Recruiter News Line

Question = Do you want to hire productive and dependable people for your company’s “Blue-Collar”

jobs?

Note:  “Blue-Collar” jobs are
-  Unskilled jobs
-  Semi-Skilled jobs
-  “Lower-Level” jobs

Examples of “Blue-Collar” jobs include laborers, warehouse workers, shipping and receiving employees, care-givers, janitors, store clerks, plus other “lower-level” jobs.  Often, the highest education level of employees in such jobs is GED or high school.

Hiring dependable “Blue-Collar” employees is difficult.  So, I conducted in-depth research to
A.  identify qualities managers need and want in “Blue-Collar” employees
B.  create a test that forecasts – or predicts – those important qualities

MANAGERS WANT “DEPENDABLE” EMPLOYEES

My research found managers want “dependable” employees for “Blue-Collar” jobs.  So, what are specific qualities of “dependable” employees?

The results identified five important “dependability” factors that managers must find out about – before hiring a “Blue-Collar” job applicant:
1.  Honesty
2.  Work Ethic
3.  Impulsiveness [a cause of safety problems and accidents]
4.  Theft / Stealing concerns
5.  Substance Abuse concerns

5 DEPENDABILITY FACTORS PREDICTED BY NEW PRE-EMPLOYMENT TEST

Let’s look at the five crucial “dependability” factors.

1.  HONESTY
Problem:  Some job applicants try to fool you on a pre-employment test.  Such fakers try to answer questions so they seem ‘better or different’ than they really are.  Solution:  A good pre-employment test will “catch” – or find out – if the applicant displays honesty.

2.  WORK ETHIC
Managers crave to hire applicants who will put in a day’s work for a day’s pay.  That shows a strong work ethic.  Problems arise when a company a job applicant with a lousy work ethic.

3.  IMPULSIVENESS
Fact:  Impulsive employees cause many costly problems, such as
>  Accidents
>  Safety violations
>  Worker’s Comp claims
Imagine how much more productive and profitable your company would be if you hired employees who think before acting  and are not impulsive.

4.  THEFT / STEALING CONCERNS
Stealing is an expensive problem.  Many items at your company probably get stolen.  So, it is crucial to predict how concerned you should be that a job applicant might be a thief.

5.  SUBSTANCE ABUSE CONCERNS
Many “Blue-Collar” employees show up at work with alcohol or drugs in their systems.  That may (a) violate your substance abuse policy, (b) reduce productivity, and (c) increase accident.  As such, managers must evaluate applicants to help predict possible substance abuse concerns.

UNIQUE DEPENDABILITY PRE-EMPLOYMENT TEST RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Creating a pre-employment test to help hire dependable “Blue-Collar” job applicants presents some unique problems that require unique solutions.

A.  Easy Reading Level
Many job applicants for “Blue-Collar” jobs have limited reading skill.  The highest educational level of many applicants for lower-level jobs is only GED or high school.  So, the questions on the pre-employment test must be very easy to read.  To assure this, I took my research questionnaires to a fast-food restaurant in a very bad neighborhood – an area where most residents have only a GED or high school education.  I asked customers to read my research questions, and point out words or phrases they did not easily grasp.  For example, few of them knew the words “uncertain” or “boast.”   I made the wording very easy to read.

B.  How Can a Test Predict Theft/Stealing?
My research for the new pre-employment test needed to create a scale to predict if a job applicant might steal.  That is difficult to predict.  Solution:  I got hundreds of prisoners in jails to fill-out my research questionnaires.  Those prisoners were locked-up for stealing crimes – so they definitely were thieves.  It is exceedingly hard to get permission to do research in jails, but I managed to get permission.  Also, prisoners filled-out my questionnaires while the prisoners and I were locked in their cells or adjacent rooms.  They were locked-up so they could not escape.  The problem is I had to be locked in their cells or rooms with them while they answered my questionnaires.  Unfortunately, no guards sat in the locked cells with me.  I must say I heard and saw things I never knew existed.  On each of dozens of days I did my research in jails, it took me 2 – 5 hours to calm down after I left at the end of each day.  Fortunately, I collected fantastic data to create a theft/stealing part of the pre-employment test that significantly differentiates non-thieves from thieves.

