Selecting the right employee is one of the most consequential decisions a company can make; even more so for small businesses.

But most employers still use the traditional method – Gut Feeling

“Most selection decisions are still made in the first 5 minutes of the interview and are often based on the gut feelings of the interviewer,” says Dee Mayer.

Gut Feeling hires result in low productivity and high turnover.

Profiles to Partners works with each client to select  the most qualified job candidate using our Develop, Discover, Decide system. Within the Discovery Phase, we make extensive use of behavioural-pattern analysis to probe the job applicant for specific examples of their past.

The reason is simple: The best predictor of a job applicant’s future work behavior is their past work behavior.

Profiles to Partners works with client companies of all sizes to understand, adopt, and enact the following Smart Interviewing Best Practices:

• Plan a logical, structured interview that includes pre-planned interview questions
• Develop an interview plan based on thorough knowledge of the job
• Use behavioral-based questions that probe specific life-history events that can then be used to determine the presence or absence of a skill
• Use interviewing techniques that help maintain interviewer control
• Understand the questions that cannot be legally asked in the interview process

Armed with the skills outlined above, you should execute each interview by:

Refraining from judging an applicant on gut feeling by: asking rapport-building questions;  discussing the job; taking notes and explaining why; asking specific, open-ended questions to get specific answers; allowing for silence if necessary; maintaining control; getting contrary evidence and evaluating.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 14th, 2011 at 5:01 am. It is filed under Hiring Smart. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.