consideration if the other references were good? What about if they said they were ‘expert’ in a particular skill but a reference check reveals their skills are probably ‘intermediate’? Knowing what information is really crucial will help you use the screening results more effectively. ...but don't make your checklist too strict Recruiters often tell us about fantastic hires that 'got away' because a potential employer had a checklist of 11 things - but the candidate only ticked 10 of the boxes. If it turns out that an otherwise perfect potential hire has one bad reference from 7 years ago, maybe it's worth asking more questions rather than immediately taking them out of the running. Establish a social media screening policy Lots of great employees occasionally post questionable photos or information to one of their social media channels – that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hire them. At the same time, social media can blur the line between ‘personal’ and ‘professional’ in ways that can cause risk for employers. Establishing a corporate social media policy that can then be used consistently for pre-employment screening can be an effective way to mitigate this risk without worrying that you’re disqualifying good potential hires for arbitrary reasons. Consider doing in-depth reference checks yourself If all you want to know is whether a prospective hire did in fact hold the position(s) they claim to, then a basic reference check is fine. But if the job requires the kinds of soft skills that aren't easily measured, or needs a specific kind of cultural fit, you may want to follow up the basic reference checks with more detailed conversations with one or two employers from the top one or two candidates. Tags HR HRPA INVESTIGATIONS Investigations NEWS OIAA Profile in the news SCREENING SYSTEMS Screening Uncategorized background screening claims corporate investigations employment screening entry-level fraud insurance investigation investigations legislation news recruiting retention risk management risk mitigation screening sourcing talentmanagement threat assessment tips and tricks trends workplace violence
Barry Deutsch's insight:
I'm a huge proponent of testing since most hiring managers have no clue what they are doing in the interview process - because they've never been trained to conduct an effective interview.
Testing might include personality profiling, skill testing, pre-written questions, role-plays, presenting situational examples/case studies, homework assignments, cognitive intelligence testing, or sales aptitude testing.
Just relying on the face-to-face interview is a guarantee you could do just as well by flipping a coin. 
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Hiring for your company is an important process that brings many potential problems. We take a look at some common hiring mistakes and ways you can avoid them....
Barry Deutsch's insight:
Don't take my word on it. Here's another article talking about the number one problem in hiring - not being clear on what you want from people. The traditional job description is a worthless and useless document for managing and predicting success.
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Although the current unemployment rate has spiked up in many areas, hiring a productive salesperson can still be a huge challenge.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
One of the hardest roles to hire for is a sales professional. They've all been through Tony Robbins Fire Walk over the hot coals. They've all read Tony's book Unlimited Power and mastered the concepts of NLP to seduce you and lull you into abdicating interviewing.
As the article indicates, you fall in love, and end up hiring sales professionals who are only partially competent. The biggest mistake is that you think you're hiring a hunter, and in reality they turn out to be glorified order takers.
The article talks about falling in love - making a first impression and then validating that first impression through the rest of the interview. This is why hiring for traditional roles fails 50% of the time, and for sale hiring it fails 80 percent of the time.
In my current webinars I am doing for Vistage Groups on an Inerviewing Refresher for an hour, the two recommendations I make to reduce/minimize the syndrome of first impressions and falling in love is to first conduct a success-based phone interview for 20 minutes, and secondly, to write your interview questions down before the interview starts. Using these two tactics, you'll be amazed at how much more rational and objective you are in hiring sales professionals.
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Google. A website, turned verb. The way we learn just about everything now (just Google it). A giant time-waster. Yet also, a treasure trove of information. As recruiters, hiring managers, and people professionals, we tend to rely on Google for solutions to our day-to-day activities.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
I disagree with the author of this article - every candidate should be Googled. it's amazing what comes back as public knowledge that gets indexed. Better safe than sorry. It's just one of numerous triangulation points to validate, verify, and vet the candidate.
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You are probably quite adept at resilience in most parts of your life, this article discusses 8 ways you can develop resilience
Barry Deutsch's insight:
Interesting article on developing resilience as a life success trait. I am fascinated by this concept as High School Girls Basketball Coach and executive recruiter. At the high school, level I hope my coaching instills an understanding in teens how to overcome adversity, set-backs, failures, bad days, and mistakes.
As an executive recruiter, I look for executives who have been tested, knocked off the horse and gotten back up on it, who have had some set-backs, and are self-aware about their resilience.