C.  How Can A Test Forecast Substance Abuse Concerns?
Another thorny issue was my research to make pre-employment test questions that help predict if a job applicant might present substance abuse concerns.  For this, I had substance abusers fill-out my research questionnaires.  How did I find substance abusers?  That, too, was difficult.  Finally, I made special arrangements to get my questionnaires answered by hundreds of people who had been convicted of substance abuse crimes, specifically, DUI and/or drug possession.  Then, I statistically determined which of my research questions best predicts if a person might be a substance abuser.

RESULT = NEW PRE-EMPLOYMENT TEST TO HELP HIRE DEPENDABLE “BLUE-COLLAR” EMPLOYEES

The final pre-employment test made the difficult, in-depth research worthwhile.  The final test has very good statistical validity and reliability.  That means the new pre-employment test can make very accurate predict if an applicant might make a dependable employee.  It forecasts the five important “dependability” factors that managers need and want to know before they hire a job applicant for a “Blue-Collar” job:
1.  Honesty
2.  Work Ethic
3.  Impulsiveness [a cause of safety problems and accidents]
4.  Theft / Stealing concerns
5.  Substance Abuse concern

Also, since many applicants for “Blue-Collar” jobs are not very ‘verbal’ in job interviews, the new pre-employment test even offers specific interview questions a manager can ask each applicant.

Predicting these important dependability factors is difficult.  Fortunately, the new pre-employment test makes it
*  do-able
*  quicker
*  easier

If you’re looking to recruit the best and the brightest, it is important to start earlier than you think.

Joel Spolsky recently wrote a piece for Inc.com about his unique recruiting techniques. I found it interesting because he focuses his piece on college students. Not college graduates, mind you, but college students, particularly those looking for summer internships.

Mr. Spolsky recruits computer programmers for Fog Creek Software in New York City. Fog Creek’s internship program easily trumps any internship experience I ever had. He begins with a hand written letter to the top 300 IT students in the country, followed by an informal phone interview with those that are interested. After asking them a couple of mid-to-complicated programming questions, the ones that they are most interested in get an all expenses paid trip to Manhattan for an interview at their offices.

The chosen few are then put up in a dorm for the summer and paid a weekly stipend. Here’s the clutch: Fog Creek’s interns actually get to do programming! In fact, they sometimes get better assignments than the actual employees. Why, you ask, would a company put so much faith and power in the hands of lowly interns? Because they are being tested and although they may not know it, they are also being recruited. The entire summer is one long recruiting process with the interns never being the wiser.

Those interns that excel are offered jobs following their college graduation. And Spolsky can be confident that he is hiring the best and the brightest — before they even start looking.

Step V: References checks redefined
Yes, yes go ahead and call his college mentor. But also do some detective work. Try to speak to someone else that they worked for, and if relevant someone who worked for them. Independent references will yield greater results than those who were predetermined by your candidate. 

Step VI: Put out all the stops
When recruiting a candidate, make sure to use every weapon in your arsenal. Don’t just tempt them with an attractive salary and benefits. Make sure to sell them the purpose of your organization, how excellent it will look on their resume, and how fast they will progress in their career if taking the position.  

Step VII: Talk to the family
You aren’t just recruiting a candidate. If they are married with children, you happen to be influencing an entire family. How will the career move change their lives? It is extremely important to talk with every possible decision maker involved in the process.  Step VIII: Compensation is not a jumping off point
Many junior recruiters make the error of putting an offer in an opening letter. Negotiations about salary come later down the road, once the recruitment process is in full swing. You aren’t sure what the recruit might deem as too little, or insulting so be sure to have them interested before these talks even begin. 

