Employers are getting caught out.  You know what I mean – they receive a resume from the perfect candidate…  interview goes swimmingly and the references couldn’t be better!  Then the employee starts and the threads start to unravel…

1/3 job applicants are guilty of telling lies in an interview (a recent survey by Galaxy Research of 1010 respondants shows).  Whilst some of these are little white lies, there are a startling number of large whoppers being passed off as truths in applicants search for their dream job!

The most common lies were found to be:

• 17% stretching the truth with previous work experience
• 16% have friends acting as referees
• 10% overinflated previous salaries
• 6% fake references
• 3% bogus qualifications/education

So what can employers do to catch out the lies?  Well the biggest issue (besides job applicants ‘faking’ their credentials) is that employers/managers don’t tend to follow a logical or documented process for recruiting. Most employers rely on a ‘gut feel’ of someone – and I mean no disrespect, but some of the most influential people in the world have been psychopaths (think Hitler, Manson etc…).

The LEAST predictive methods of candidate matching include 1) resumes, 2) unstructured interviews, and 3). unstructured reference checks.  If you want to ensure that you are indeed gaining the best candidate for the role there are some easy steps you can take to reduce the risk of you getting taken for a ride!

Firstly, resumes are interesting little things – human nature means that we may subconsciously take the look and layout as more important than the content.  No don’t get me wrong, the look, layout, spelling and grammar are all critically important, BUT so is the content.  So my best suggestion is to have one of your trusted staff write a precis of each resume and staple it to the front BEFORE you go through the resumes.  In this summary, you want the same information for ALL applicants – the information that is critical to the role and critical to your work environment (eg: previous experience, qualifications, work history, personal attributes…) BUT the idea is to make each summary comparable.

Secondly, you NEED a structure for your interview.  To be able to fairly and accurately measure each applicant you need to ask the same series of questions, in the same order!  Leave time at the end for the applicant to ask questions and then ensure you have a staff member note them for you and collate them at the end, so you can objectively see who asked intelligent and relevant questions.

Finally, have a set series of questions to ask referees.  Ensure that you include some left of field questions to get a very accurate picture of the applicants relationship to the referee.  I am a referee for a lot of my friends.  But the interesting thing is these friends are people I have all managed in the past!  You want to ask the referee how they know the applicant, what capacity did they work together, how long ago, what are the applicants good points, what are their bad points (this one is important as this will give you a genuine measure as to how realistic the reference really is – no one is perfect, but is your applicant capable of taking responsibility and fixing their errors? or do they blame others and hide?).  Asking some of the negatives will actually help you determine what your potential applicant will perform like under pressure AND it will also send up red flags if the referee can’t answer the tough questions!  Again, once the reference checks have been done, get someone independent to type summaries out that you can compare apples with apples.

In the end – you can never be 100% sure what someone will be like until they start working for you, but add these measurable criteria and ensure that the choice is more than just gut feel, or you may end up with a Ted Bundy!

PS: of course if you use Wise Recruitment, we do all of these processes on your behalf, PLUS we use Evidence Based Testing for qualifications and experience.  This totally removes the guess work and then you can pick the best applicant on your gut feel, because we have weeded out the lies!

Ever had a really bad day at work? Silly question I bet – we’ve all had them! The bosses who were bullies, the clients who were horrible, the fellow staff members who were cruel, even just ‘one of those days’ where everything seems to go wrong.

I once had a boss who loved to yell at staff in front others: there were some staff who yelled back, some who backstabbed her and some who, with a cool head, took the abuse and calmly put their facts in order to defend themselves if needed in the future.

I know someone who wanted to leave a job screaming profanities, but he didn’t (lots of others who left that workplace did! Another bully boss!).  I know people who have left for lunch on their first day and just not come back.  I know people who have had total melt down and stayed in the toilet all day, or cried their frustration out in the middle of a large meeting (um… yes, that was me!), or screamed at their bosses about the unfairness of situations beyond their control.  We’ve probably all done things we wouldn’t repeat.

But why does this matter to your future employer?

Simple: because how you deal with a bad day indicates to an employer what type of person you are under pressure!

If you have been for any interviews recently, you will probably know that more and more potential employers are now considering the emotional intelligence of their potential staff (EI is commonly referred to as EQ in Australia).  Employers are asking questions like how you deal with stressful situations, how you handle obtuse clients, how you approach difficult team members.

What can you do to make yourself more attractive to a potential employer?

You should start with identifying how you deal with stressful situations, know what triggers responses where you lose control and know how you can stop that happening in the future.  You might be one of the lucky ones, you might always have a cool head – but you still need to know how to convey this to a potential employer.

Firstly – have a couple of examples of situations that were particularly difficult (you can use plenty of scenarios, but in general the ones that are usually best are ones centered around interactions with superiors, so-workers and customers; other good scenarios include system failures and on the job emergencies).

Secondly – have examples of how you dealt with the particular situation/s, what actions you took, how you handled the situation, what your goals were and how you achieved those goals.

Finally – explain the outcome, did you resolve this issue?  Create a cohesive environment? Calm the upset customer?  Your potential employer wants to know – were you a problem solver, or did you contribute to the problem?

The way you deal with a bad day, or bad client, or bad boss or co-worker is very important to most employers these days, as it gives them insight into how valuable an employee you will be.  No longer is it just about who can do the job and perform the job description, many employers now want a staff member they can trust and who will work well within a team, no matter what the pressure or stressors are!

We’d like to warmly welcome you, our valued readers, to the very first post of our new Wise Recruitment Blog.  At Wise, we work with candidates and employers for the good of both parties.  Most people spend at least a third of every week day at work.  We believe that careers should be fulfilling and not just a way to earn a living.  By fitting the right people to the right positions, both employers and candidates will benefit and ultimately, a win/win situation results.

Gone are the days when the employer was king and the employee was the lowly subject forced to jump through hoops, grind away day in and day out, and be grateful for his pay cheque.  Also gone are the boom years of the last decade when candidates could name their price and their perks, and get away with minimal effort for maximum pay.  No, these are the times when the employment climate is a more level playing field and mutual respect will benefit all.

An article in Sydney Morning Herald states: “In the early ’90s, employers responded to the downturn by laying off a lot of workers. This time, they were a lot more inclined to cut the number of hours they were paying all their people to work rather than laying off a proportion of them.”

One of the ways we promote successful pairings between employers and candidates is with the use of psychometric assessments.  It’s not enough simply to employ a person based on their likeability factor or their ability to give all the right answers in an interview.  We perform evidence based testing to measure candidates for their suitability to a particular job.

Psychometrics refers to the educational and psychological measurement of a candidate.  Questionnaires, tests and personality assessments are utilised to narrow down the field so that the ideal candidate can be identified.

Wise Recruitment partners with Psylutions, a boutique consulting psychology firm that specialises in solving, as they put it, ‘the people puzzles of your business’.  You want a team effort.  You want your team to be invested in your business’s goals.  You want your people turning up for work with the same desire to succeed that you have.  And, you want to derive enjoyment from converting your employees’ key strengths into the ultimate success drivers for your company.

The workforce should not be a battlefield.  Wise Recruitment will build harmony into your recruiting pursuits so that your business is the winner, without any casualties littering the field.