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CEO confidence has bounced back stemming from robust economic conditions, solid consumer demand, strong earnings, and easy access to capital.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
CEO Confidence Index shows 28% of CEOs worried about finding enough talent. From my seat it looks like 100%.
Is finding and attracting enough talent a concern for you? I've got clients in every part of the country in every imaginable business - and it's the same story whether you're in towing, movie theaters, construction, restaurants - you name the industry - and I can guarantee everyone is scratching their head how to find more qualified applicants.
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People are complex. We need a more nuanced approach to predicting job performance.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
Very good research article in the MIT review.
My experience over 30 years of hiring and performance management consulting, and over 1000 executive search projects is that there is NO test that is predicative of future performance. The intellectual tests do not predict future performance. They simply give you a perspective on raw intelligence – the ability to logically and rationally process information.
The personality assessments do not predict performance – they simply give you insight into a person’s preferred behavior/communication style in a work setting. Most of the tests are easily manipulated by the candidate into answering questions or checking words that the hiring manager wants to hear – not the real candidate.
Both of these are still useful tools and insights even with their flaws.
However, the ONLY way to predict future performance is to conduct a performance or success based structured interview that correlates with the outcomes desired in the role. Adding role plays, homework, and working/practical sessions/real case studies – along with deep and intrusive reference checking can boost interview accuracy from what most of the studies show is basically a 50/50 success rate into the 80-90 percent range.
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"When you don't have a process, random results occur. Sometimes you hit the bulls eye, sometimes you don't". Is it worth taking the risk of missing targets, outcomes and results by letting managers do whatever they want in the hiring process?"
Barry Deutsch's insight:
A lack of a good rigorous hiring process results in outcomes that are comparable to rolling dice in Las Vegas - crapshoot hiring. Are you willing to bet your company on average and mediocre processes around talent?
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"If you want the very best candidates you have to fish in the right spot, and fish deeply for them."
Barry Deutsch's insight:
The number one frustration I hear as a do 60-70 talks a year to CEO groups is "we can't find enough good people. There's a reason for this - you're going about it all wrong. Your old, tired, traditional, and tribal techniques are now bringing the bottom 1/3 of the candidate pool to your doorstep.
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What are the frustrations that drive your crazy about how hiring is done in your organization?
Barry Deutsch's insight:
Over 20 years, 1000 presentations to CEO and Executive Groups, I've discovered that there are some common frustrations that drive hiring managers crazy.
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Barry Deutsch's insight:
What are the most common frustrations in hiring we've heard from over 25000 CEOs and Senior Executives in the last two decades? Do any of these match up with your frustrations?
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Barry Deutsch's insight:
Where did most of us learn what interview questions to ask - perhaps these were the questions you were asked 20 years ago when you were hired, or perhaps you plucked them off a random Google list. What are the right questions that get at whether someone can achieve your desired results and do it with a set of behaviors that are consistent with your culture and values?
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Barry Deutsch's insight:
Do you make it a rule to Google everyone you are considering interviewing? Are you in shock over some of the things you see candidates post as their profile pictures in places like Twitter and LinkedIn?
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Presents several practices for cultivating relationships with former employees (Boomerang employees) to make it easier for them to return to the organization.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
Are you considering reaching back out to the good people who used to work for you - OR is your pride standing in the way? Do you feel that if they left to discover greener pastures (especially if you did a poor job on employee engagement), they are a traitor and should never be considered for rehire? You might be missing out on a good potential pool of candidates.
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How do you ensure you don’t make a mistake when hiring your next employee? By focusing on potential, not experience....
Barry Deutsch's insight:
I do not lean toward measuring potential or behaviorial interviewing 101 that past performance is the best indicator of future performance. Many mistakes in hiring occur when we put too much emphasis on one area.
A better approach might be a blended tactic that includes 50% of interviewing to validate the ability to meet the job expectations (that's assuming you've defined those expections - which most managers DO NOT), AND whether they have the motivation, grit, drive/self-motivition and intellectual curiousity to have the potential to grow into something greater.
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Quality of hire is one of the most important, but misunderstood recruiting metrics, we’ll show you how to use it properly.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
I am a huge proponent of metrics and KPIs. I like the idea of measuring quality of hire. However, everyone gets all tangled up in how to measure it.
Here is my recommendation: Take your SUCCESS FACTORS (assuming you did these before the hire), and then measure the person's delivery on those outcomes, expectations, results, performance, metrics, and KPIs at 90 days and 6 months. Did they hit them, exceed them, or miss them.
