Success Tips: How to Hire with Confidence Every Time

It’s an uncomfortable experience: that sudden stabbing feeling in your gut when you realize that an employee you hired is not who you thought they were. It can come as a shock, as in the case of finding out that someone is stealing from the company. Or, it can be an obvious build up over time, as in an employee losing another client due to incompetence. In the work place, resume falsification has become more common as this economy forces people to become desperate to find jobs. Inflation of job titles, exaggerated salary history, and degree falsification are just a few of the example of lies found on some resumes. In fact, the statistics show that up to 43% of all resumes contain some form of intentional misinformation. Learn how to hire the other 57% that aren’t lying; by following these 3 steps, you can hire a highly-qualified employee every time.

Hire using a multi-faceted approach.
What this means is that several thorough steps should be taken before narrowing down your candidate choices to 1 or 2 people; don’t rush the process due to the urgency to fill a position. Review resumes from top to bottom and highlight areas of concern or items that need further clarification. Then, speak to everyone you’ve selected over the phone and ask lots of questions including presenting them with questions like “What would you do if you caught an employee stealing from us” or “What do you think clients need from you?” Next, invite the final 4 or 5 people in for an interview. Finally, invite your first and second choices back for another interview and arrange for other department heads or managers meet with them as well.

Do background research ahead of time.
In this day and age, the potential for huge loss through larceny or a multi-million dollar lawsuit looms over any company. Take a hospital, for instance, who takes on the liability and risk of hiring people who are trusted to treat and care for their patients. It is imperative that their employees not have prior convictions for crimes like drug abuse, assault, or manslaughter, just to name a few. Finding out ahead of time that someone has a history of these types of behaviors through checking their criminal record is the very best way to prevent lawsuits. It’s critical to find this information out before inviting them to become a trusted member of your team.

Continue checking employees periodically after they have been hired.
Even if someone has already been working for you, it is still important to verify that they are qualified to continue being employed. Employment screening services like Accu-Screen make all the difference in catching resume falsification during the hiring process, but they should be an ongoing part of checking current employees as well. In industries such as healthcare, banking, childcare, and transportation, consider enhancing your annual or quarterly employee review process by ordering screening tests. These may include drug testing, DMV record reviews, and criminal investigations; many more types of screenings are also available.

With these few adjustments to your hiring and employee review processes, you can be assured of success in finding and keeping people who are your most-valuable asset (not your greatest liability)!