Click to jump ahead:

• What is Recruiting?
• Recruiting Trends
• Recruitment Process
• Types of Recruitment
• Recruitment Strategies
• Employment Application Process
• Recruitment Tracking & Analytics
• Recruitment Software

HR professionals say overwhelmingly that recruiting top talent is their single most pressing business/HR challenge.

At least that’s what 2,300 said in a recent Society of Human Resources Management survey.

You probably agree.

If so, then you’ve learned that whether you need to fill just a handful of slots, or dozens, chances are you’ve experienced a seismic uptick in recruiting pressure.

Everyone has.

The ability to recruit the best people for your organizational needs is itself a highly sought-after skill. To recruit well is remarkable. And good companies need strong and consistent recruitment strategies to acquire good talent.

What is Recruiting?

A good recruitment process is an ongoing strategy to identify, find and acquire specialists, leaders, or future A-players for your company. 

It’s all made more difficult by the fact that recruiting performance pressure has increased just as talent acquisition has grown more complex. 

Your approach to hiring is influenced by the size of your organization, the resources available to you, and the priority that your organization gives to hiring.

Recruiting Trends

Recruiting success is influenced by many factors, including the economy, the attractiveness of your company to new employees and the limited or unlimited availability of the skillsets you are seeking.

In spite of all the pressures associated with the recruitment process, you may be surprised to learn how many employers still make fundamental errors – common, preventable mistakes that drive away good candidates.

A Monster.com survey of more than 200 executives and managers found that half of them decided not to accept an offer from a because of something that happened during the recruiting process.

These negative experiences included simple missteps like perceived rude treatment, long waits, shallow follow-up talks, an overly long hiring process and interviews that felt disjointed and unprofessional.

While no one would deliberately create a toxic hiring environment, it always pays to heed the little things that leave lasting bad impressions.

That’s especially important considering today’s growing recruitment challenges are set against a backdrop of ever-changing, more sophisticated and more costly recruiting trends.

Recruitment Process

A successful recruitment process would include these six steps:

Step One: Be clear on what you want.

Job candidates are getting as sophisticated as the recruitment process itself, especially in how they present themselves. So, with more and more candidates that “look good on paper,” it’s probably time to reconsider which qualities actually make someone a great employee.

Step Two: Create a powerful, accurate job description.

“It all starts with the job description.” First, be careful to choose a title that is search engine friendly. Optimize the job title and use keywords throughout the description to boost visibility in search engine results and job boards. And of course, stay true to the description to be sure it accurately reflects the position.

Step Three: What will it take for the candidate to be successful?

Having the right skills and experience is the obvious answer to the first half of this equation. But how about the “right fit” part? Are you looking for a team player? Someone who believes in collaboration? Or is your organization more in the startup stages, where making payroll trumps “process?”

Step Four: Create the best job ad.

This is different than the job description. This is how you sell it. And where, and to whom. Many posting sites have a standard template you simply fill out. But don’t be “standardized” when you use it. Top talent knows a great ad when they see it and will be attracted by it.

Step Five: Promote the position.

Each promotional avenue you use might be different, based on the position you are trying to fill or the type of hire you’re trying to attract, or how well it performed the last few times you used it. That’s why it’s important to have a full understanding of the benefits of each promotional avenue and how each works.

Step Six: Create the right screening questions.

Screening questions can run the gamut, from “Where are you in your job search?” and “When can you start working for us?” to “What attracted you to us?” and “What do you know about our products/services?” Step Six offers a clear, in-depth look at which questions matter most, and why.

Worth the Read:

• Effective Screening Tactics When Recruiting Top Talent
• Recruiting: EEOC Warns About Background Checks

Types of Recruitment

As these six steps show, there are many approaches you can take in your recruitment process. The biggest differences are whether you’re seeking a candidate for an open slot who is already employed by you, or someone from the outside.

Internal Recruitment

Could the best candidates already be in your organization? Filling rolls internally cuts the costs and time of advertising for external candidates. Also, an employee is already familiar with how your business works, as well as its values and mission. And this person will get up to speed more quickly than an outsider.

Bonus: Promoting in-house boosts morale and productivity, while protecting institutional knowledge that’s lost when employees leave.

Worth the Read:

• LinkedIn Helps Applicants Gen an Employee Referral
• The 5 ‘Don’ts’ of Employee Referral Programs
• 4 Common Referral Mistakes – And How HR Can Fix Them

External Recruitment

Job candidates are becoming as sophisticated as the recruitment process itself.

So, as more candidates “look good on paper,” an important first step for your recruiting team is to consider – and agree upon – which qualities make someone a good employee at your organization.

In most occupations the technical skills needed to be successful can be taught and learned, and then improved over time through hands-on experience. That’s not meant to downplay technical job skills. But these are the kinds of skills that are very clear on paper. The job candidate either has the required educational degree, and X years of experience, or they don’t.

Recruitment Strategies

It’s important to establish what type of person you are looking for. You can’t teach enthusiasm and reliability, or commitment and honesty. Those are the kinds of highly sought qualities that people carry with them throughout their lives and bring with them into the working relationship.

The same is true for qualities like “work ethic” and “self-motivation.”  Smart and intellectually curious are also a good pair. It’s hard to go wrong when you hire people with those qualities. Maturity and passion work nicely.

Thankfully, there are a lot of good personality traits to choose from.

As any Scout can tell you, you can start with trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent, then go from there.

Worth the Read:

• Why You Should Be Investing More Time and Money In Recruiting
• Is Corporate Social Responsibility Part of Your Recruiting Emphasis?

Job descriptions

It all starts with the job description.

First, be careful to choose a title that is search engine friendly. Optimize the job title and use keywords throughout the description to boost visibility in search engine results and job boards. And of course, stay true to the description to be sure it accurately reflects the position.

Many job descriptions are so generic that they are not helpful for the employer or the job candidate.

Here’s one example from a real-life recruiting ad:

“Growing progressive company seeks dynamic individual with excellent presentation skills and work ethic for customer contact position.”

Are they looking for a sales manager, a retail clerk or a customer service rep in a call center? There’s no way to tell.

Alternately, the job description asks for so much that even a nationally recognized authority would have a hard time qualifying for the job.

A well-crafted job description can serve multiple uses:

• It lets the company narrow the field of applicants to only qualified candidates
• It lets the candidate clearly understand whether he or she should aspire to the position
• It spells out where the position fits in the hierarchy (managerial, supervisory or line job), and
• It can be used to gauge future performance in annual or periodic reviews.

Worth the Read:

• Attract More Applicants: 7-Step Guide to Stellar Job Postings
• 85% of Resumes Contain Lies: 3 Ways to Spot and Stop Them
• Here’s What Trashing Resumes, Applications Can Cost You

Writing the Job Description

Here’s a template for writing a job description that can perform those multiple functions:

1.) Job Title

Be as specific as possible.

“Operator” doesn’t mean much. What is the person supposed to operate?

It is also a mistake to give the role more importance that it really has or ever will have.

Ambitious candidates will see through the bait-and-switch and will soon leave, causing yet another turnover problem.

2.) Job Responsibilities

A list of duties and responsibilities will vary in length, but it’s a good idea to keep it as short as possible, as long as it still conveys a good idea just what the person will be required to do.

