How To: Conduct Effective Reference Checks

Reference checks are one of the best information sources and indicators of a candidate’s potential future performance. So, how can we tell that we’re gaining the information needed from the referees in the most effective way?  

Reference checks, best practice:

• Identify yourself: It’s important to make sure that you establish your position, the name of your organisation and tell them that you are calling for the reference of a particular candidate you are considering
• Organise a time: If the referee isn’t  available right now ask what an appropriate time would be to reschedule a call
• Establish Privacy: Ensure that the referee understands all responses will remain confidential and that you have the consent of the individual to call them.
• What’s the role? It’s important to describe the context of the position and give a brief description of the role you are considering the applicant for.
• Keep it open: Allow time for the referee to respond to any questions asked, and try not to feed the referee answers or interrupt a response.

Good questions to ask in a reference check:

• In what capacity were you associated with (x applicant), and since what date?
• What were the strengths of (x applicant)?
• What were some of the areas of weakness or are there any areas that (x applicant) could improve on?
• Did (x applicant) receive any promotions or demotions whilst working for you? or did (x applicant) remain in the same role throughout their employment with you?
• What were the responsibilities of (x applicant) at your company?
• Is (x applicant) a team player or do they excel by working alone?
• Was (x applicant) on time and dependable while working at your organisation?
• Why did (x applicant) leave your employment?
• Would you rehire (x applicant)?
• Is there anything else you would like to add, regarding (x applicant)?

When conducting reference checks it’s important to ensure you tailor the questions specifically to the available job and the applicant being considered. You want the questions you ask to be specific to ensure your reference check will be worth the time. By adhering to the above information, and being sure to record responses, you will gain the necessary information to make the right hiring decision!

Avoiding HR Nightmares – a Career Exchange Emergency Kit

The outcomes from HR practices and implementations can be mountainous, and with frequent changes to work laws, the way we recruit and technology changes, the chance for shortcuts to fall through the cracks into peril are high.

Because of this, HR needs to be more careful than ever. Mistakes can potentially land you and your company in a sticky and very costly legal situation.

Even small companies can suffer greatly from being lax with their HR processes. 

Imagine the following scenario, you hire someone based on face value, and you later find out that they don’t have the capabilities to treat your customers correctly and land your company a malpractice suit. This  example is a situation that can drain your company’s finance and time resources, or worst, damage your company’s reputation. Simply put, this is a situation you want to avoid at all costs.

The following are some tips that can help you avoid getting trapped in a sticky HR situation.

Transparent work expectations, policies, and procedures

From the very first day, be very clear to your employees about their performance expectations, and all the company’s policies and procedures they are expected to follow. Transparency helps employees to understand their expectations better, and therefore maximizing their chance of achieving success. It also minimizes any discrepancies between the employers and employees, lessening the chance of experiencing any negative feelings for both parties. Additionally, a clear guideline of the company’s policies helps employees from committing any misconduct. Should a violation occur, transparent policies will also help you to justify your decision for a disciplinary action or termination. One way to ensure transparency in this area is to create clear policy templates.  You could provide policies to employees as part of their on-boarding to facilitate uniformity of communication across the board.  

Keep up-to-date with the current employment laws and workplace regulations

Employment laws and workplace regulations evolve over time. You need to make sure to stay up to date to ensure compliance. This is really important, because a violation of these laws and regulations can potentially result in dreadful legal consequences for your company. Online resources such as www.workplaceexpress.com.au provide this information to help employers keep up-to-date with current laws and regulations.

Document, document, and document!

Consistent and accurate documentation is extremely important in human resources, especially for work events that may pose legal issues in later down the track. Things that you unquestionably need to document include employees’ absenteeism and tardiness, deficient performance, misconduct and violations of company’s policies, disciplinary actions, employment termination, and any discussions with the offending employee surrounding any of these issues. On a brighter note, you can also document any recognition and positive contribution employees made, leading to provable movements in pay rises and promotions. These written records can serve as your legal justifications should someone question the decisions you made, and since HR have quite a high rate of movement; makes task hand down easier when you’re moving on to bigger things! They can also protect you from any lawsuit associated with workplace disputes, saving you from headaches! Having a filing system with a folder for each employee, up to date with all relevant documentation will help to make documentation easy and effective. There are also apps and programs that you can download to streamline your communications. They serve as a time saver and ensure accurate records.

Without good workers, businesses would fail. Therefore HR has a key role in the success of a company. By being transparent with what you want in a worker, keeping thorough and accurate documentation and ensuring that rules and regulations are adhered to, you can avoid HR nightmares. 

For help managing employee communications, Psych Press can be used to supplement your business' HR requirements. They provide an all in one tool that is useful for documenting and tracking communications with employees. For more information, contact our partner company Psych Press about what a tailored total HR solution can do for you. Email info@psychpress.com.au or call 03 9670 0590.

The Rise of Video Interviews

Traditional face-to face job interviews are becoming a thing of the past.  With a world of technology at your fingertips, screening applicants through online can help to save you valuable time, whilst ensuring that only the best applicants proceed to the final stages of your recruitment process. Here are 5 reasons why video interviews are on the rise.

Put down the phone

Replacing an initial follow up phone call with a video interview can offer a better insight by allowing you to see the candidate’s body language. You can achieve the same results as a phone interview, but with a stronger grasp on who the candidate really is. Rather than meeting a candidate based only off a resume, video screening ensures only the candidates with the suitable qualities will be making it through to the next stage of the recruitment process.

Keep it focused

With a traditional face-to-face interview, the interview can go astray due to distractions in the office or side conversations that you may have with the candidate. This side-chat may also be a source of unconscious bias over who will progress through to further stages. Through online screening, the candidates all have the same questions and an allotted amount of time to answer each question.  Video interviewing brings uniformity and professionalism to the recruitment process.