Step VIIII: Don’t stop…Recruiting (as sung to the tune of Journey)
Just because you’ve successfully recruited a candidate, you can not assume that your task is over. Sure they are now employed with you, but they were also employed at their last job and they left when the offer was tempting enough. Once you’ve scored a great team it is important to “woo” them on a daily basis. Insuring that they are happy insures that you will keep the other recruiters at bay.

Step I: Hire Better Than Yourself
It is a common belief within the recruitment industry that top employers hire top performing candidates, while average employers tend to hire below average candidates. The speculation for this is that those average performing individuals do not want to see someone excel moreso than themselves. Continuing this pattern, however, will lead to hiring completely dense employees which then leads to a layoff.  

Step II: Don’t just look for skills, look for love
Yes, education and experience are very important. But so is a burning desire to excel at…whatever it happens to be you are recruiting for. Look for love. Hiring an employee with decent education and experience who also comes with a built in obsession for your product will most likely pay off more for you in the long run. This employee won’t have to learn to be dedicated because they already are. 

Step III: Sometimes the most impressive quality is the most irrelevant
So he’s an MIT PhD in Computer Science, aye? Great. He also worked for Microsoft for 20 years. Is he the best candidate for a start-up? Probably not. This guy never had to worry about competition or capital. And you know what they say about old dogs… 

Step IV: Intuition can only take you so far
She was an amazing interviewer. You just knew she would be perfect for the job. So much so, that you didn’t happen to check her references as much as you normally would have. Your gut feeling told you to go ahead and it turns out your gut feeling was wrong. It’s hard to go against what we feel is right, and I’m not saying to completely disregard intuition, but make sure to take all necessary steps during the process with all candidates. This insures that you are making the right decision.

When MTV co-opted Apollo mission footage and made it appear as though astronauts were planting a flag for Music Television on the moon – some predicted that video would take over the world, and the printed word would die.

Thankfully, that hasn’t happened – especially since I make my living as a writer. But, what certainly has happened is that several generations have grown up having to be as equally literate with video as they are with reading and writing.

It’s just a natural progression that this new generation is starting to embrace the idea of a video résumé – a video produced and posted on an internet video site that can be viewed by a prospective employer.

Job seekers are attaching these videos, typically as a link in an e-mail, with the hopes that employers will see the personality and enthusiasm for a job that can be lost in a written résumé. Some applicants believe that their oral communications skills are better than written, and that he will be better able to sell himself with a video.

The upside is that these benefit you too when you’re looking at the initial résumé package. You will be able to save the time of an interview if you don’t think the candidate presented himself well, or you can skip right to a follow up interview if you were really impressed.

There is a downside to a video résumé that many legal experts are warning employers and recruiters about – the possibility of a lawsuit. Most of the factors left off of a paper résumé to prevent discrimination, i.e. gender, race, weight and age, are front and center in a video. Even if you don’t discriminate against the candidate for any of those reasons, it’s easier to prove you don’t if you lack that knowledge entirely. You’ll want to carefully consider if the advantages of a video résumé outweigh the possibility of a discrimination suit – although none have been brought to court as of this writing.

If you do decide to click on that link and take a look, judge the video the same you would any résumé or interview. How much effort was put into the video? Is the applicant just reading his cover letter? How professionally is he dressed? How well does he communicate ideas?

In the same vein, don’t get caught up by a particularly flashy video or one that has lots of effects and editing. Is he trying to hide something behind all of that flash? How much of his personality is actually coming through?

You may also want to use the video at the screening stage rather than the initial review process. A good eye can search through the initial stack of résumés spending 30 seconds on each one. A video can be much longer than that, and you can potentially spend four times as long searching through that initial pool of applicants. Saving the video for the screening stage can then save you time by possibly eliminating the phone screening step so you can go ahead and invite the applicant in for an interview.

At this stage, a video résumé should only be viewed as, and accepted as, a supplement to the applicant’s formal cover letter and résumé. Perhaps one day our business will go completely video – but, for now you can feel confident to keep your feet planted in the old school and dip your toes into the new media waters.