If there are various tasks, a rough estimate of time involved in each will give the candidate a good idea whether he or she can stand it.

For example, a copywriter may be told his colleagues spend 30% of the time on the phone with customers, 30% writing and 30% researching.

Phone work may not be their favorite task, but if it were 70%, the job would be less appealing.

3.) Skills Required

For a sales position, you may require candidates to be able to show that they can independently put together a sales presentation and tailor it to a specific customer in a particular industry.

Many employers place more emphasis on so-called “soft skills,” such as communication skills and leadership potential, which are harder to gauge.

If those soft skills are required, you may ask candidates to be able to show specific examples how they used and applied those skills on previous projects.

Testing companies may also help in these areas to gauge candidates’ natural aptitudes.

4.) Reporting Relationships

Spell out specifically who the position will report to.

And if there will be any direct reports to the candidates, lay out in detail how many people and what kind of workers will need to be supervised.

Everyone wants to know who his or her boss will be, and if they’ll be able to get along with the boss.

The relationship with the direct supervisor is the most important job satisfaction factor, even more than pay and benefits.

Good bosses retain people; bad bosses create constant turnover.

5.) Experience Level

Many companies, especially those without labor unions, do not give salary levels up front. They do not want to be locked in, and do not want to make others who have been working at the company for some time jealous of new salary levels being offered.

Nevertheless, you will want to indicate whether you’re looking for an entry-level customer service rep or a department head with many years’ experience.

Required experience levels will give candidates some idea whether they fit the job description, are overqualified, or have no hope of being considered.

6.) A Sanity Check

As a final sanity check, you may want to give your job description to a trusted person inside the company, such as a person who is doing a similar job now or the person vacating the position if he or she is leaving on good terms.

Ask them:

• Is this what you do (did)?
• Is there anything that’s not accurate?
• Is anything important left out?
• If you were on the outside, would you apply for this job? Why or why not?
• What would make it sound more attractive to you?

Social Media Recruiting

Social media is a fantastic recruiting tool. Social recruiting allows you to share job posting with your entire network and encourages a two-way conversation.

LinkedIn is the largest professional network in the world, and gives organizations a variety of choices. It’s a great start, but it’s only one place to start looking.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other popular sites are a must when recruiting socially. Remember that social recruiting takes practice. Here are some tips to put into practice:

• Host a live Q&A to attract candidates. You can do this on apps like Periscope.
• Optimize your firm’s LinkedIn page
• Encourage employees to share your culture online
• Monitor social media for opportunities
• Create your own branding and recruiting videos to post
• Use Facebook and Instagram to draw people in
• Consider using proprietary social media software, like Jobvite or Recruiterbox. There are dozens of affordable options.

Some best practices are to:

• Network and engage with your audience – If you respond to a potential candidate, be personable and start an engaging conversation. You will need to earn their trust and respect, especially if they’re a passive job seeker.
• Highlight your company culture – Showcase your company at its best by sharing employer branding content, celebratory events, milestones reached, and charitable activities in the community. You’ll want to give candidates an idea of what it would be like to work for you.
• Share the right mix of posts – If you talk about your company all the time, you might come off as superior or boring. Mix it up by sharing job openings in the form of  humorous posts, local news, industry trends, and topics that your audience may be interested in.
• Get your staff involved – Ask your employees to share job posts and other content on their social media networks.
• Use the appropriate social media platforms – You’ll need to understand your candidate persona to determine the best platforms on which to post your job openings. Spend some time on unfamiliar platforms to gauge if they fit in with your culture.

Worth the Read:

• Social Media Laws By State: Rules Employers Need to Know
• Using Social Media for Recruiting Continues to Grow: Survey
• Social Media Recruiting: 30 Tools HR Can’t Live Without [Infographic]

Employment Application Process

Here are key essential steps to the application process.

Create a job description

Identify the position, including a list of job requirements, special qualifications, characteristics, and experience wanted from a candidate.

While job requirements form the basis for the job description, be sure to include essential functions to be performed in the role and the advantages of working for the company.

Recruiting

Seek out candidates via published job advertisements, social media, and industry events.

Applicant screening

As job applications arrive by email or via an applicant tracking system (ATS), the hiring staff reviews résumés/CVs and cover letters based on the criteria established in the planning step. Unqualified candidates’ applications are withdrawn from the applicant pool. Qualified candidates are informed of next steps beginning with a screening interview.

Screening interview

Initial interviews with applicants are typically phone calls with HR representatives. These interviews determine if applicants have the qualifications needed to do the job and serve to further narrow the pool of candidates. HR may also explain the interviewing process during this step.

Interviews

Depending on the size of the selection committee, several interviews are scheduled for each candidate.

Early interviews are typically in-person, one-on-one interviews with applicants and the hiring manager and focus on applicants’ experience, skills, work history, and availability.

Additional meetings with management, staff, executives, and other members of the organization can be one-on-one or panel interviews, formal or relaxed, on-site, off-site, or online (Skype, Google Hangouts). These interviews are more in-depth; in some organizations, each interviewer focuses on a specific subject or aspect of the job being filled to avoid overlap between interviews and to discover more about the applicants.

Final interviews might be conducted by the company’s senior leadership or an interviewer from a previous round of interviews. These latter-stage interviews are generally extended to a very small pool of top candidates.

Applicant talent assessment

Before, during, or after interviews, hiring staff often assign applicants one or more standardized tests to assess personality type, talent (also called pre-employment tests), physical suitability for the job, cognition (reasoning, memory, perceptual speed and accuracy, math, and reading comprehension), and/or emotional intelligence. Some organizations also require applicants to take tests or complete assignments to demonstrate professional skills applicable to the open position.

Background check

One of the final steps prior to making a job offer is conducting background checks to review candidates’ criminal record, to verify employment history and eligibility, and to run credit checks. Some organizations also check social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to make sure potential employees are likely to represent the company in a professional manner. Drug testing may also be warranted, depending on the nature of the job.

Decision

The hiring staff confers and evaluates applicants based on the interviews, job experience, skills and talent assessments, and all other relevant information (recommendations, e.g.). A top choice should be identified and agreed on. A backup candidate selection should be made, as well. If no candidates meet the hiring criteria, the hiring process should start over.

Reference checks

Once a candidate has been selected for the position, his or her professional references should be contacted. Reference checks can verify candidates’ employment details including job performance, strengths, and weaknesses. A typical question to ask references is “Would you rehire this person?”

Job offer

Offering the job includes providing an offer letter stating the position’s salary, start date, and other terms and conditions of employment that are based on the agreement between the company and the candidate. It should be clear that the candidate understands the terms of the offer. The candidate may agree and sign, initiate negotiations (typically focusing on salary), or turn down the offer.

Recruitment Tracking & Analytics

Keeping track of candidates can get confusing. Relying on spreadsheets or old email exchanges can leave you in the lurch.

Instead, consider using an applicant tracking system (ATS) that will help you to:

Find and solve hiring bottlenecks, especially the long line of unqualified candidates.

Discover which hiring managers need help, which managers are behind on their hiring duties and which ones need additional resources to ensure the position gets filled.

Track your hiring team’s efficiency and effectiveness as well as track how new hires feel about their jobs and the organization overall.

