Mellow Fellow graduated from college and applied for a position at MNM Corp. He took several assessments as part of the pre-hire process. Before his final interview, the hiring manager, Miss Cellaneous, reviewed his assessment scores. Fellow had an impressive resume that boasted several valuable internships. He received a degree from a renowned university and had excellent software knowledge. Overall, he seemed to be a great fit for the open position based on his PXT results. She did notice, however, that Fellow scored relatively low on his Step-One-Survey II (SOS II) in the areas of Reliability and Work Ethic. The SOS II is a hiring tool that provides hiring executives with information about a job candidate’s honesty, reliability, substance abuse, and work ethic.
When a candidate has limited work experience (other than internships), how can you be sure she will be beneficial to the company?
When a candidate has limited work experience (other than internships), how can you be sure he or she will be beneficial to the company? Hiring recent graduates is often a difficult decision for many hiring managers and business owners. There may be a perception that today’s generation lacks the work ethic and reliability of past generations. This is often untrue. Unless you assess, you might be overlooking someone who can bring new skills and enthusiasm to your business. Miss C has a few options:
- Choose to hire another candidate
- Hire Fellow and hope for the best
- Hire Fellow and implement a training schedule to develop him as a young professional
Which of these situations would be best for your company?
Give the guy a chance
Miss C knows that Fellow is competent enough to fulfill the job duties. During the interview she specifically asks questions related to work ethic and reliability in order to better understand why his results on the SOS II were low. After the final face-to-face interview, she decides to give him the job, but clearly communicates some guidelines.
By engaging him from the start, Miss C is exhibiting her desire for him to be constantly productive.
She provides him with her expectations regarding time, including when to arrive, how many hours should be spent working per day, when it is appropriate to leave, how long lunches should be, etc. As his hiring manager, Miss C also gives Fellow plenty of engaging tasks to ensure that he is involved and productive from the very beginning. By engaging him from the start, Miss C is exhibiting her desire for him to be constantly productive. She is also sending him the message that she trusts him to get the job done, and done right.
As a manager, Miss C decides to constantly interact with Fellow to ensure that he is staying on task and to develop a relationship with him. Employees that are invested in their leaders are more likely to stay productive and to do a great job for fear of disappointing their leaders. If an employee respects the people he’s working for, he will work that much harder.
Managers can use the SOSII to pinpoint weak areas in potential employees.
The SOSII is an effective tool for determining where potential employees rank as far as work ethic and reliability. Common sense should be used when analyzing the potential employees’ scores, and hiring judgments should not be based solely on one assessment. The SOSII should instead be used as one tool for discovering who the potential employee is. If an employee lacks in certain areas, think of ways he can be trained or coached in order to develop into a more productive employee. Managers can use the SOSII to pinpoint weak areas in potential employees. Then they can use that information to positively influence the maturation of their employees.