I would define quality of hire as a candidate who hits or exceeds your specific quantifiable outcomes at the 90 day or 6 month timeframe with a set of behaviors and style that is consistent with your organizational culture and values.
Over 50% of newly hired employees fail to meet this expectation. Most hiring managers don't make a signficant change by firing the person, putting a PIP together, or having a deep developmental program to improve performance or behavior. They just accept partially competent people, or take those elements off the plate that the employee can't do - and the manager does it by allowing the monkey to be transferred onto their back. Doesn't that sound dysfunctional?
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Leaders with a thirst for knowledge are the ones that gain an advantage over their peers and competitors. Here’s why. Via Stefano Principato, massimo facchinetti
Barry Deutsch's insight:
One of the most powerful interview techniques for measuring success people is to probe for the ability to continuously learn and adapt it to their job and expectations. Do you probe for deep and continuous learning from the professionals and managers you're looking to hire?
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In 2018, workers quit at the highest rates since 2001, and experts predict that the trend will continue into 2019. But according to LinkedIn's 2019 Workforce Learning Report, 94 percent of employees say that they would stay at a company longer if it simply invested in helping them learn.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
Helping people to learn is a powerful tool in your kit for employee engagement and retention. As the study points out it could make the difference in retaining good people - why do most employers have a weak training and development program for their employees?
Are they worried if they train - then their employees will take the training and go elsewhere - thus a waste of training dollars?
Nothing could be further from the truth - training keeps people engaged - it doesn't repel them.
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There is a huge amount of content out there that focuses on mistakes that job candidates make when they interview. but hiring managers do too
Barry Deutsch's insight:
The interview, when conducted with focused structured questions that correlate to job expectations, can be a very reliable predictor of future success. Unfortunately, most hiring managers don't define the expectations so the interview questions are in doubt. Secondly, the biggest mistake is that most hiring managers have never been trained how to conduct an accurate interview - so they are just winging it based on their life experiences. No wonder, the studies show that interview accuracy is basically as effective as rolling dice.
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Introverts drive extroverts crazy. Or should I say, extroverts drive introverts crazy? “... 65% of senior corporate executives viewed introversion as a barrier to leadership...” (HBR) The blank stare: The scariest thing about an introvert is the blank stare that comes over their face when they’re thinking. It looks like displeasure, dislike, even disdain, to…
Barry Deutsch's insight:
This article triggered my thinking again of why introverts have so much trouble "winning" a job interview. I wrote an article a number of years ago titled "Why Introverts Are Doomed to Fail in the Interview".
Most hiring managers have a preconceived notion that the best candidates exhibit traits of extroversion in the interview - outgoing, warm, talkative, able to answer silly questions on the spot, or get deeply introspective and personal very quickly.
My experience with over 30 years of executive search and hiring coaching/consulting is that introversion or extroversion is not indicative of performance and success. I think many executives make wrong biased assumptions about introverts. So, now the question is how do introverts overcome this natural bias of most hiring managers - particularly in an interview format.
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"Lies, Embellishment, and Exaggeration. How many mistakes have you made in hiring candidates whom you lied, embellished, or exaggerated?"
Barry Deutsch's insight:
One of the greatest frustrations in hiring is having candidates lie convincingly, or exaggerating-embellishing what they've done. Most CEOs and Executives believe that at least 100 percent of candidates fake it in the interview. How do you overcome this tendency to misrepresent and get to the TRUTH?
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No one can agree on who to hire because there is NO alignment on what success looks like for a position. Hiring is very simple and easy once we all agree on a common definition of success.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
The number ONE frustration I've heard over 2 decades is around the idea of what are we measuring in people - how do we know we're hiring a winner vs. falling victim to "You're NOT the Person I Hired".
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Barry Deutsch's insight:
A large part of hiring failure can be attributed to asking the traditional, standard, stupid, inane, canned interview questions. If you want to determine if someone can achieve your desired goals, outcomes, deliverables, expectations, KPIs, and metrics - then you need a set of interview questions designed to extract that information to predict future performance and fit.
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Barry Deutsch's insight:
Recognize, acknowledge, and understand the implications of making a first impression during interviewing. Most hiring managers make mistakes on 2/3 of the candidates they meet due to wrong first impressions.
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Barry Deutsch's insight:
Traditional job descriptions masquerading as advertisements repulse, reject,
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The number ONE frustration I've heard over 2 decades is around the idea of what are we measuring in people - how do we know we're hiring a winner vs. falling victim to "You're NOT the Person I Hired".