Interviewing 101: Hire Job Candidates With a Can-Do Attitude
In a recent article we highlighted the importance of hiring job applicants who had both the right attitude as well as passion for the job.
While skills are important they can be readily taught, whereas changing an attitude and developing passion is much more difficult.
A recent article in Business Management Daily, quoted a Leadership IQ study which found that 46% of new hires are either fired or disciplined within 18 months.
And in 89% of those cases, the reason for the action was not incompetence, but attitude.
I'll bet most of your "fires" had attitude problems too.
Today's issue focuses on attitude and gives you some concrete steps to take in order to find job applicants with a "can-do" attitude.
You do not need expensive psychological tests or new job descriptions.
Like most of us however, you do need to do a better job of interviewing job candidates.
Here are some interview skills we often struggle with.
1.
Be prepared for the interview.
The applicants will be prepared; you need to be prepared too.
This means spending time reviewing the applicant's paperwork and preparing your own questions.
2.
Your job is to get as much information from the applicant as possible.
Your job is not to make the applicant comfortable, except as it enables the applicant to keep talking.
Your job is not to sell the organization as a great place to work; there's plenty of time for that later.
Getting information should be foremost in your mind.
3.
Smile and nod; whether or not you agree with what the applicant has to say.
The purpose of this is to encourage the applicant to keep talking.
The more the applicant talks, the more information you have.
4.
A talking applicant is giving you information about themselves, but so is a quiet one.
Tolerate silences.
Wait out the applicant.
The spacing and timing of silence might convey an important message about the strengths and weaknesses of this applicant.
5.
Listen carefully.
It takes a lot of energy to do this, so don't do job interviews during a time of the day when your energy level is typically down.
6.
Finally, draw your specific conclusions about the person's attitude and write them down.
Base your comments on the way in which they describe how they handled specific obstacles they have encountered in the past.
Determine in advance what will constitute an answer which tells you that this is an applicant with a "can-do" attitude.
Let me illustrate: Question to job applicant: Tell me about a specific time that you were struggling to get things done, but there was just not enough time.
What did you do? What was the outcome? Answer #1: "Well, I had a long list of things that I knew had to be done.
I looked at the list and identified what I thought were the most important tasks.
Then I went to my supervisor and made sure it was OK that I left the other jobs wait until the next day.
My supervisor agreed with my evaluation and the day ended with me finishing those priority items.
" Answer #2: "There was just too much to do before the end of the shift and you know how difficult these clients are to work with.
You just can't do it all and lord knows, I can't be here all night.
I told my supervisor he was going to have to get me more help.
My supervisor just looked at me and walked away.
" Notice the difference in the degree of responsibility the applicant took for personally solving the problem.
In Answer #1, there was no blame, finger-pointing or excuses.
This answer illustrated a can-do attitude; this is an applicant who is willing to interject themselves into a situation in order to solve a problem.
The outcome is positive but it is more important that the applicant took control of the problem personally and tried to solve it with his/her own resources.
Applicants with a can-do attitude will quickly be productive in your organization.
They do not run at the first sign of trouble.
They will be accountable; they don't look for other people to blame for their mistakes or their problems.
They will get along with people.
They will make personal adjustments in order to make things work.
They finish work on time and on budget.
They have what psychologists call an "internal locus of control".
Surrounding yourself with "can-do" people will make a world of difference in how your organization gets the job done.
You can find "can-do" applicants by asking the right questions and listening carefully.
In the past, you might have talked to a former employer but rarely is that helpful today.
You can also administer pre-employment personality assessments, but it's expensive and the results may not be closely aligned with the needs of your company.
So, improving our ability to interview is the choice we are left with.
Few of us have ever had formal training in interviewing job applicants.
But it's more important now than ever.
While skills are important they can be readily taught, whereas changing an attitude and developing passion is much more difficult.
A recent article in Business Management Daily, quoted a Leadership IQ study which found that 46% of new hires are either fired or disciplined within 18 months.
And in 89% of those cases, the reason for the action was not incompetence, but attitude.
I'll bet most of your "fires" had attitude problems too.
Today's issue focuses on attitude and gives you some concrete steps to take in order to find job applicants with a "can-do" attitude.
You do not need expensive psychological tests or new job descriptions.
Like most of us however, you do need to do a better job of interviewing job candidates.
Here are some interview skills we often struggle with.
1.
Be prepared for the interview.
The applicants will be prepared; you need to be prepared too.
This means spending time reviewing the applicant's paperwork and preparing your own questions.
2.
Your job is to get as much information from the applicant as possible.
Your job is not to make the applicant comfortable, except as it enables the applicant to keep talking.
Your job is not to sell the organization as a great place to work; there's plenty of time for that later.
Getting information should be foremost in your mind.
3.
Smile and nod; whether or not you agree with what the applicant has to say.
The purpose of this is to encourage the applicant to keep talking.
The more the applicant talks, the more information you have.
4.
A talking applicant is giving you information about themselves, but so is a quiet one.
Tolerate silences.
Wait out the applicant.
The spacing and timing of silence might convey an important message about the strengths and weaknesses of this applicant.
5.
Listen carefully.
It takes a lot of energy to do this, so don't do job interviews during a time of the day when your energy level is typically down.
6.
Finally, draw your specific conclusions about the person's attitude and write them down.
Base your comments on the way in which they describe how they handled specific obstacles they have encountered in the past.
Determine in advance what will constitute an answer which tells you that this is an applicant with a "can-do" attitude.
Let me illustrate: Question to job applicant: Tell me about a specific time that you were struggling to get things done, but there was just not enough time.
What did you do? What was the outcome? Answer #1: "Well, I had a long list of things that I knew had to be done.
I looked at the list and identified what I thought were the most important tasks.
Then I went to my supervisor and made sure it was OK that I left the other jobs wait until the next day.
My supervisor agreed with my evaluation and the day ended with me finishing those priority items.
" Answer #2: "There was just too much to do before the end of the shift and you know how difficult these clients are to work with.
You just can't do it all and lord knows, I can't be here all night.
I told my supervisor he was going to have to get me more help.
My supervisor just looked at me and walked away.
" Notice the difference in the degree of responsibility the applicant took for personally solving the problem.
In Answer #1, there was no blame, finger-pointing or excuses.
This answer illustrated a can-do attitude; this is an applicant who is willing to interject themselves into a situation in order to solve a problem.
The outcome is positive but it is more important that the applicant took control of the problem personally and tried to solve it with his/her own resources.
Applicants with a can-do attitude will quickly be productive in your organization.
They do not run at the first sign of trouble.
They will be accountable; they don't look for other people to blame for their mistakes or their problems.
They will get along with people.
They will make personal adjustments in order to make things work.
They finish work on time and on budget.
They have what psychologists call an "internal locus of control".
Surrounding yourself with "can-do" people will make a world of difference in how your organization gets the job done.
You can find "can-do" applicants by asking the right questions and listening carefully.
In the past, you might have talked to a former employer but rarely is that helpful today.
You can also administer pre-employment personality assessments, but it's expensive and the results may not be closely aligned with the needs of your company.
So, improving our ability to interview is the choice we are left with.
Few of us have ever had formal training in interviewing job applicants.
But it's more important now than ever.
Source...