Determine your best sources for hires. For example, if top candidates are coming from social media.

You’ll want to devote more attention to those platforms.

Recruitment Software

If you decide to go with applicant tracking software (ATS) you’ll want the option to import data you already have.

It’s also important to have an export function so you can use that data outside of the ATS solution

Another helpful function is a universal search, so you can search for certain biographical data and use that information to sort applicants as well. Most importantly, any solution you pick should come with a robust support team. Software is only when it  works, and you want to have a range of options if something goes wrong.

The first few days and weeks when new employees come to work for your organization can be a make-or-break time for them.

A positive welcoming experience puts them at ease: It reinforces the feeling that joining your company was a great decision.

That good feeling can carry over for years to come as good people develop an appreciation for their work and the organization they work for. That breeds loyalty – a key component of a stronger workforce, and an essential characteristic of what keeps organizations going strong.

There’s lots to cover. Click to jump ahead.

• What is Onboarding?
• Why Onboarding is Important
• The Onboarding Process
• Job Orientation
• Onboarding Checklist
• Other Onboarding Best Practices
• The Final Step

What is Onboarding?

Onboarding is the process of integrating employees into the work environment and providing them with good reasons to feel comfortable about the job. It should be a key part of every organization’s talent management plan.

A Successful Onboarding Process:

• Establishes a strong employer welcome.
• Affirms the employee made the right job choice.
• Allows the employee to see how she or he fits in with the organization.
• Sets the stage for long-term relationship building, which improves retention.

Onboarding is often called the last stage of the recruitment process – and the first step toward retention.

Done well, companies benefit from employee onboarding and sound new hire orientation by creating a stronger workforce and valuable long-term relationships, which makes for a more productive and profitable company.

Worth the Read:

• Onboarding in 2019: What a Knock-Out First Day Should Look Like
• Onboarding: First-Week Tactics That Pave the Way to Success
• The Critical Onboarding Mistake 67% of Employers Make

Why Onboarding is Important

Onboarding best practices really do matter. It’s been shown that if an employee stays with an organization for 18 months, the chances that person will remain with that same company well into the future skyrocket.

The most crucial part of these 18 months is the first few days for the new hire. This is the time when they decide whether the organizations feels like a good fit or if they should keep sending out resumes to other potential employers.

The cost of bringing on a new employee keeps climbing, too.

Depending on the position and how long it takes to find a qualified candidate, companies can easily expect the cost of turnover to be 150% of an employee’s annual salary.

That means a worker who makes $50,000 a year could cost you $75,000 to replace.

And that figure doesn’t even include the impact on morale of other employees who are observing the turnover.

With so much money on the line, getting the right candidate to stay with your company takes on more importance than many employers give it credit for. The financial incentives for keeping them on alone make onboarding an important process.

The Onboarding Process

A lot of the nitty-gritty of the onboarding process will be the work of HR professionals. They’ll handle setting up an employee with the right paperwork and policies.

But the most important work to be done – that which has a direct impact on a person getting acclimated to a new environment – is the responsibility of frontline managers and supervisors.

These are the people who prepare the workplace for the employee – and prepare the employee for the workplace.

This report provides guidelines for what you should do – and when – in order to make new employees feel welcome and valued, and to make sure they can start being productive parts of your workplace sooner than you thought possible.

To get the relationship off on the right foot, it all starts with putting in work ahead of time.

Make an Onboarding Checklist

It’s easy to forget a minor detail here and there – there’s a lot that goes into welcoming new employees.

That’s why it might be a good idea to make a checklist. Include all the things you’ll be discussing with them, need them to sign and want them to do.

It helps to have a recently hired employee look over the list to see if there’s anything missing, since it’ll be most fresh in the mind of someone recently hired.

New Hire Orientation

The first day for new hire orientation should be highly energized and positive.

You’ve already picked them! There was something about this person that made your organization say they were the one you wanted.

And they’ve picked you, as well. Something made them accept your invitation to an interview. And it got them to accept the position when it was offered.

The interview process is a good place to start when welcoming new candidates aboard. Think back: What were some of the things that stood out?

Draw on these to make their first day more comfortable.

For instance, did you talk about a favorite sports team? If so, take the liberty of putting their name tag on the team’s emblem. Did they mention their family? Put a picture frame on their desk that they can use for a family photo.

By the time new hires start, they may have forgotten some of the good vibes they had from the interview. Bringing their memories back to the hiring process shows you still remember them.

And it reassures candidates they’ve made a great impression in your mind.

Job Orientation

Imagine stepping off a plane in a new city. From the minute you walk out of the airport things feel … different.

You’re surrounded by unfamiliar sights. You don’t know anyone. Things seem to be moving at a slightly different speed.

This is what the first few minutes of a new hire’s first day on the job are like.

Sure, they’ve been places like this before, but they haven’t been here.

And they’re going to need some time to get used to it.

This isn’t the time to launch right into department introductions and a building tour. Give them the time to get acclimated to their surroundings.

And most importantly, give them something to do. Provide a sheet of paper that walks them through logging onto your email and recording a personal voicemail.

No matter how simple it is, keeping their mind on a task gives new hires a chance to acclimate themselves and start the process of feeling comfortable with their new surroundings.

Worth the Read:

• A New Look at New-Hire Orientation
• 5 Simple Ways to Make Your New Hire Feel Welcome
• 7 Reasons New Hires Hate Their First Day

Providing a Contact

So the employee has been brought into the building, shown their desk and set up with something to do.

But what happens if they have a question? Or 17 questions?

Whether it’s you or a fellow co-worker, you’ll want to have someone on call for your employee to talk with.

In some cases, this could be a mentor – a seasoned employee who knows all the ins and outs of the company.

Other times, you may want to assign an orientation fellow – a recently hired employee or one with a similar professional background.

An orientation fellow should be someone who remembers what it’s like to be starting a new position and has had a positive experience with the job.

When recruiting the contact for the company, make sure you have a good fit. Select someone who genuinely wants to help a new employee and has the time to do so. Don’t make it just another task on an already overburdened employee’s to-do list.

Touring the Building

The typical next step for welcoming an employee on board is the building tour. “Here’s the printer, here’s the bathroom,” etc.

OK, that’s good information to have. But is it really going to stick out in an employee’s mind?

A better bet is to give them the “insider’s tour.” Which areas of the building have spotty Wi-Fi coverage? Where can they grab a coffee mug if they forgot theirs at home? What’s a quiet place to get some work done if office conversations get a little too loud? Which fridge should they put their lunches in? What do they do if they lose their security card or key?

Little tidbits like this go a long way toward making an employee feel like they are part of the place. You’re not just showing them the way, you’re showing them how things get done.

And you’re giving them the kinds of info they’d want to know, but that would take a long time to get on their own.

Showing you’re an ally and a resource of information is the real key. Doing so sets you up not just as a supervisor or manager, but as a trusted and helpful one.

Introduction to the Workplace

Introductions should be inclusive, but not overbearing. Obviously, it would be nice if employees got to know everyone in the company right off the bat.

But expecting someone to get to know and remember the names of so many people in the span of one morning isn’t realistic.

Try this: Don’t introduce people based on their title. Introduce them based on their working relationship with the employee.

