07: Applicant Screening

The Scrapper or the Silver Spoon?

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As Human Resources professionals, we are taught (and we teach others) to make sure that everything we do is in compliance with rules and regulations.  This is especially true in the areas of Recruitment and Selection.  We work hard at making sure that there are no appearances of bias in potential candidate considerations.  We apply the consistency lens throughout our human resources processes with vigorous tenacity so that we can proceed with confidence in making the best hiring decisions.

Sometimes, however, these approaches cloud the lens and we miss seeing who the best candidate really is.

Regina Hartley, a director of human resources with UPS Information Systems, provides a refreshing approach to seeking, looking at and finding the best candidate in her recent TED talk.

Click here to watch the TED talk

Ms. Hartley definitely provides inspiration to the rest of us – both as Human Resources Professionals and as potential candidates looking for future success in our own careers.

We all have elements of the ‘scrapper’ somewhere in our employment histories.  By looking for and celebrating the success of the scrapper, we open the doors to a host of dynamic and talented individuals who might be missed along the way.

Cheers to the scrappers!

Discussion Questions:

  1. If you had to make a decision to interview the ‘scrapper’ or the ‘silver spoon’ candidate, which one would you pick? Why?
  2. Identify one element from this video clip that you disagree with and explain why.
  3. Which candidate profile do you think others see you as? Are you perceived as a scrapper or silver spoon?
  4. Ms. Hartley refers to ‘Post Traumatic Growth’. What is this and how does it have a positive impact on an individual’s career success?

 

Lying on Resumes

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Oh, how do we lie? Let me count the ways; with a small lie, when you respond to your spouse’s question, “Do I look fat in these jeans?”; to your kids when you promise, “This needle won’t hurt a bit!”; or a giant lie, like Scott Thomson, the ex-CEO of Yahoo, who lied about having a computer science degree!

Michele Piacquadio, Thinkstock
Michele Piacquadio, Thinkstock

According to the articles listed below, we lie up to ten times a week – that is a lot of lies over a year, and over the span of a career. The HRM Online article, Six Ways to Catch Resume Lies, states that employment candidates will lie anywhere from 40% to 70% of the time on their resumes. This would mean that close to three quarters of your applicant pool has lied to you before they have even walked in the door. How can that be? What is an HR practitioner to do?

Please read the following two articles and consider some solutions that can be applied to this problem.

Click here to view article 1.

Click here to view article 2.

The ability to filter and screen resumes is a fundamental skill that all HR practitioners must master to be successful.

Discussion Questions:

  • Are all these suggestions legal? Or will some cause greater legal liability and if so what laws would it be violating?
  • How comfortable are you using these solutions?
  • What else would you do to confirm the validity of a candidates resume?
  • A bigger question to ponder, have you eliminate a great hire because their resume did not look as good as others because they DID NOT lie?

 

Hiring to Fit Your Company Dress Code

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How Company Policy can affect your Recruitment

No HR policy drives more fear into an HR professional’s heart than creating a dress code policy.  As a new HR professional you may be asked to develop or revise your company’s dress code.

A company’s dress code can raise many employment concerns ranging from minor irritations to violations of Human Rights Laws.  As an HR professional, you have to be diligent when developing or revising a policy because it may affect your recruitment.

  • Are companies allowed to set rules on employee’s behaviour at work? Absolutely!
  • Can a company have a set dress code to match its brand, in style and look?  Absolutely!
  • Are there going to be problems when a company takes dress code to extremes?  Absolutely!

Read the HR online article on Abercrombie and Fitch’s look policy and how, after many years, the company is getting rid of its requirement to be “hot” in order to be hired.

Click here to view the article.

As you can see, an HR dress code policy is a fundamental component of any successful organization, but creating or revising one is not for the unprepared HR professional. Many aspects must be considered, so before completing your bosses request to create a new dress code policy, you must ask yourself the following discussion questions.

