How to Avoid Hiring a "lemon"

Author: Ira Wolfe

You push back the chair from your desk and stand up, then you take a few steps toward the window and peer out over the parking lot. As you turn your head scanning the kaleidoscope of colors and designs, one car in particular catches your eye. It's the kind of car you always wanted, and it's sitting right in front of you, it's sleek red body glistening in all its sunlit glory. You sit down again and lean back. For a moment, you imagine yourself in the driver's seat. You soon find yourself shifting gears with one hand, steering an imaginary wheel with the other, and muttering the sound "Vrmmmm" 'hoping no one walks in and sees you!

Like everyone, you make assumptions based on your observations. You see a red sports car and immediately think: convertible - red - fun - fast.

A few minutes later, your dream "pops" when you see the owner peering down into the engine. As he comes up, he narrowly misses hitting his head on the hood. He slams the hood down and angrily walks away. The next thing you know a tow truck pulls up and hauls your dream car away. You begin to think: "expensive, not-so-fast, not-so-fun." You actually feel a sense of relief that you don't own the car and won't have to pay to fix it.

Managers make the same sort of assumptions every day when they hire employees. They observe a candidate during the interview or on the job and make assumptions about his potential based on how he looks and what he claims he can do. But too many times, after the candidate is hired and on the payroll, the manager turns the "key" and all they hear is "click, click, click". They wonder - did I hire a lemon?

I often use this car metaphor when describing how the inter-relationships of behavior, values, personality and abilities predict job fit success - and why tools like DISC and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) don't accurately predict job fit.

The model and color of a car are observable. Its design and condition may even give away its age. Based on these observations, you will make certain assumptions about the performance, fuel efficiency and cost of maintenance for this vehicle. Managers make similar observations every day about candidates, too. They extrapolate that outgoing people naturally make good salespeople and meticulous individuals are potential accounting stars. They expect an employee to perform in a certain way based on how they've observed other people like her perform. They assume that if they hire a candidate who walks and talks like a previous top-performing employee, they will get the same type of performance.

But as we learned from driving cars, performance takes more than just a stylish design and a hot color. All you need to do is watch the Indy or Daytona 500 to find out you can't predict a winner by its model and color.

Tools like DISC and MBTI were constructed and validated to predict observable behavior much like engineers and marketers design cars to sell based on eye appeal. In other words, as many managers have already painfully learned, what you see is NOT always what you get when you hire an employee. Relying on behavioral assessments (or the traditional interview alone) to predict future job performance is the equivalent of buying a used car with its hood welded shut.

What else should you be looking for as you pop the hood and kick the proverbial candidate's tires?

The most important factor in predicting job fit is knowing what type of "engine" the employee has. Is he or she carrying a Briggs & Stratton, Honda, BMW or Mercedes engine? How many cylinders does it have? How much torque can it generate? How much horsepower can it create? How fuel efficient is it?

When assessing job candidates, we can't measure cylinders, torque and horsepower. But we can look under his hood, so to speak, by assessing his personality and abilities.

The most accurate employee job fit tests are based on the Five-Factor Personality Factors, i.e., agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness. Pre-employment and leadership assessments based on this five-factor model can accurately evaluate a candidate's approach to making decisions and solving complex problems, working and executing a business plan, and developing and sustaining relationships as part of a team or when leading others.

A good personality fit is what drives successful employee performance. A good job fit is the equivalent of having a top performing engine in a car - without it, you'll likely find yourself wishing you never "bought" the employee in the first place and anxiously waiting for someone to come tow him or her away! Without looking under the employee's "hood," you might find yourself buying a BMW with a blown engine.

But that's not all you should check. Another performance factor that can be measured is mental horsepower. Through general ability or cognitive skills testing we can assess how quickly and accurately a candidate can think on his feet, learn new things and think holistically (see the big picture). Like the driver behind the wheel of his sports car climbing a steep hill, a manager needs to know how capable an employee will be when faced with unanticipated and complex challenges.

Finally, who cares how a car looks and what it might run like if it doesn't have any fuel. The fuel equivalent in people is motivation. And what motivates people is easily measured with an assessment called Business Values and Motivators, based on the work of Eduard Spranger.

So there you have it. Like the driver behind the wheel of a car flashing across the finish line, managers have the same ability to control their destinies when hiring top performers. The only things that concern a winning driver as he approaches the last lap is that the engine keeps running and there is enough fuel in the tank. He couldn't care less about the model of his car if it isn't winning the race.

By using a package of behavior, personality, abilities, and motivators pre-employment and leadership tests, managers too can "pop the hood" of candidates to ensure their employees have what it takes to finish the race ahead of the pack.

About the Author:

Ira S Wolfe is considered one of the nation's authorities on hiring the right people, managing the generations and workforce trends.