For instance, instead of, “Meet Bill. He’s our payroll clerk,” say, “Meet Bill. He’ll collect your time sheet every week and he’s the person to see if you have any questions about your paycheck.”

You may even want to include this blurb on a list of names for everyone the employee will meet. Check off the name as the employee meets the person, and include the person’s phone extension and email address to save the new hire the time it would take to look it up otherwise.

After you’re done with the scheduled introductions, send an email to the office. Let them know the new hire has officially come on board and give a little information about them and where they’ll be sitting.

Then invite everyone who hasn’t met the employee yet to drop by and say hello when they get the chance.

Send this invite a few hours after scheduled introductions finish. A second wave of people coming and introducing themselves immediately after they’ve just finished scheduled introductions may wind up with the employee feeling a bit overwhelmed by new names and faces.

Onboarding Checklist

There are plenty of documents and papers employees will need to do their jobs.

Here are some examples of what to include:

• The mission/purpose statement. If your company has a mission or purpose statement already, this comes first. Put it on the first page of the binder so employees know what’s expected. If you don’t have an official statement, just have a brief message.
• Here is a can’t-miss statement if you don’t already have a mission statement: “We’re a company that respects all our employees – from new hires to established vets – and are really looking forward to having you contribute in a meaningful way! Welcome!”
• A building map. Try to include the names and phone extensions of other employees on the map where they work. That way, new hires can see where to go to pick up that document someone has ready for them.
• Phone extension/email list. If you can prioritize this list by listing the employee’s department first, so much the better. That way, they don’t have to hunt for the name they need (or worry about forgetting which “Jim” mans the help desk and which one is the CFO!).
• A company “facebook.” Well before the popular social network of the same name, these books were made for incoming freshman in college to put a name to the face for their classmates. Why not do the same with pictures of company VIPs (and other key contacts)?
• Daily schedules. You should have the employee’s first day (or first few days) planned for him or her. Include the schedule so they know what’s coming next.
• Long-term schedules. When can they start taking vacation or enrolling in the company’s 401(k)? When will their first formal/informal review be? When can new workers start accumulating sick days? Having these key milestones on a timeline helps employees see what’s next for them, and gets them thinking about their long-term future with the company.
• HR documents. Employees will need to receive policies and procedures, benefits enrollment forms, etc. Include these in the folder, but be sure to have someone from HR go over them with the new hire in-person as well – in case there are questions.

Other Onboarding Best Practices

In addition to these standard items, try including some of the following sections as well:

• “What I learned … “ Collect anecdotes from employees on the most important thing they picked up in their jobs. What was the moment that made them say “A-ha!”? It doesn’t have to be anything ground- breaking, just a musing on what people have learned about the workplace along the way. Include a list of one-sentence-or-so anecdotes to make new employees feel welcome (and maybe chuckle a little.)
• Success stories. Chances are someone in your company has recently come up with a new way of doing things that’s really saved time or reduced frustration. Or maybe they’ve achieved a milestone (1,000th sale, 35 years with the company, etc.). Maybe they’ve even had a personal accomplishment such as running a race or organizing a charity fundraiser.
• When you hear stories like these, share them. Write a short paragraph about it, then include it in a “News & Notes” or “Success Stories” section of the onboarding material. This way, new employees will feel as if they’re getting to know their co-workers right off the bat.
• The “Lingo Board.” Managers and supervisors will often find themselves casually dropping an acronym or industry-specific term with a new hire and being greeted with a slack jaw or confused stare.

Each workplace has its own set of terms and lingo that is specific to the company. It’s not a bad thing, these shortcuts are real time-savers when people know their meanings. But until workers are up to speed on the office language, provide a list of terms and definitions. Put it in plain English so they can see what they should be looking for when you ask for “a DBC report.”

Of course, all the documents in this packet should be available on the company intranet as well, but having a one-stop resource for employees on- hand will be a good way to keep them in the loop from the very start.

Worth the Read:

• 6 Add-Ons Any Onboarding Program Would Benefit From
• 7 Reasons New Hires Hate Their First Day
• 5 Onboarding Tactics That Get Long-Term Results

Being a Good Closer

At the end of the worker’s first day, you’ll want to close out strong. Have a brief one-on-one with the employee to review what they did and whom they spoke with.

This shouldn’t be an in-depth meeting: Just take five minutes or so to see if they have any more questions and touch on what they’ve learned. Keep it light. (Throwing in light-hearted comments like, “Don’t worry, John’s not as intimidating as he seems!” goes a long way toward acknowledging their stress and comfort levels might be put to the test.)

Then, let the new hire go home.

You may have noticed not much work has gotten done on the first day: and that’s by design. Throw them into the fire too soon, and new employees’ minds will be racing.

First days are for first impressions. There will be time for getting to the real work.

For now, leave them feeling good about their experiences and ready to start in earnest the next day.

Easing workers into the job is the name of the game. The first week is the time to start giving them real responsibilities, however.

While you’ll want to turn workers loose sooner rather than later, doing so too soon can create problems. That’s why many workplaces have found mentoring or other programs to be beneficial.

Bringing In a Mentor

No one should have to go it alone.

Having some sort of mentor relationship can be beneficial to new hires.

But there are many routes you can take for the designated contact within the department. Choosing the one that’s right will require getting to know the employee’s personality type and matching him or her with someone who has similar attitudes.

• Peer mentors. Some people will be naturally comfortable working with and talking to an employee who’s around the same age and experience level. For instance, a recent college grad might be more at ease if their contact is a younger employee who had started working for your company recently as well. Likewise, someone who has been working in the field for a while but is new to your organization might appreciate being paired with someone who is also more experienced.
• Veteran mentors. If you feel like a new employee could use an expert to consult with and get guidance from, a veteran mentor could be a better fit. Find someone who is knowledgeable about the industry and your company, has a solid track record and is willing to spend some time giving guidance.
• Shadows. If you don’t think an employee needs a formal mentor, a shadow may be the next best bet. Have new employees follow and observe someone while they do their job. Then have the shadow turn around and help observe the new employee, as well, once he or she’s ready to start doing work solo. Shadow employees should be ones who are patient, sticklers for following procedures and who have proven track records.
• Independent mentors. Sometimes, it can be uncomfortable for new employees to be paired with someone they’ll be working closely with.

Consider having a veteran employee who isn’t necessarily on the same line or in the same department check in with the employee once a day about 15 minutes before quitting time.

This mentor can be a trusted, confidential person to talk to about any concerns a new hire might have. It’ll also boost the new employee’s confidence by giving him or her someone to ask questions to without fear of looking “dumb” or confused. It’s also a good way to get questions answered that aren’t so crucial they need to be asked immediately.

Getting Started Again

You’ll want to greet the new employee on their second day just like you did on the first. Then get them started on a simple assignment right off the bat.

For instance, if they’ll be working with customers, have them call up a few current customers and give them a quality survey to complete over the phone. If they’re going to be working on the floor, have them observe the goings on and answer questions about what they observed after the shift ends.

These smaller assignments will help new employees get a feel for your company and a taste of the kinds of things they’ll be doing when they’re starting in full.

Note: Your company may have specific safety, privacy or other training that needs to be completed before work is to begin. Obviously, these should be completed before work begins.