Discussion Questions:

  • What is the professional brand the company is seeking to achieve and maintain?
  • Are there legal implications to this brand or look we want to achieve?
  • Does this look or dress code infringe on any prohibited grounds under Human rights legislation directly?
  • Does this look or dress code infringe on any prohibited grounds under Human rights legislation in-directly?
  • Does it create systemic discrimination?
  • Will this dress code affect our ability to hire certain individuals from protected minority groups?
  • How will this new or revised dress code affect current employees?  Will we be able to retain them as employees?

 

 

 

HR and the Interview Setting

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Should HR Practitioners know what they are doing in an interview setting?  Whose role is it anyway?

As Human Resources Practitioners, we are often called upon to be the organizational role model for employee behaviour. It’s easy, then, to become the target for how to do things wrong, when the expectation is that the HR Practitioner should always be doing things right.  Right?

Why is HR expected to be perfect? It is because it is so important to organizational success!

A great example of this comes from the following article which reveals that twenty percent of HR practitioners were involved in asking illegal interview questions!   How is that even possible?   If HR cannot get it right, what are supervisors expected to do?

man with fingers crossed
dolgachov/Thinkstock

Click here to view the article.

The article states that, in some cases, HR practitioners are involved in asking questions that focus on religious preferences and practices, disabilities, and gender based issues. When this occurs, the article recommends correcting the situation immediately by addressing the question of concern and ensuring that the person being interviewed knows that the question asked was inappropriate and is not an acceptable practice. Is this solution a little bit of “too little, too late”?

The article has some great comments – many of them harshly critical of the role of HR in the interview process, including the perception that HR practitioners are ‘liars’ and, “Liars are not leaders”. If HR practitioners are regarded as liars then what does that say about the rest of the organization as represented by HR?  The article and the comments may make for uncomfortable reading and show how quickly HR can lose credibility if we do not know what we are doing!   If HR does not have credibility, then what is its value?

Discussion Questions:

  • What are three practices that HR must include in preparing for interviews?
  • How will I address members of an interview panel when they go ‘off script’ or outside of legal boundaries?
  • Have I been in an interview where the HR practitioner has made me feel uncomfortable?
  • How will I lead in the role of HR to avoid being called a liar?
  • How do I continually improve the credibility of HR?
  • What will I do to address issues of accommodation when they come up in an interview setting?

 

 

The Candidate

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Sometimes, the interview process can be deadly dull for everyone involved. Heineken, the Dutch brewing company, is noted for its unique and creative media campaigns when it comes to advertising their beer related products. They’ve taken the extra step and have applied that creativity to their hiring campaigns and documented it in this video clip “The Candidate”.

Source: wwwyoumarkit. The above content constitutes a link to the source website.  Please click on the play icon to stream the video.

It’s fun; it’s inspiring; it’s heart-warming. But is it effective? How do you know?

All too often HR practitioners get lost in making sure the ‘right’ questions get asked and/ or the ‘correct’ tests are administered to ensure that the ‘right’ candidate gets hired based on standard Knowledge, Skills and Abilities requirements. Does the Heineken approach allow for an opportunity to get that elusive ‘fit’ requirement between the candidate and the company? Does this process make the decision to hire the right person easier at the end? Are there other benefits to this approach?

If nothing else, this clever recruitment strategy provides a great promotional opportunity for Heineken to elevate brand recognition and to ensure vast international interest for future recruitment strategies. It also challenges other employers to step up their game when it comes to interactive recruitment processes in order to ensure that the best candidate gets the job.

Let’s recognize that Heineken, as a vast global organization, has the money and resources to put this recruitment campaign into place. Most employers would not have access to do any of this kind of recruitment on such a huge scale. Having said that, all employers, with the guidance and support of an effective Human Resources team, want the same result – to recruit, select and hire the best person for the job.

Discussion Question:

  • How will you as the HR practitioner make sure that the best hiring fit is ensured no matter how big or small your organization may be?