High School Grads Prepared?

A recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management and the Conference Board acknowledges what many of you may have already suspected: high school students do not have the skills needed in today’s workplace. The biggest deficiencies are in the areas of written and oral communication skills, work ethic, critical thinking, problem solving, and ethics. The biggest problem I hear from my clients and audiences is the lack of common sense which relates directly to critical thinking. No, I don’t have an answer for this problem except to think like Don Shula did when he coached the Dolphins. His idea was to draft the best athlete available and train them for the position. You can’t argue with the success of one of the winningest coaches of all time.

Hiring Mistakes

I have been collecting data for years on why people make the wrong hiring decisions. Here are just a few:

1. The hiring person did a poor job of asking the right questions and getting the answers they needed. Or, they did not do a reference or background check. Critical information is missed, misinterpreted, or not understood.

2. Decisions are based on biases or stereotypes. People tend to hire people who are similar to themselves or someone they know. On the other hand, they tend to steer away from someone who is quite different. If a candidate looks or acts like you, goes to the same schools as you, or is from the same part of the country as you, that is no reason to hire them, but we often do it subconsciously.

3. The boss or top management puts pressure on you to hire the person, for whatever reason. In other words, you did the interview, but someone above you thought this person was good, although you did not.

4. You hire out of desperation. I have asked this question in almost every one of the hundreds of hiring seminars I have presented, How many of you have hired out of desperation? Lots of hands go up. Then I ask, How many of you thought this was a good idea? No one, in 18 years, has yet to raise their hand and say this was a good idea. Take longer to hire (and shorter to fire), and you will have less turnover. Do not fill a job just to have a warm body. These hires often do more harm than you ever imagined.

5. Doing a stress interview. All the research shows that the stress interview does not work. This is where a person or group of persons asks very stressful questions, or puts someone in an awkward position to see how they would respond. All you learn is their ability to handle stress or pressure during an interview. It does not translate into job behavior. For front line people, the first interview should be done by one person. A second interview, should be done by another person asking the same questions, and then you both sit down and compare answers. For management and executives, a group interview is fine. Skip the stress interview, as they are already under stress just being there, and the added stress does not give you better, or more valid and reliable answers.

Who Do You Trust?

With all the corporate scandals in the past few years, employees are less trusting and more cynical than ever before. I believe employers now have to work harder than ever to prove their trustworthiness. Here are some ways to build trust and maintain credibility:

1. Your personal life speaks volumes about who you really are. Your staff views your personal life with great scrutiny. They will listen to your phone conversations (if in earshot) to see what's going on in your personal life. They have a great curiosity about how you talk with your loved ones. Make sure how you carry yourself in this area as moral and beyond reproach to gain both trust and respect.

2. Speak the truth. The best way to chop down the grapevine before it takes deep root is to keep people informed with the truth. It's better to give bad news then to hide the truth. That also means keeping your promises. Do what you say you are going to do in the exact manner you stated you would do it.


3. Treat everyone with respect from top to bottom. That includes getting out and around, talking to employees, remembering their names and asking them questions to show you value their opinion. Sure there are some people you may not like. Does that mean they should be disrespected? If they get the job done, show them respect.

4. Enforce all the rules for everyone in a consistent manner. If you can't do this, then eliminate the rule. Different strokes for different folks won't cut it when it comes to managing your people. This creates mistrust and resentment. Be sure you don't play favorites, especially showing prejudice against people of color and other backgrounds.

5. Watch your jokes or pranks. You never know when someone will be offended by something everyone else thought was funny. This can only lower their respect for you and make them wonder what you are really like as a person.

Gone Too Much

Do you have problems with people are absent more days than your policy allows? Is it having a negative impact on their productivity, department, or the overall company? You can make attendance a valid requirement for the job and dismiss people if they are absent too often. Make sure your attendance policy is very clear, and applies to everyone in that job category. Describe what entails violation of that policy. Attendance is a requirement for the job, and failure to meet that requirement becomes a grounds for dismissal, according to a recent US Sixth Court of Appeals ruling (No. 02-3633) decision. The court decided that not coming to work cannot be a valid A.D.A. accommodation, because you have to be at work to receive the accommodation ( I am not giving legal advise, just citing a case). Finally some common sense from the courts!

Never Quit The Quest

Even if your company has a hiring freeze it is still the right time to look for ways to upgrade the talent you currently have. Now might be the perfect opportunity to turnover the deadwood you should not have hired a few years ago.

You need to be looking for passive candidates, who may not be job hunting, but may be enticed to make a change for the right situation. This is the time to collect a database of potential talent, and to build relationships. One way to do this is on your company website. Allow them to register, fill out a questionnaire, and receive periodic information about your organization through items such as a company newsletter. Another way is to send periodic e-mails updating them on openings and other newsworthy items. Even if you are a very small firm, with no website, you can still find people through advertising, and stay in touch with them by e-mail and snail mail. The more aggressive you are in searching for top level talent, the more you can grow the firm in the ways you need. Never quit the quest for continuous improvement.

Would You Hire An Ex-Con?

Many of my seminars are to people in the building trades, and the question often comes up as to whether or not to consider people for employment who have a criminal past. You need to know if it was an arrest versus a conviction, and if it was a felony versus a misdemeanor. Remember that not all criminal punishments are created equal, and different laws in different cities and states carry more weight. You need to know what the exact circumstances were before you even consider hiring them. You’ll want to know if there was any violence or weapons involved. Second, you will want to know how the crime relates to the specific job they are applying for. If they are driving a vehicle or operating equipment, was the conviction for drunk driving? If they are handling money, was the conviction for theft, forgery, or embezzlement? Finally, you need to know how recent the conviction was, and what time was served, if any. If a person was convicted 17 years ago and has a clean record since, I would weigh that in my decision. People do change (but not always), and I have been given many examples from audience members on how ex-convicts turned out to be their best employees because they were given a second chance. A careful reference and thorough background check should be done before hiring.

Does This Resemble You?

When I present seminars for frontline people, and ask them what their biggest time waster is, I often hear their boss is ranked in the top three on their list. It seems the boss keeps interrupting and giving them new demands and new priorities. People tell me they are assigned a top priority, then the next or same day, before they finished the task, they get a new "top priority." As a boss, you must be proficient at letting your people know what your top priorities are, or they get frustrated, confused, and stressed. Of course, you have every right to assign new priorities, but let them know it is okay to put the other priority on the back burner for awhile. Remember stress leads to burnout, which leads to turnover.

Some other frustrations I hear, relative to time is that when the boss is out of the office and then calls in with a new demand, but does not fully explain what they want done. This is delegation without explanation, and employees feel it is just "dumping." Another frustration is when the boss calls them at home at night to discuss work "stuff." Only do this in emergencies. Remember, their job is not 24 hours a day.