Are You Hiring an Imposter?

As a recruiter, I found a recent lead business article in the New York Times “Do You Know Who That Worker You Just Hired Really Is?” to be very disturbing. It claims that more and more people are inflating their experience on their resumes and cheating in the interview process. Although the article is distressing, I think its value is two-fold:

1. The fact people are trying to beat the Zoom interviewing processes is alarming, but even more alarming is what a poor indicator of success or failure traditional interviews are. Tests have shown that typical interviews have a predictive success rate of 10%.
2. There are processes that can make interviews at least five times more predictive. It’s called “behavioral interviewing.” But many potential employers don’t want to make the investment of time and effort required to conduct them.

Companies would do well to rely less heavily on interviews and supplement the process instead with other screens in the form of homework – a case history, a writing sample, or something else. People who don’t complete the homework assignment are automatically eliminated. If you go over the homework assignment and ask some probing questions (which is the essence of behavioral interviewing), it will become obvious if it was done by someone else.

Over the years, my interviewing process has incorporated some of the critical aspects of behavioral interviewing, combined with delving into some technical knowledge of the areas I recruit in.

The desire to cheat the system is becoming more and more prevalent in our world.  Look at all cyber thieves and other scams. Many other recruiters either lie or simply ignore their candidates’ lies, misstatements, or a particularly bad reference.

A bad hire, whether the candidate lied or not, is a huge expense to a company.  The banner on my website says we want to work with clients who see hiring as an opportunity rather than a cost.

What is your view? Shoot me a message at: richard.bond@bondandcompany.com. We can set up a time to discuss your hiring experiences or needs.