In a recent article, I highlighted the numerous problems with making hiring decisions objective. This article is to explain how public service can come much closer to this goal. Following this advice will not only make things fairer but will also result in your hiring the best candidate for the role. 

There are five important steps to ensure that decisions are as objective as possible. 

1. Training Staff 

Hiring people is one of the most significant investments that your department will make. The cost goes well beyond the obvious things such as the investment in recruitment and training. What’s really at stake is your reputation as a department, the perception others have of you as a manager, and your ability to attract future high-performers. 

Also at stake is the Opportunity Cost. This is the delay in meeting your objectives due to hiring a poor performer. 

My experience consulting public service over many years has been that the decision of who sits on the interview panel is at best cavalier. 

What should happen is that any staff who are being considered for such a role be required to complete a thorough training course. This should include, at a minimum: 

• The psychological dynamics of a hiring interview 
• How to critically review a resume 
• Creating interview questions that get behind the mask all applicants wear 
• Techniques for following up on answers that are vague or unresponsive 

• Learning how to create meaningful questions that can be objectively scored 
• How to interview referees in a manner that is both thorough and time efficient 

2. Creating Behavioural Dimension Questions 

The panel will need to work with others in your organisation to define what behaviours identify poor, average and outstanding behaviour. The results should be a clear description of behaviour that two independent observers can rank into one of three categories. These should reflect an answer that can be rated as Below Average, Average and Outstanding 

Check out: The Hidden Costs of a Hiring Mistake 

Here’s a simple example of a customer service role. It must be considered only theoretical, as the exact description will differ from one department to another. 

Behaviour: provides excellent customer service by taking ownership of the customer’s issue. 

This sounds good, but closer inspection will reveal that this is nothing more than a vague concept. 

Here’s how this can be translated into a Behavioural Dimension for someone working in a call centre. 

Assume that the question is “As you know, it’s impossible to have the answer to every question the customer can ask. Please tell us about the time when you had a question from a customer that you didn’t know the answer to.” 

Poor: Gives a wrong answer, or transfers them to someone else who might know. 

Average: refers the call to someone else and stays on the line until they have connected with the other person. 

Outstanding: Takes ownership of the problem. Ensures that they understand the question and transfer them to someone who will know the answer. Stays on the line to allow them to learn the correct answer for when this question comes again. Concludes the call by checking that the customer is satisfied.  

3. Creating, Installing and Maintaining a Structured Selection System 

This is the linchpin to developing a system of hiring that is both fair and able to validly predict who will be a high performer. It takes time at the front end. Once established, it’s easy to maintain and quality control. 

Such a system will have the following characteristics: 

• It should be approved by the most senior management 
• It will lay out a standardised system for selecting staff. This means that everyone – without exception – goes through the same selection process. 
• All staff who sit on interview panels will be required to complete a training course in hiring 
• Staff are trained to develop Critical Behavioural Descriptions as described above 
• There is a standardized interview for all positions. This is complemented by specific questions that are tailored for the exact position the candidate is being hired for. 

An Objective and Inclusive Process for Integrating Findings 

One of the reasons for poor hiring is that staff don’t collect the right information. Even when it is collected, there is a strong tendency to overlook data that doesn’t fit the often-preconceived impressions of the interview panel. 

Such a system will include an analysis of: 

• Skills 
• Facts 
• Impressions 
• Intuition 
• Information As Yet Unknown 

Commonly, these categories become blended together. What is merely intuition gets described as a fact; important facts are left uncovered; and skills are poorly evaluated yet regarded as being present. 

Check out: High Impact Leadership: The 3 Elements of Managing Disruption 

Conclusion 

These are some suggestions for what can be done to make hiring procedures much closer to the goal of being objective. Doing so requires recognizing the short- and long-term costs of hiring a poor performer. This must be accompanied by a willingness to take action to improve procedures. This ideally requires approval from senior management and a commitment that everyone will be selected with the same broad procedure, though the system will naturally require adaptation to different jobs 

While this will make hiring decisions more objective, it also must be recognized that this is ideal to strive for rather than an achievable reality.  

Hiring decisions will always be made by people. Whether we like it or not, even with the very best system, people are fallible.  

Implementing these suggestions will reduce the likelihood of poor decisions and greatly increase the chances of you hiring the best candidates. This will make your life as a manager infinitely easier, and your work more rewarding. 

Dr Byrne has been an independent Corporate Psychologist for more than forty years. He is the author of Seeing Behind the Job Applicant’s Mask Before You Hire: Secrets of a Corporate Psychologist available from Amazon. 

Dr Ken Byrne

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For the last 40 years, Ken has specialized in serving as a second opinion to clients making a hiring or promotion decision. In Australia his advice has been sought by the ANZ Bank, Coles-Myer, The Walt Disney Company, Tattersalls, Optus, Telecom, Wrest Point Casino and a host of businesses in the SME market. For over twenty-five years he consulted to many Australian police departments and a range of other public safety agencies.

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