Ben Eubanks, from Upstart HR did a quick audio review of a book called "Red Flags: How to Spot Frenemies, Underminers, and Toxic People in Your Life" on a recent HR Happy Hour Podcast and did so through the lens of a HR practitioner (although this is not an HR book).
Ben raises some interesting thoughts and got me pondering. I'l quote some of his review below.
1.
"We all know the advice we shouldn't go shopping when you're hungry so why are we looking for employees to solve problems only when we really get desperate?"
Interesting point. Being in HR I've seen plenty of cases where managers are trying to fill gaps in their team and lose track of time. It can be very easy to overlook how much time a recruitment process can take up. One has to consider evaluating business needs, advertising, shortlisting, synchronising with panel members and applicants for interviews, debriefing and discussions on suitability and negotiation with the preferred applicant. After all that you may have to wait another 4 weeks before they can walk in the door ready to work.
I appreciate sometimes we are sprung with a termination or resignation and time is never a luxury however it got me thinking; how many managers have crisis plans for their team if they suddenly lose a critical FTE or two?
2.
If you want to know about someone at a deeper level the book discusses the FLAG acronym and Ben considers these a useful tool to help build questions around in recruitment.
Focus - What do they focus on?
Lifestyle - What are their lifestyle choices?
Association - What are the types of associations they make with other people?
Goals - Consider the goals people have.
For me these are the elements that can separate a good candidate from a star candidate. People that tick these boxes well are the candidates that take a professional and personal pride in building their brand and will be able to sell themselves articulately beyond the confines of the role. Who do they network with? How do they build their skills? How have they built their career progression around adding value to organisations?
I would imagine elements of this could be drawn out through psychometric screening and others through interviewing and seeing who can bring the 'answer plus' responses.
3.
"The worst people aren't the ones that look bad right away. We naturally shrink back from those kind of people. The worst ones are the ones that look great just before they attack you behind your back."
Not sure if I agree with Ben's take on this one. In the personal, social context in which this was written I can see the point however in the workplace context (unless your talking about the 'corporate psychopath') I would argue employees with fundamental flaws tend to filter themselves out easily with good recruitment processes.
I'll take it then that this quote is pointing to poor recruitment practice. I.e not having behavioral questions, not identifying STAR answers, not following up on matters of concern and not investing the time needed to actually identify a great candidate.
I'll put extra emphasis on the last point there. I've run into recruiting managers that are happy to spend a surprisingly small amount of time on selecting the best candidate. I'm talking a single 45 minute interview, no phone discussion and no second round.
I like to point to the example of a business plan to highlight my concern with this approach. Lets assume someone wanted to propose a project that would cost approximately $300,000 and run for 4 years. I would expect a robust plan, discussion and evaluation of tenders before making the call. No right minded manager would sign off after 45 mins of thought.
However when it comes to employing someone on a 75k salary, who may well stay with the organisation for 4 years, the view the value of the recruitment process for some can be dramatically less. And lets not forget, unlike a faulty product, you can't just ask for a refund!