Start With the Hardest Parts

Some employers are reluctant to give difficult projects to newer hires. But the truth is, experience is a great teacher. Within the first few days, new employees should be trying to tackle more difficult tasks.

After the initial assignment, get them to work right away on something bigger and more complicated.

Why? For one thing, it’s why they were brought on. If you spend too long getting them up to speed with busy work or smaller assignments, you’re not getting the most out of an employee. This isn’t a summer intern: It’s someone you’ll be trusting to propel your organization to greatness.

Besides, it’s what good employees want. Believe it or not, a big reason many people leave their jobs is that they don’t find them challenging enough. If they feel the job is going to be nothing but simple introductory tasks, workers will be unlikely to think it’s on their level of expertise.

On the other hand, compare that to telling a new worker: “We’re about to give you a big project. We know you can do it, and we’ll give you the tools and help you need to be a success.”

This puts trust in the worker, inspiring him or her to rise to a challenge. It’s much more rewarding to hear you’re trusted than to feel as if you need to earn the right to be trusted.

Group Projects or Individual Assignments?

There are two schools of thought on the best kinds of assignments for new employees.

The first is that it’s best to start them with a group project. This will help them get to know their co-workers, contribute to the team and start working on a big assignment right out of the gate.

The other is that individual assignments are best. These are an opportunity to see what workers can do when they’re given individual responsibilities. It’s a good way to find out what they’re capable of.

Which method is best? It depends on the worker. But both methods should be given a shot, if possible.

It’s a good way to evaluate a new hire’s strengths and weaknesses – and to find the best fit for him or her within the company.

Getting Them Involved

In addition to the first work assignments they’re given, this is an ideal time to get employees involved in the company’s culture.

Make sure fresh employees are educated and recruited to some of the opportunities not directly related to their jobs.

Do you have a company softball or bowling team? Does your organization support volunteering or charity opportunities? Is there a safety or party- planning committee?

These are the kinds of things that get employees to stick around. If they started shopping around for a new job or decided to leave, they wouldn’t just be leaving a company – they’d also be leaving responsibilities and fun events behind.

Even better, these little bonuses get employees to want to stay with a company. When you’re on a committee or a team, you build bonds with co-workers that can be difficult to form just by chatting on coffee breaks or between tasks.

Some companies will make joining extracurriculars mandatory. But coercing someone into volunteering their time won’t win you much goodwill.

A better approach is to sell them on the benefits. Many new workers are naturally a little shy at first, but getting employees to sign up for a program doesn’t have to be a tough sell.

Let them know it’s not only a good way to get to know their co-workers and the company, it’s also a good opportunity to show they’re team players and take a real interest in the organization.

It never hurts to point out that if nothing else, it’s a good way to get in some face time with higher-ups.

Onboarding Review Process

Chances are your employees will think they’re done with onboarding before they actually are. Studies show that employees think they’re fully on- board after three and a half weeks.

But most managers say new employees aren’t fully onboard until three months after their first day.

That makes this the perfect time for a brief performance review. In addition to your semi-regular chats and check-ins with employees, you should have this sit-down review session to discuss their progress and give valuable feedback.

These sessions should cover three main areas of interest:

• Discussing how far the employee has come
• Outlining what areas can be improved upon and should be targeted in the coming months, and
• Evaluating how the employee’s role may need to change.

Unlike informal check-ins, this meeting should be well-documented and planned. Be sure to have the employee mention any concerns he or she might have about the job and work with him or her to set goals for the remainder of the year.

Also, speak with the employee’s co-workers and other supervisors to find out how he or she is progressing. Look for both strong suits and areas for improvement so you can provide concrete examples of what needs work.

Unofficially, this should mark the transition where the new employee has earned his or her wings and fills a role that’s almost indistinguishable from most others.

Bringing New Employees Together

A good way to complete onboarding for new employees is to have them meet together in a group.

Try having a “Traditions” course. This course would be held as needed and required for all new hires.

Employees would meet each other (if they haven’t already) and learn a little more about the company. Some sessions to consider:

• Breakfast and Q&A with the CEO. Have new hires meet and talk with the leader of the organization. This is a good way to get them acquainted with the highest level in the company (and to let leaders get to know the newest additions to their workplace).
• Your history. Devote a session to explaining the history of your organization, how it’s grown and changed over the years and what’s next for it. This lets employees find out a little more about their employer and gives them some historical perspective of the company.
• Who’s who. Have departmental leaders and supervisors give brief rundowns of what they do and how it fits into the big picture of the organization. Let employees fire off questions to these workers so they can make the connections personal.
• Book club. Have new employees prepare for the session by reading the same article or section of a business book you find particularly helpful. Then have them discuss what they learned from it and how they can carry its message into their professional lives.
• Team-building exercises. There are any number to choose from, but the best ones will be those that tie into your organization. For instance, you could have employees work in teams to come up with a possible improvement your company could make. Then have them take their idea to the department leaders they’ve met and find out whether or not it could benefit their department.

The Final Step

So how did your onboarding plan go? Was it everything your employee needed? Too much? Too little?

These are questions that can best be answered by the employees who have most recently been hired and gone through the process.

Solicit feedback from your employees after they’ve completed an onboarding process (sometime around their one-year anniversary with the company would be best).

Find out whether it met their needs and if it helped them to understand:

• The organization’s history
• The most critical information about the office
• Key stakeholders and their respective roles
• Whom to go to with questions or problems
• Information on benefits, policies, etc., and
• The company’s culture and values.

Use the feedback and answers newly hired employees give you to evaluate, redesign or tweak your onboarding tactics. A good onboarding program isn’t static: It should grow and change, just as a company and its employees do.

You may also want to ask employees who are leaving your organization – whether it’s years after their start date or a few short weeks – their opinions of the onboarding process matter.

If it stuck with them over a long period of time, then those opinions are likely meaningful.

Here’s a statistic you want to be aware of: 46% of new hires are fired or quit in the first 18 months.

Why? It’s not because new hires are unskilled.

Most new employees have enough skills to get the job done, because that’s what managers focus on during the interview and hiring process – and therein lies the problem.

Managers spend too much time focusing on skill sets, when the real key to separating the stars from the duds involves focusing on a whole host of areas most supervisors never touch on.

This article will take you through the interviewing and hiring process step by step and help your organization make the best hiring decisions possible.

Worth the Read:

• Recruiting Trends to Watch for in 2019

Here are some of the topics we introduce and cover in detail across our website. Click to jump ahead:

• The Interview Process
• Interview Tips and Techniques
• Interview Questions
• Illegal Interview Questions
• After the Interview

Interview Process

You’ve identified a skills gap or a chance to expand your operations, defined the requirements applicants will need to succeed in those positions and now you need to find the best people for those jobs.

So, you advertise the position, gather and screen applicant resumes to find a group of applicants that match what you need, at least on the surface.

The interview process takes you from that mountain of resumes, many of which don’t begin to match your requirements, through a series of phone and in-person conversations that narrows down to just a few viable candidates, and the final decision that leads to a job offer.

There are six basic steps in the interview process. You may add to these depending on specific organization or industry needs.

1. Initial resume screening
2. Telephone screening (this may be done by an outside recruiter)
3. Telephone interview(s)
4. Face-to-face interview(s)
5. Review
6. Reference checks

There’s a large selection of recruiting software packages on the market that can do the first screen, reviewing resumes and organizing them from best to worst fit for the position based on your job description.

