Effective Employment Screening Practices

“Hiring a new employee is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you are going to get ” [17,p.10]. The days of applications and gut feelings alone are over. Interviewing exclusively is not good enough; for every question the interviewers asks there is a book out there which tells the job seeker how the question can best be answered. There are dozens of books on how to impress the interviewer which even include pat answers. These days you can not even pick up a magazine without running across an article about “How to play the inter-viewing game and win”. Job seekers are onto the interviewing game and are prepared, some have even been groomed for interviews. “Those applicants who are particularly adept at projecting a favourable impression in an interview, namely job-hoppers and sociopaths have an almost uncanny ability to tell interviewers exactly what they want to hear”[17, p.11]. It is not that interviewing is not helpful, it is just that it is not the single best way. How often have you interviewed and hired someone who did not live up to their promises of knowledge, capability, and willingness. Because so many companies have downsized a greater emphasis has been put on finding and keeping the best people. The time and money spent reviewing resumes and applications, interviewing, training, and advertising will all have been wasted if the new employee does not work out or does not stay. “The cost of recruiting and hiring a new employee has risen 75 % in the past five years, and there are costs to firing too, says Craig Aberie