IMPROVE YOUR HIRING PROCESS: HOW TO RECOGNIZE INDICATORS OF MISALIGNMENT
Anne Laguzza, The Works Consulting, CALSAGA Network Partner
It’s so subtle that many leaders often miss it, and missing it can lead to hiring an applicant who isn’t the right fit for your organization without even realizing it until much later. But, if you pay attention and notice these, you can more efficiently identify a candidate who is not a good fit for your organization and more easily find a candidate who is.
Indicators of misalignment are any information provided or behavior displayed that misaligned with your organization’s values and expectations. These types of indicators can occur often in the interviewing process, and they can be easy to ignore, if you’re not paying attention.
These indicators include common behaviors like:
- Calling an applicant to schedule an interview and their voicemail is full.
- Emailing an applicant and it takes them more than 24 hours to respond.
- Responses that are actually excuses: My phone wasn’t working; I didn’t have my phone with me; I had a sudden death in the family; I had a personal emergency, etc.
- Resumes that are submitted but are not current or updated.
- Not following instructions, e.g. if you ask for a cover letter or letter of interest and they don’t submit one.
- Applicants who try to take over the interview and ask you questions in response to the questions you ask.
- Short email without a greeting, use of lower case ”i” or other grammatical errors.
- You call an applicant and they email you in return.
Don’t miss this! If an applicant shows behaviors like these ones listed, this is an early warning sign around issues with accountability and points to a potential under performing employee, if hired.
To ensure you don’t miss any indicators of misalignment in your next interview, pay attention to all the information they provide (including behaviors they display) and make a list of potential challenges and strengths of each candidate. Then, when looking at the potential challenges list, ask yourself two important questions for each of the challenges:
- Do I have the knowledge to teach or train this person on their potential challenges?
AND
- Do I have the time to train or teach them?
You must answer YES to number 1 or you shouldn’t even ask yourself number 2.
These questions will help you truly understand what type of employee you’re hiring, if their behavior aligns with your organization’s values and what will be needed from you as their leader to help ensure they are successful in their new role.
Bottomline: If you wouldn’t accept this behavior from a current employee, don’t make excuses for it in a job candidate.
Hiring the most ideal candidate for your open position can feel challenging, but with the right hiring processes, it is possible.
Looking for more ways to improve your hiring process? Let’s talk about how to make it more productive and increase employee retention! Email Anne at solutions@theworksconsulting.com.
Anne Laguzza is the CEO of The Works Consulting, a CALSAGA Network Partner. As a seasoned business executive with human resources management, leadership development, and performance coaching experience, Anne works with clients from a variety of industries to develop better systems, maximize employee productivity, and enable management to focus on business growth. For more information, check out theworksconsulting.com or email anne@theworksconsulting.com. You can also find Anne on Instagram and LinkedIn.