Dive Brief:
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Ryan Howard, Founder, Chairman and CEO of iBeat and Practice Fusion, writes for Entrepreneur that it’s far easier to hire smart than to eliminate dysfunctional people from a team later on – a factor that can negatively affect anyone’s ability to lead and recruit great people in the future. No one wants to be that manager who is always firing someone and shaking things up.
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Effective interviewing skills make a big difference, as well as using intuition about emotional intelligence. Howard advises that, “When interviewing someone, pay attention to his or her general behavior.” Adding that, “People are typically on their best behavior in an interview. If quirks are showing up in the first hour upon meeting, it’s likely a clear indicator there’s more to come.”
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Howard also advises that it’s better to have a candidate spend a half-day working on a real task and then evaluating the candidate’s ability to work with others than to judge them based on previous work they’ve produced.
Dive Insight:
It can be challenging to spot a dysfunctional person in an interview setting, but according to Howard’s advice, this is the best time to spot the signs that a candidate is not worth pursuing. In addition to the tips above, Howard swears by employee referrals as an excellent source of candidates, saying, “Referrals are also faster to hire and lower risk for your company, as they are less likely to attrite.”
A recent LinkedIn Global Recruiting Trends report indicated that 26% of talent leaders believe that employee referrals will be a long-lasting trend in the coming years, as the talent pool continues to shrink – meaning that idea isn't go away anytime soon.
When spotting potentially dysfunctional candidates, to prevent hiring the wrong person, Howard closes things by advising recruiters to dig deeper into each candidate’s background by spending time browsing on social networks of candidates, rather than simply relying on the few referrals that the candidate has provided. He says, “We’re in a highly connected world with a ton of social tools -- get on LinkedIn, do the work, and find someone who knows the candidate.” By doing this, recruiters can avoid hiring a candidate who comes with too much baggage.