It’s not what you know – it’s if I can stand talking to you!

A majority of human resources professionals (54%) make their final decision to hire a person based on “chemistry,” according to a poll released Tuesday by the Society for Human Resource Management.

from: Poll: A Majority Hire based on ‘Chemistry’ over at WorkExposedBlog.com

I’ve had managers ask me over and over again how to interview as if there is a silver bullet or super secret trick I’ve learned in the years I’ve been doing it and I frequently disappoint and surprise them. We’re in retail. What we do is entry level stuff. Just about anybody with good people skills can do it. Seriously. It’s not that tough to do. To do it really well needs a certain type of person and that is, for me, what the interview is for.

How well will the person fit in with the good/great members of your current crew? How will you feel after talking to them for 10 minutes during a shift change? What will they be like during an employee meeting? Are they positive? Upbeat? Do they smile easily and readily? Are they easy to talk to? They’ve just met you and they’ll deal with customers all day long that they have only just met as well… how relaxed and easy going they are during an interview is helpful to knowing how they’ll do with strangers during a normal work day.

Just talk to them. Are they profoundly qualified but after two minutes of talking to them you want to kick your dog? I wouldn’t hire them. You have to work with this person. I don’t care if they DO have 12 years experience working as a team leader at a competitor twenty miles away and they only left because the place flooded and closed. If you can’t stand to talk to them how will it be to work with them? How will it be on the co-workers and customers?

So is it a good idea to hire based on chemistry? I doubt it. I think that it gets in the way when we hire people who are just like the people we’ve always hired. I think sometimes we wind up losing something when we lose variety.

I once had a manager who staffed her store for over a year entirely with young African-American lesbians. (I swear I’m not making that up either.) Eventually I had to point out, gently, and carefully, that perhaps someone named Susan or Steve wouldn’t be completely out of line. Two weeks later she called me, so proud she’d “hired a Susan” which turned out to be a white lady that I don’t believe was a lesbian, but I never asked. This was a really good manager, she just had gotten in the habit of hiring people she clicked with. (I am in no way implying she was dating her employees. She wasn’t. I knew her family and that wasn’t something that was going on. She just kept doing it over and over again. She said, “that’s all that applies!” Well, we found that wasn’t entirely true and wound up diversifying a bit over time, slowly… and it didn’t kill her!)

So, while I firmly believe that we should hire people who will work well with others and who I can work well with… I also believe that just like I should do something different and unexpected once in a while, I should also hire outside my comfort zone just to make sure I don’t get too comfortable.

I talked interview tips in a previous post but it wasn’t the same type as this one so I’m OK doing it again. This one was from the interviewer’s point of view too, and the previous post was tips for the person being interviewed. Also, if you’re not subscribed to the Work Exposed Blog yet I recommend it really highly. It has one of my highest click through rates on my feed reader.


Posted on Monday, November 30th, 2009
Under: Employers, Management | No Comments »

Even the ones that couldn’t count change were fun to talk to.

Manpower in Central Iowa has a blog and I gotta tell you, if I didn’t have a job already I’d want to work for the person who writes that blog! There’s a load of great information over there on workexposed.com. Recently interviews, staffing, and employee enthusiasm have been at the front of my mind from a conversation I had with a customer. But first, a qutoe from Work Exposed: The Blog:

Hire “engage-able” team members. One HR leader we interviewed underscored this point: “Our number one problem was lack of fit. We needed to hire people who could be successful. Instead of training square pegs to fit the round hole, we now try to hire round pegs.”

I recently went to work at a store where the staff just seemed to lack enthusiasm and zest for… well, anything. I talked to customers about the change in the store’s atmosphere and asked them if they could describe it for me. I was fishing. I did the whole, “I can’t put my finger on it but…” and let them fill in the blanks.

One of the regulars, used to be a regular, now an irregular, said “The old manager hired employees who were a pleasure to visit with and talk to. Even the ones who couldn’t count change were fun to talk to.” He admitted every employee wasn’t perfect or even always the most competent but they were always sociable and friendly and that made up for it to an extent. Now bad service was accompanied by boring lackluster employees. There was no reason to come to the place and it was a craps shoot on who’d be behind the counter. Good service but no personality or bad service with no personality.

I recently had a manager tell me they needed more of a form they used for interviews and they didn’t know the questions by heart, they just always answered the questions, filled out the form and that was what their previous supervisor had them do. I was appalled. “Here’s the thing,” says I, “the biggest part of an interview for me is to know at the end of the interview if you can stand to talk to the person for another two minutes.” If you can’t wait for the interview to end I don’t care how qualified they are do NOT hire them.” We’re in sales. We deal with the public every minute we’re open and it has to be something the potential employee is interested in doing.

If an employee being interviewed for a sales position isn’t enthusiastically trying to sell themselves to the interviewer why in the world would anybody believe they’ll try and sell anything in the future? Great sales people are great relationship builders. Even if the relationship lasts 2 minutes for that time they’re making the customer feel great for that two minutes. If they’re not engaged during the interview. If they’re not making the interviewer feel great during the interview, and really selling themselves enthusiastically they’re not going to cut the mustard. A technically great applicant who doesn’t sell it, doesn’t.


Posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
Under: Employees | No Comments »