No need for nerves

As each candidate conducts their video interview in their own time and space. Not only convenient, interviewing online may reduce interview anxiety. As the candidates are in a comfortable setting, it allows you to truly grasp their capabilities, unmasked by the negative stress job interviews often bring.

Be kind, rewind

Need to review your candidates? Easy! Just click replay! The convenience of a video not only allows for you to watch their interviews again, allowing you to compare and contrast promising candidates, having their key qualities fresh in your mind at all times.

Pass it on

Gone are the days of having a panel of hiring managers or directors spend their valuable time sitting through hours of interviews. Relevant sections of promising interviews can be shared amongst your other hiring managers with the click of a button.                                                                                                                  

Boundaryless  recruitment

Where potential candidates used to be those within arm’s reach, with video interviews, applicants can be screened from all corners of the globe. You can find great talent interstate and overseas. Video interviews efficiently and cost-effectively assess and engage with this previously untapped talent pool.

      

Less time, more candidates

Video interviewing allows you to rank and review vast amounts of applicants in minimal time. Time is money, and where with traditional interviews, the number of applicants you can consider is restricted, screening online allows you to ensure promising candidates are not missed due to logistics.

Did you like the sounds of video interviewing? Voice advantage is a sleek and advanced interviewing platform designed to relieve recruiters and hiring managers of all the manual and follow up activities in interviewing, whilst giving you the true voice of a candidate’s potential. Please take a quick 3 minutes to 'put yourself in the interviewees shoes' and take the demo here. Or learn more about how it all works in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch? 

 or visit http://www.psychpress.com.au/psychometric/voice-advantage/

Phone Etiquette For Job Seekers

These days, we are all expected to be accessible and available 24-7 and in the workplace, this is the time when we need information and we need it now! For recruiters, calling a candidate is the quickest and easiest way to get the information you need, when you need it. However, as a Seeker, if you are not expecting this, your surprise phone call from a recruiter can sometimes be a surprise phone interview. When speaking to or leaving a message for hiring managers or recruiters, it’s important to follow some basic etiquette rules.

1. Always sound professional and ready to speak to the hiring manager/recruiter… but also be prepared and have a well memorized or written out message in case you need to leave a message

2. If you leave a message, always leave your name and number twice…name at beginning and end of message and number twice at end of message (repeated back to them)

3. Leave the message slowly and carefully so they can take notes without having to replay the message

4. Let them choose when to call you back by stating in the message “please give me a call at your earliest convenience.”

5. If you do speak to someone, always start off with a brief introduction and question the call time: “Hi this is Matt Warzel calling about the sales position advertised in the newspaper…is this an OK time to speak?”

6. If you do speak to someone, use that time to schedule a meeting in person and not to speak in further detail, unless they wish to do so

7. A great time to call is Friday afternoon after 3:30.

8. Do not bug recruiters constantly because if they need someone with your skills, they will call you. They might not have an opening right away that fits your qualifications, but if they do, they will call you. (Quick non-phone related note: Only apply to the openings that fit in your realm. They do get the “jack of all trades” candidates who in actuality only fit the bill for one or two jobs at most. So be aware of your resume submissions. Follow the job posting directions and make sure you do what they tell you to do if you want to apply to their job. They implement rules for a reason)

Need Capable People? When you need fast and accurate performance indications for your next hire, you need Capable People!

Working with assessment partner, Psych Press, Capable People’s recruitment process integrates the full strength of online assessments and interviewing for fast, job-fit relevant, data-driven results. We use science, not ‘face value’; we learn your goals and company intricacies, not an off-the-shelf solution; and, we are fast and cost effective. Contact CapablePeople on 03 9670 4275 or email info@capablepeople.com.au to find out how we can assist your next campaign.

5 reasons to consider hiring mature age workers

There are several negative connotations surrounding hiring mature age workers, and these stereotypes are ones that are not completely dismissed by organisations. But fear not, below are five key reasons that mature age workers are neither down nor out in the hiring game.

1. They save organisations money

Mature age workers are 2.4 times more likely to stay with an organisation than younger workers, thus saving their potential employer a lot of time, effort and money so they don’t have to go through the hiring process again.

They are also more likely to save their employer money through decreased rates of absenteeism and greater investment returns on training.

2. Getting older doesn’t mean getting less intelligent

A study of the Organisation of Economic and Corporate Development nations concluded that verbal skills, intelligence and communication remain unchanged as a person ages.

3. Mature age workers are ready to learn

The saying that "an old dog can't learn new tricks" is just that, a saying. ABS data reveals that Australians aged 55 – 64 are the fastest growing users of information technology. Hence, there’s no reason why they won’t be at the forefront of current technologies, ready to take on new learning challenges as they arise.

4. Mature age workers come with a wealth of knowledge behind them

Throughout their tenure in the workforce, there is no doubt that they have contacts, experience and interests; all of which are invaluable assets to bring to any organisation. The ability to lead and motivate others is another skill set that can be acquired more with age.

5. Mature age workers reflect our community

Organisations always need to be conscious of responding to the needs of the community they are in; in Australia, there is a changing age profile and thus, it would best benefit organisations if they responded to this change by being seen as a part of the community. This involves mirroring this change with who it employs.

Mature age workers have a lot to offer the next organisation they work for, which should be kept in mind for your next recruitment campaign!

Are you thinking about how you can measure the relevant skills in your next hiring campaign? Our recruitment partners at Capable People can help you find the right person for the role by utilising non-discriminant assessments that find a person-job fit that matches your performance needs.

Sources:
OECD study
ABS data