Then it is up to HR and hiring managers to carefully review resumes that made it through the screening process. That narrows the pool of applicants to just those worth interviewing.

Of course, you’ll want to check out the candidates who look like perfect fits, but make sure you to include some of the applicants who fall in the middle of your rankings.

Resumes don’t tell the whole story (and software is nowhere near perfect) and you may find your next star performer among that group.

Before scheduling a formal telephone interview, initial screening calls will winnow out the applicants who don’t really have the required skills, aren’t serious about joining your organization, have unrealistic salary expectations, or just won’t fit in with your team and organizational culture.

Don’t spend too much time with each candidate at this stage, since your list is likely still pretty long.

If they (and you) remain interested in the position at the end of that call, schedule a formal telephone interview.

For those who make the cut after the phone interview, it’s time to invite them in for a face-to-face interview with one or more hiring managers (we discuss some great interviewing tips later on).

Once one or two candidates make it through initial and follow up interviews, it’s time to check references and do any other research (web searches, social media reviews) you feel is appropriate. Note this is not the time to do formal background checks. Those need to wait til you’ve made the job offer.

The interview process is now over.

It’s time to compare notes with everyone whose participated in the interview process, make your choice and extend a formal offer.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the steps in the interview process.

How to Critically Read Applicant’s Resumes

Even in this tight labor market, any company with an open job is hit with a flood of resumes – but more resumes doesn’t necessarily mean more quality candidates. How can you spot the future stars your organization needs to succeed over the long term?

It all starts with that pile of resumes.

Here are steps to follow for a more effective resume screening process:

Look for Specifics

When candidates list their accomplishments, keep your eyes peeled for specific details.

For example, you’d rather see something like, “Managed a staff of 10 accounting employees,” instead of, “Managed the entire accounting staff.”

Find Signs of Initiative

To separate average workers from star employees, look for signs that candidates possess initiative and did more than the minimum in their previous jobs than just what was expected of them.

Some key words to highlight: “led,” “created,” and “designed.

Use the Resume to Prepare for an Effective Phone Interview.

Highlight remarks that need clarification or further probing.

That way you’ll know exactly what you need to find out in the phone screen, and you’ll have an efficient way to decide who moves on to the next round.

Resume Warning Signs

Some candidates go to great lengths to stand out.

They may even lie to you.

Watch out for these resume tweaks, which applicants may try to sneak by you:

Employment Gaps

Many candidates worry about explaining periods when they were out of work.

The solution for some: Claim they were volunteering – it’s harder to verify than previous work history.

Ask probing questions about volunteering and check references at the organization.

Also watch out for “functional resumes,” which list applicants’ experience and accomplishments grouped by type, followed by a list of previous employers, rather than a chronological list of past positions.

Phony Responsibilities

If you suspect a candidate has exaggerated responsibilities with a previous employer, ask detailed questions and don’t give up if you get vague answers.

Or bring in someone who’s already doing a job similar to the one the person’s applying for.

Dishonest applicants will try to fake their way through an interview using buzz words and generalities but break down when someone who’s skilled in the field asks for details.

Dumbed-Down Credentials

Some out-of-work employees are looking for stopgap jobs by “dumbing down” their credentials so they don’t appear overqualified.

The best way to spot this type of dishonesty is the same way managers catch other applicants’ lies – by asking probing questions during the interview and thoroughly checking references.

Conducting Effective Phone Interviews

Before scheduling face-to-face time with all the candidates under consideration, conduct telephone interviews and refine the final list.

Remember to treat phone interviews as seriously as any other conversation with an applicant. Make sure you are prepared with specific questions.

Set expectations for the length of the interview, but leave yourself a reasonable amount of slack in case you want to go longer.

Telephone screening will help recruiting managers determine if a candidate has what it takes to move to the next level in the hiring process and save valuable time interviewing unqualified candidates.

Effective screening will also reduce the time spent in the overall hiring process and spare the inconvenience of travel for those who do not qualify.

Worth the Read:

• Uh-oh: Average Interview Process Now Longer Than Ever
• Why the Interview Process is Flawed
• How ‘Declined Offer’ Interviews Can Help Sharpen Your Hiring Process

Interview Tips and Techniques

There are a number of effective screening procedures, including a long line of vendors that supply personality and aptitude tests.

Despite all of the advanced assessment tools, interviews by your recruiting team remain the most effective way to weed out the bad fits and identify superstars.

Beyond ensuring a candidate has the right skills to do the job, you also face the difficult task of gauging how a candidate might fit in with the company’s culture.

If you don’t, you may end up hiring a skilled, qualified employee – but one who’ll be unsatisfied, won’t get along with co-workers and, most importantly, won’t stay in the job very long.

1. The first and most obvious tip for conducting effective interviews? Be prepared. Know exactly what the job requires and how it fits into your organizational goals. Anticipate what that applicant will want to know and have meaningful answers ready.
2. Take the time to make the applicant comfortable. Even highly confident applicants find interviews stressful. You want to see them at their best, so do what you can to help them relax.
3. Don’t surprise applicants. Make sure they know ahead of time if they’ll be taking any sort of test. If you conduct group interviews, let them know they’ll be talking to more than one person.
4. If you schedule multiple interviews, make sure everyone asks a core set of questions so they can compare notes on how a candidate’s responses changed — or if they seem overly rehearsed.
5. On the flip side, ask each candidate the same questions. You need to be able to compare their responses fairly.
6. Ask one question at a time and spend at least five minutes on each question.
7. Don’t hesitate to probe —get as much detail as possible.
8. After you ask a question, stay quiet to force the candidate to keep talking. This is especially important during phone interviews.
9. Interviews are conversations. Ask about hobbies and other interests (read on about Illegal interview questions for some cautions).
10. Make the candidate want to know more. If you give a candidate reasons to be curious about your organization, they’ll be more engaged and likely will ask you better questions.

Finally, follow up!

Too many interviewers forget the importance of basic courtesy once an interview is over. Just as you want to know the candidate remains interested while you are making your decision, they want to know if they are still in the running.

Worth the Read:

• Elon Musk Has an Interview Tip for You
• Why First Impressions Don’t Tell the Whole Story — and 4 Ways to Combat ‘Em

Interview Questions

When you are preparing questions for an interview, the best place to start is with a job description, either a formal one or an informal one that you put together to give you a handle on what you expect from anyone who gets hired.

Developing questions off the job description helps in two ways:

1. It keeps you focused on what’s important – the ability to do the job.
2. It ensures you’ll ask what we call “job appropriate” questions – those which hone in on the candidate’s ability and avoid topics that could be interpreted as inquiries about race, marital status, religion or any other subject that’s ripe for complaints and lawsuits.

As discussed earlier, it is very important to be consistent in the questions you ask every applicant for a given job. But that doesn’t mean you have to be a robot.

The way to tailor your questions for each applicant is mainly in the follow-up questions you use. You can still use the same core questions for each applicant, but you can develop follow-up questions that feed off the applicant’s initial responses.

Consider a situation where the same core question gets opposite answers, and calls for different follow-up.

Let’s say you ask each applicant, “What do you like least about your job?”

