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Written by Brian J. Rosen
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Bad Eggs
Hiring a ‘bad egg' or unfit candidate, is the single worst failure an HR professional can commit. Your prime directive is to fill positions with qualified candidates only. Think about how many ‘things' a prospective employee will touch: clients, computer file systems, and team members.
Lying and liars
There's a big difference between "puffing" and "lying". You should know the difference so you can determine ethical from unethical behavior. "Puffing" is saying things like, "I managed a huge team of specialists performing highly technical work in a mission critical environment." It's obviously interpretable and exaggerated, but not necessarily false.
Lying is another matter altogether. Ford Motors might say in a commercial, "This car is lightning fast." It's a description that cannot be argued. However, if Ford claims, "this car accelerates to 100 kmph in 3 seconds", that's a bold faced lie unless it can be confirmed. Similarly, if an applicant says they worked at IBM and you cannot confirm their experience, that needs to enter into your decision making process. Liars tend to lie habitually, so there probably are other fabrications elsewhere on such an application.
With the proliferation of advanced computer services, companies and the media can run resumes through thousands of databases to catch big shots in big lies. For example, RadioShack CEO David Edmondson was pressured into resigning after he was caught stating he had two college degrees - when in fact he had none . Recently Mike Brown, former head of the U.S agency F.E.M.A, was caught lying about his emergency experience in the wake of the New Orleans flooding catastrophe . Last March, Tsinghua University in Beijing fired Liu Hui, a professor of medicine, for including a paper on his resume that he did not, in fact write . It's not surprising that these incidents were uncovered and exposed after poor performances on the job. There are many Internet surveys that yield alarming statistics about the high percentage of resumes that contain material misrepresentations- from 25% to 56% .
Creepy Scope
Oddly enough, statistics suggest that a majority of Chinese employers (74%) are relying on factors such as: appearance, place of birth, year of birth, and surname; rather than using more sound and comprehensive methods of evaluation . Another reputable report suggests that HR managers (63%) rely on "likeability" and the personality of a candidate when making hiring decisions . Recently, Fudan University graduates kicked up a fuss about perceived discrimination they have experienced in the job market. It seems that a lot of good, qualified applicants were denied jobs because of factors that were beyond their control- something patently illegal in states with more labor legislation.
Bold Initiative
While China's laws say little about what you can and cannot do within the hiring process , this allows you the chance to developing innovative staffing procedures. These new practices will impress your boss with your proactive vision and improve departmental effectiveness at placing sound candidates. Business transparency is required to attract the best in a shrinking talent pool. It's always good business and good for business to foster ethics and consistency in hiring. With the Internet, word travels fast if your hiring procedure is rife with arbitrary discrimination and bias. Honesty is the best policy, for both HR departments and applicants.
American Legal Modeling
In the U.S, a number of new laws have changed the corporate HR landscape - most notably Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. This law forced many companies to develop and publish standards and procedures on which to base future compliancy performance, with one of the most critical being hiring practices.
Let's continue to use U.S systems as a framework for a new approach to hiring. Of course, given the special needs of China, only certain elements of this framework should be exported to your policies. Of course, certain tools and sources used in America to vet candidates and gauge application integrity cannot be used in China, for example credit checks and court reports. Nonetheless, you take the tenets of this framework and create some workable strategies for your business.
Strategies for Compliance - Validate Everything
An alarming number of companies don't perform ‘data validation'. This is the procedure where all the hard data is validated for accuracy. Uncovering lies or gross inconsistencies can tell volumes more about a candidate than other factors. In the U.S, many HR departments hire third party firms and outsource this service . However, this service is not widely available in China yet, so your staff will need to spend the time and do the work - and document it all. Develop a simple checklist for your staff that breaks the application down into little manageable pieces, for example:
- Was Employment Item 1 validated? (yes or no)
- How was it validated? (phone, email, documentation, other source)
- Were there inconsistencies? (yes or no?) What? ____
Probe Sources
Ask probing questions of references, such as "would you hire this person again," or "could you confirm their stated salary was Y 10,000," or "can you confirm their performance rating was a Level 5." Asking closed-ended questions provides the other party an escape from liability and a possible loss of face. Give them the room they need to transfer their knowledge to you without fear of legal or personal reprisals. Also, try to authenticate each reference source. How do you know they are who they say are over the phone? This can be difficult, but try using "the backdoor" and ask indirect questions such as, "so, can you tell me a bit about the functions of your department?" This may cause an unprepared imposter to stumble and fall.
Exams
A simple solution for skills evaluation is to hire an outsourcing company like ClarkMorgan , to develop an exam specific to the positions your company needs to fill. Companies like Ernst & Young have been doing this for years with great success in filtering candidates. If a candidate claims they have worked in IT development for 5 years, but can't correctly define terms like Beta Code, Client-Server, or Web Services on a skills-specific exam- than you know you have a liar on your hands and this calls for additional scrutiny.
Share
You should go to HR industry meetings, like NHR networking events, and exchange information on candidates. Concentrate on setting up cooperative networks to validate your candidates' data with the data that the same candidates submitted to other firms. Often candidates submit resumes to many similar companies within an industry. You can setup private Internet groups for this purpose, then invite other HR managers that you meet at these events to join and use the Web to share your information. Remember to keep it factual, dispense with subjective opinions (especially about appearance), and focus on validating the data the candidates provided you.
Dig
Online search engines attempt to index every webpage on the Internet. Once information is picked up by Web ‘spiders' and mirrored to other servers, it's difficult for that data to disappear. So if your candidate posts one resume on chinahr.com and a completely different one on zhaopin.com, you will be able to spot the inconsistencies when both are presented in a single search results page. Submitting a few select words into search engines, like Google or Baidu, could yield valuable clues as to whether a resume is fact or fiction.
Don't Discriminate
You cannot afford to close your doors to potential candidates just because they don't match society's view of attractiveness. It's no surprise that Deng Xiaoping pushed through laws that require companies to hire a certain percentage of disabled persons. He knew the potential value these people offer a market driven economy with a growing need for knowledgeable workers. So, drop all references from your advertisements regarding appearance and discuss with your staff the need to look beyond these irrelevant factors. Incidentally, many companies, such as U.S giant Home Depot, actually seek elderly and disabled workers as they find them to be more honest employees.
The adverse repercussions of hiring a bad egg are immeasurable. Your professional judgment should not be affected just because requisitions are piling up and department managers are growing impatient. Material misrepresentations are within your reach to detect and respond to. Meet with your staff today to discuss new standards and procedures everyone can agree to.
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