The Integrity News
Vol. XIII No. 9
ISSN 1081-2717
May 6, 2004
May, 2004
In the post-Enron world, high-level candidates expect to
be tested relative to their attitudes, motivations, verbal
skills, integrity, people skills, and other basic identifiers.
Requiring knowledge of these factors for any candidate
is now becoming mainstream. In fact, many companies
are now requiring a more in-depth evaluation for mid-level
manager candidates.
The Integrity Center has been offering this type of screening
for client companies since 1988. Since 1996, the session
has been available online. The key is to give your
interviewers an excellent set of interview questions that
are based on your applicant's online session.
The COST of a Mistake -- According to the article, "one
mis-hire can cost a company 14 times the salary of a person
making less than $100,000", and the cost is easily twice that
for a senior executive -- which puts the penalties in the
millions of dollars. And those are the direct costs without
considering lost clients, alienated staff, or missed
opportunities, which are hard to measure, but are huge.
The FEAR Factor -- Given the last few years, "nobody wants
their company to be the next corporate scandal splashed
across the front page."
They are trying to ask better questions in interviews. In the
past, "organizations considered a recruiter's recommendation,
interviews with senior staff, some solid references, and perhaps
a skills test, good enough. Now they require finalists for high-
level jobs to go through even more vetting." "Even as the
economy appears to be on the mend, hiring for top jobs will
never go back to what it was in the old days." "People are
scared, Boards are scared, because they are being held
accountable."
While there is a cost associated with more in-depth hiring
programs, the bigger expense has been taking busy managers
away from their jobs to go through interview training. Now,
it is possible to structure the information so that with a quick
introduction a manager can conduct really good interviews.
Companies reporting in the article say that their ability to
select top performers has risen 30-50% in recent years
since they began using tools that help them ask better
questions. They also say that "more rigorous screening
helps to map out career paths for the managers they hire".
Boards see themselves as building companies, and they
want to hire people "who could step in, and who understand
their philosophy and traditions."
The article says that: "Web-based tests are on the rise
because they give human resource managers a low-cost
method of screening job candidates before forking over
the big bucks for the hiring process."
The online session from The Integrity Center has now been
used over 11,400 times. It produces an excellent report
for the interviewer in the form of an Interview Guide. The
Guide clearly spells out 20 areas related to attitudes and
motivations so that the interviewer knows exactly the
kind of person they are interviewing. It provides the
interviewer with questions that enable him or her to
measure candor and integrity. Using the information
gleaned from the applicant's online session, it provides
questions to ask in 9 areas of increasing difficulty. The
interview invariably gives the interviewer an excellent
feel for the applicant's background, candor, and values.
And because of the way that the interviewer is instructed
to use the Guide, the applicant always volunteers things
that provide additional direction if the interviewer then
wants to continue with further vetting.
For more information about using online sessions to
enhance your interviews, including the low cost, feel free
to call The Integrity Center, Inc. at (972) 484-6140.
Helping you with your Risk Management and HR
Automation is what we do.
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