The first applicant may say, “I don’t like doing paperwork.”

You then can ask a follow-up that gets into the “why” of the problem: “Why don’t you like doing it? Do you feel it takes away time from more important tasks?”

The next applicant may respond to the same question with, “Oh, I like just about everything in my job.” Then you may have to change course a little and ask, “If you had to rank all your tasks, what would be at the top and what would be at the bottom?”

It’s a good idea to put together a separate set of questions for phone and in-person interviews. Any questions that are intended to gauge a candidate’s honesty or real expertise should be asked in person.

Phone Interview Questions

Here’s a selection of phone interview questions that will help identify the applicants you want to bring in for the next step in the interview process.

• Tell me a little about yourself.
• Why are you job hunting now?
• Are you interviewing elsewhere?
• Why are you applying for this position?
• What do you know about the job you’d be doing here?
• Describe your work experience as it relates to the job.
• Why do you want this job?
• Why do you want to work for our organization?
• What are you passionate about in your professional life? In your personal life?
• Tell me more about ___ (a specific item on their resume).
• What type of management style do you work best with? Respond poorly to?
• What are your salary expectations?
• If hired, when can you start?
• Do you have any questions?

There’s a reason these questions are staples of the interview process – they get to the bottom of candidates’ technical skills as workers.

But you need to delve deeper to determine if candidates are right for your organization – which is why asking questions that address specific situations in applicants’ previous work history can separate the wheat from the chaff in the applicant pool.

In-Person Interviews

Of course, there’s more than one way to conduct an effective, legal interview.

Structured Interviews

All interviews should have some level of planning, but the structured interview takes the most planning. Essentially, you create a list of questions for the candidate based on what’s required for the job and what you know about the candidate based on information in a resume, cover letter or other documents.

Unstructured Interviews

An unstructured interview is more free-flowing and conversational, so it can go in different directions. To capture the details of this kind of interview, you’ll take a lot of notes, and as you know, some can be troublesome.

STAR Method

The STAR method is one effective way to get for more insight into how well an applicant will fit in the job and at your organization.

STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Results. You want applicants to go beyond yes or no answers and tell you a story that describes how they addressed a challenge in a previous job.

You’ll want them to describe a specific situation, the task or tasks they were responsible for in that instance, the actions they took to accomplish those tasks, and what results they achieved.

And remind them you need their answers to go beyond descriptions of day-to-day work processes.

Here’s four examples of questions that can give insight into a candidate’s potential:

1. Think of a time when you were unfairly criticized. How did you handle it?
2. When was the last time you had to act without the guidance of a formal policy or procedure? Tell me what you did.
3. Give an example of a time when you had to deliver bad news. How did you go about it?
4. Tell me about two times when you had good ideas, but co-workers or supervisors shot them down. How exactly did you handle that?

These questions require candidates to think on their feet and tell you about a specific success or failure in their past – which can help you get a better handle on how they’d react to similar situations in your work environment.

Be Prepared to Answer Applicant’s Questions

You wouldn’t hire applicants who were stumped by your questions. And applicants are less likely accept a job offer from a manager who can’t answer theirs.

Good questions from interviewees cover a lot of topics, including details about the job, questions about company financial health and growth strategy and insight into the candidate’s potential boss.

Applicants expect honest, thoughtful answers to their questions, and you need to be prepared to answer them.

Here are a few of the tougher questions you should expect from applicants:

• What do you see as the biggest challenges for someone in this job?
• How does the company define success in this position?
• What are some things about this job that previous employees have disliked?
• What brought you to this company? What has kept you here?
• How has the company changed since you joined?
• What are the company’s three most important goals?
• If you could change some things about the company, what would they be?

A final note on interviews of all kinds: make no promises.

Don’t exaggerate anything about the job. Even false statements about non-monetary things – for example, possibilities of promotion – could potentially lead to the company’s getting sued for making false promises.

Worth the Read:

• ‘What’s Your Spirit Animal?’ and Other Curveball Interview Questions You Might Want to Start Asking
• 20 Super-Hard Interview Questions Employers Are Really Asking
• The 10 Best Interview Questions You’ll See This Year

Illegal Interview Questions

Interviewing job candidates is a major task that carries with it two key responsibilities: (1) Getting the information needed to make a sound hiring decision. (2) Doing so in a way that doesn’t leave you or the company open to lawsuits from candidates.

Most lawsuits that come out of hiring interviews happen because the hiring manager or other interviewers aren’t familiar with the laws that cover discrimination in employment or don’t understand how the questions they ask might run afoul of those laws.

There are three main laws that protect applicants’ rights in the hiring process:

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, sex, race, religion or national origin
• The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) makes it illegal to base decisions on an applicant’s age
• The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) makes it illegal to base decisions on a person’s physical or mental disability

Title VII

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states that you can’t reject an applicant based on race, sex, color, national origin or religion – what are referred to as “protected classes.”

These days, almost no one is ever going to outright reject a candidate because of membership in a protected class. The problem is usually a lot more subtle than that.

For instance, you might be interviewing a woman who’ll have to supervise an all-male team or crew. An interviewer naturally might want to know the woman’s background for filling the job. That calls for a question.

There are at least two ways to ask the question.

Here’s a way of asking that could get you into trouble: “Have you ever supervised men before?” That indicates you perceive a problem because the candidate is a woman – a protected class. Plus, it’s an ineffective question because it can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.

Here’s a legal way of asking, and one that’s likely to get better results: “Describe your supervisory experience. What did you like and dislike about it? What are your strengths and weaknesses in that area?”

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination in the hiring and employment of the disabled. The ban on disability discrimination covers what’s said and done during the interviewing process.

Consider the types of questions and comments you’ll want to use and avoid when interviewing a candidate who’s obviously disabled or who mentions a “hidden” disability, such as chronic depression.

First and foremost, questions about the disability are off-limits.

That means you cannot ask, for instance, “How did it happen?” or “How does it limit your activities.”

When trying to decide what you can ask, remember this rule: Anything you’d reasonably ask a non-disabled candidate is OK to ask of a disabled candidate, including questions about ability to do the job.

Here’s an example of what you can ask: You have a job that requires the candidate to lift 30-pound boxes. It’s reasonable to ask a disabled or non-disabled person, “The job requires that you lift 30-pound boxes. Are you able to do that?”

Here’s an example of what you cannot ask: “The job requires that you lift 30-pound boxes. Will your disability interfere with that?” To ensure you stay on the right side of the law, remember the rule:

And remember, it isn’t just the questions your do ask that can get you in legal trouble. You also need to think about how missing a key question can be just as bad.

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) prohibits using age as a reason to reject an applicant. Just about everyone understands that, so why is there a problem and why should you be concerned about it?

Most lawsuits grow out of the applicant’s perception of the interviewer’s decisions, even when there’s no intent to discriminate. And that perception gets formed by the interviewer’s questions and comments.

Think about these examples of comments and questions that are perceived as age-related and possibly illegal:

“I see you went to Springfield High School. So did I. What year did you graduate?”

If the answer could be used to determine the candidate’s age, there’s a chance it’ll be perceived as playing a part in the hiring decision.

“In your resume, you mention experience with the Xdelete software. That hasn’t been around for years. When did you work with it?”

