Smart Hiring

drowley

I work for a small manufacturer in the mid-west. We are in the process of hiring a Marketing Director. This will be our third in 3 years. It seems we can find candidates that can do the job and do the job well, we can't seem to find candidates that have the same ethics and moral code as the company. We have the candidates interview with HR, the Prez, and the VP of Sales, we have them come in tour the facility, send them for a style/Personality Assessment, backgroung checks, and we still have made the wrong selection. This will be the 3rd replacement in the last 3 years. It is very costly to the company and extremely time cosuming. Any suggestions on what we can do differently better or what your company does. Do you have certain behavioral questions that would assist me? A magic wand? A crystal ball? I'm open to anything.

POPEYE

Your profile is disabled so we can't tell where you might stand in the pecking order of your company so these comments are general in nature and not directed at you.

You indicated in your post that you are a "small" manufacturer but then state that you have a Prez, a VP of sales, and now hiring a Director. It sounds like there may be a bit of Micro Managing if that many people are involved in this process for a small company. Nothing will run away a new-hire quicker than having too many Chiefs telling them what to do.

There are no interviewing techniques, other than asking how an applicant feels about Micro Managers, that would uncover feelings. It sounds from your question that you are familiar with Behaviour Event interviewing. If you are doing the interviewing, be sure that you know enough about the position to ask the right questions. Good Luck!

Down_the_Middle

An addt'l point which may be worth investigating. Overselling the position and then failing to fulfill is also a potential problem in rapid turnovers. Someone may innocently be making committments to the new hire that cannot be achieved and in time, the individual chooses to move on. Tempering is hard to do--especially in a small employer with a "key" vacancy. Be mindful of the possibility. What have the former Directors said about why they are leaving??

hrdir03nafcu

You don't say in your post whether the last 3 directors resigned or were fired...? Are people leaving because they don't like the work atmosphere at the company, or are you having to fire people whose ethics don't measure up to the company's standards?

People's ethical posture is a very difficult thing to measure: I don't know of any instrument that would indicate this (though there may be such an animal out there somewhere?).

You might put together several scenarios and ask candidates to respond to them indicating how they would handle the situation you pose to them. This asks the candidate to think on their feet to respond to the situation, and it's not something they can prepare a stock response to in advance.... you might get better candor this way. It would be a good idea to use some of the actual situations that came up with the 3 previous incumbents...real-world stuff...in your scenarios.

If you're already doing this, the next step would be to put them through some management assessment program as part of your selection process. But that would be (1) probably prohibitively expensive for a small company, and (2) require such a large time commitment from your candidates as to probably scare most of them away.

Perhaps it would help, too, to develop a new EE orientation module that specifically addresses the ethical standards expected of EEs by your company. After all, we can't expect EEs to perform up to standards if we don't tell them what the standards are, yes?

Good luck!

LivindonSouth

I may be totally wrong, but here is my description of your company.

Between 45 and 100 hourly workers.
*12 to 16 in the office. Some nepotism.
*Way too many chiefs for the number of indians.
*More than a small amount of daily power jockeying including one who sets others up.
*Too many staff meetings that take too long.
*Two, possibly three people at the top who dislike each other.
*At least one, maybe two people at the top who insist on 'hiring the best candidates' but then will never 'give them their head and let them run'.
*One key person who continues to run people off, has a chat with you about recruiting, then repeats the same series of mistakes again.
*At least two of those who quit the job came by your office and said something like, "Hey, why didn't you tell me any of this during the interviews?' Then they left with a polite smile.

I'm guess your 'problem' is systemic and not at all about the candidates or the recruitment process.

If I'm wrong, I'll chalk it up to a bad day.

Crout

Are they being fired because they lack morals and ethics, or are they leaving on their own accord, and you feel the fact that they quit is clear evidence of a lack of morals and ethics? Rather confusing post, I must say.

marc

If you are not experiencing turnover in other areas of the company, perhaps the first place to look is the chain of command above this directors position. Self assessment may produce some interesting answers to your questions.

We have another thread recently about loyalty to a company. ONe of the comments that might resonate in your situation, is that EEs don't leave companies, they leave bad managers. This general statement may not apply to your company, but three people in three years could indicate that the problem is not with the candidates, but with your company.

Do not overlook this possibility.

colleenr

I would suggest that you re-look at the questions you are asking at the interview. Make sure prior to interviewing you know what competencies are needed for this position. Include questions that will help determine the values they have as compared with the company's values.

" Don't just fill the positon for the sake of filling the position, take the time to put the
right person in the position."

I also suggest to do exit interviews with those leaving to see if you can pinpoint the real reason they leave.

deniseE

There may be one more "angle" to your issue. Marketing is different than any other job function and it sometimes seems like Marketers have no morales...but really they are trying to sell a product and compete...and yes...that sometimes means bending the rules a bit. What is OK for the CEO to do is different that the Marketing guys. That being said, breaking the law or other obvious infractions is NOT OK. You didn't state what the prior problems were--so maybe they really were scoundrels, but I thought it more likely that those not involved or trained in Marketing might be misunderstanding what needs to be involved to do it well.

If you are trying to keep your marketing on a short leash rather than hire internal work you might be better to contract with an ad agency and let them handle all the ugliness.