The Metiss Group's Blog

Before he was famous, Leonardo da Vinci in 1482, at the age of 30, wrote out a letter listing his capabilities and sent it off to the Duke of Milan in hopes of getting a job.  He is credited with submitting the first resume.

In a recent Harris Poll on resumes conducted on behalf of CareerBuilder, 2,188 HR pros and hiring managers were asked to cite common exaggerations (i.e. lies) on resumes. Unlike da Vinci’s letter, most resumes today are reported to contain exaggerations or be flat out wrong.  Here are the common resume falsehoods and percentages reported:

• Skills — 57%
• Responsibilities — 55%
• Employment dates — 42%
• Job titles — 34%
• Academic degrees — 33%
• Past companies worked for — 26%
• Accomplishments and awards — 18%

When conducting interviews and reference checks, hiring managers must be sure to validate resume facts. They should challenge candidates on the resume’s veracity and have little tolerance for inaccuracies or embellishments.

Empowered hiring managers dig deeply into a candidate’s resume and make more successful hires.

All good processes begin with some pre-planning and this is particularly true in the selection process.  Get crystal clear about what is needed in advance to prepare for interviews.

The most important preparation is identifying the critical activities for that job and how they should be done — giving careful consideration to the traits that will increase the likelihood of an individual’s success in that job.  The key is to identify the key traits for each job.

Without careful planning, hiring managers may fall into the “I’ll know it when I see it” trap looking for traits they generally admire in people even if they may be detrimental or counterintuitive for the job.  For example, selecting a candidate who is outgoing and comfortable chatting up any topic in the interview may make sense for a sales position, but may be indicative of lacking the focus, attention to detail, and thorough consideration for a quality assurance position.

Hiring managers should prepare for interviews by determining in advance the accountabilities and traits critical to the job for which they are interviewing.  As interviewers, the likelihood of hiring managers selecting the best candidate for the position increases significantly as does the buy-in and support of the new employee once selected.

Empowered hiring managers are prepared for their interviews and make successful hires.

Select (verb) – To choose in preference to another or others; pick out (Random House Dictionary).

Process (noun) – A series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result (Random House Dictionary).

A selection process should consist of a series of actions to bring about an ideal choice of candidates.  Many leaders rely on intuition, gut instinct, or some haphazard interview approach when choosing among candidates.  The best hiring managers use a defined, repeatable process for selecting talent.

The selection process should include three phases:

1. Job and ideal candidate definition;
2. Candidate screening;
3. Candidate evaluation.

Define the job and ideal candidate in the definition phase clarifying what is expected of the job and what the ideal candidate will look like.  The screening phase should include consistent behavior-based questioning and assessments that tie back to the job and candidate definitions.  The evaluation phase should analyze gaps and discrepancies between observed candidate behavior and job and candidate requirements.

Hiring managers should define the steps in the selection process, stick to them, and empower those in the selection process for success.

The U.S. Department of Labor stipulates that if hiring managers administer assessments to candidates, the results of the assessments cannot represent more than 33% of the decision to hire or not hire.  That means at least 67% of a hiring manager’s decision to hire or not hire must consist of other screening activities.  Hiring managers should consider the activities in their screening process and how are they weighted.

Below are the steps and percentages many hiring managers follow in their selection process:

•  Phone screen (salary and basic skills fit) – 5%
• Core values email (values and writing skills fit) – 10%
•  First interview (skills, experience, culture fit) – 20%
• Assessment results (personal skills, behaviors, culture, critical thinking fit) – 20%
• Reference checks (screening concerns addressed) – 10%
• Follow-up interviews (screening and reference concerns addressed) – 20%
• Handle selection process (project management skills demonstrated) – 15%

While being in legal compliance is important, the reality is there is a strong business case to have multiple steps in a selection process.  No assessment is 100% accurate because humans are more complex than any one, two, or three assessments; however, they are a great basis from which to create exploratory conversations — with the candidate AND references.  It is equally important to see how a candidate does moving through a process and not just in each specific step in the process.

Empowered hiring managers consider many aspects when hiring and make more successful hires.