The answer could be used to determine a career timeline and illegally serve as a basis for rejecting the candidate.

To avoid creating a perception of age-related bias, consider asking the trainees to provide alternative, legal questions that cover the same ground – education and experience.

Here are two examples:

“What high school/college did you go to? Did you graduate?”

“What software do you have experience with?”

It is important to remember that these rules apply during any informal conversation with the candidate at any point in the interview process.

What if the Applicant Volunteers the Information?

While you have control over your part of the interviewing process, you can’t stop an applicant from volunteering information.

You can cut off a dangerous conversation by breaking in and saying something like, “Thank you, but I’d really like to know more about your experience as it directly relates to the job.”

Legally questionable information that’s volunteered by an applicant generally can’t be used against an interviewer as long as there’s no proof the information was used in the hiring decision.

So, should you immediately make a note that the applicant volunteered potentially problematic information during the interview?

Notes and Documentation

Unfortunately, like the rest of the interview process, that isn’t as simple as it sounds.

Notes and other documentation follow the same guides as conversation: keep them business-related and away from topics covered under Title VII, ADEA and ADA.

And, if an applicant files a lawsuit and a lawyer asks for all documentation regarding the interview, you’re legally bound to hand over any notes you have.

If you don’t, you are leaving your organization open to a charge of concealing evidence.

Think about your interview notes the same way you do about email. They can be obtained and read – and used against you or to legally support your decision.

Still, there’s no reason to fear writing down your observations as long as the notes strictly pertain to the applicant’s ability and skills to do the job. In other words, notes that mention personal traits or any of the “protected” classes in the Civil Rights Act can be a problem.

And never take notes directly on any document that you are required to keep or that will go into an employee file if they are hired. A single word scribbled on an applicant’s resume could be that little thing that lands you in court or costs your organization a large settlement.

Interviewing Forms

Here are some forms to help you during the interviewing process:

• Application for Employment Form
• Interview Evaluation Form
• Illegal Interview Questions
• Telephone Reference Check Form

Worth the Read:

• 3 Innocent Interview Queries That Can Get You Into Trouble
• The Seemingly Innocent Interview Questions That Could Get You in Legal Hot Water
• Seemingly Innocent Interview Questions That Might Spark an Age-Bias Claim

After the Interview

If the interview goes well and you want to continue the process with a candidate, there are a few steps you need to take before your next conversation.

Social Networking Profiles

If possible, check applicants’ social networking profiles – but remember you can only use info that pertains specifically to predicting someone’s job performance.

Forty-five percent of managers have said they use social networking sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn to research applicants – and not all for bad.

While 35% of managers said they’ve turned down an applicant because of an online screen, 18% said they’ve made a positive decision based on an online profile.

So, what should you be looking out for when searching applicants’ profiles? Everyone has the right to restrict access to their pages (including both written and photographic material) via privacy settings.

Employers attempting to access users’ profiles are bound by the sites’ terms of use, and using false pretenses to gain access (e.g., creating a false account) is not only unethical, it’s very risky.

Even if you do gain access without a problem, the site can reveal all sorts of things that could compromise compliance with existing employment laws – the applicant may have shared details about themselves that reveals medical conditions, past benefits claim disputes, religious beliefs and other protected info.

Regardless of how you obtain that information — even if a candidate shares it voluntarily — if a rejected applicant takes you to court, you will likely have to prove that you didn’t base your decision on that information, which is very difficult to do.

On the flip side, information an applicant posts on a website can also reveal red flags that clearly pertain to hiring decisions, such as bragging about sick-time abuse or padding a resume.

Bottom line: Combing through social media posts may reveal too much about an applicant, so only use info that pertains specifically to predicting job performance.

Checking References

Candidates sometimes exaggerate skills and experience in an effort to stand out.

The most powerful tool you have in separating what’s true from what’s not is a well-conducted reference check.

When you contact former employers to check candidates’ references, pay close attention to any details you can glean about their previous work environment and find out as much as you can about previous supervisors’ management styles.

Here are four key parts of the process you shouldn’t overlook:

1. Find out how well the reference knows that candidate’s work. Ask, “What were the candidate’s responsibilities?” to ensure that the reference directly supervised the applicant and knows the person’s work well. If the reference can only vaguely describe what the candidate did, you may not want to put that much stock in the rest of the job interview.
2. Ask about management style and work environment. A candidate’s reference should be viewed in light of the former supervisor’s management style. A manager could give a glowing review, but could have a completely different style than you.
3. Learn other details of the company culture to help judge the candidate’s fit. Excelling in one environment doesn’t guarantee success in another.
4. Pay attention to neutral statements. Some references choose to say nothing – or remain neutral – about a candidate. That can mean there’s a problem — or could just reflect company policies that limit what anyone can discuss about an ex-employee. If that’s the case, check to see if they’ll provide more detail if they have the candidate’s express permission. When you are able to speak directly to a former supervisor, however, a good candidate will get a positive review, not a neutral one.

How to Answer “Why Wasn’t I Hired?”

It’s inevitable that some rejected applicants will want to know why they weren’t hired for a position. How you respond could very well get the company in legal trouble.

If you come away from the interview convinced the applicant isn’t the right fit for any of those reasons, let them know as soon as you can after making the decision. In this age of social media, a reputation for treating applicants disrespectfully is almost certain to hurt your brand as an employer.

And be very careful about the comments you make if unsuccessful candidates ask you why they didn’t get hired.

In recent court cases, managers have said things along the lines of “We wanted someone who’d help our diversity,” or “You didn’t have the right look” – and ended up costing their companies big.

When unsuccessful applicants ask you why they weren’t hired, stick with an all-purpose statement: “We filled the position with a more qualified candidate.”

Conculsion

As we mentioned at the beginning, 46% of new hires fail within their first 18 months on the job.

Your goal during the interviewing and hiring process is to find a candidate who is technically proficient, fits in with company culture, works hard and will stick with your company long-term.

The right candidate will be the one with the best combination of the traits we’ve detailed:

• Technical skills
• Relevant experience
• Interpersonal skills
• Work style
• Cultural fit

Don’t underestimate the value of soft skills. In most cases, technical skills can be taught, especially to quick learners.

Here are a few final important interviewing tips and reminders:

• Ask for clarification. Never be afraid to probe deeply and ask candidates to explain statements that aren’t clear. Too often, candidates are let off the hook when they make statements that don’t make sense or don’t actually answer the question.
• Don’t be afraid to drill. Always look for concrete, specific examples to back up candidates’ statements. The goal of most questions is to drill down to specific actions that candidates took.
• Information about a candidate’s protected class, such as race, sex, religion and disabilities, is off limits when it comes to interview questions, interview notes, and social media research.
• Be especially careful with note-taking. You never know if the notes you take during an interview may end up in the hands of a rejected applicant’s lawyer.
• When checking references, pay attention to lukewarm reference responses. Few references will make overtly negative statements about a former employee, but a neutral answer might be a red flag.
• If you get the opportunity, ask former supervisors probing questions about the specific traits that are most important to success at your organization.
• And finally, make no promises. Don’t exaggerate anything about the job. Even false statements about non-monetary things – for example, possibilities of promotion – could potentially lead to the company’s getting sued for making false promises.