Employing a hand grenade as a member of your team

No one in their right mind would employ a hand grenade. They are explosive high ego personalities and are likely to intimidate and upset other members of your team.

But how can you spot them even before you employ them?

There a number of clues; they may have lots of short term jobs on their CVs; they may be rude or off-hand with your receptionists and they can refuse to answer probing questions during the interview. You could also include psychometric testing as a part of your interview process, however this can be expensive.

Another way to spot them is to research them online. They may even be trolling or insulting other users on social media. Asking applicants for their social media logins during interview is frowned on as too intrusive, but there is nothing to stop you trying to discover this for yourself if you think there may be a problem.

You will see companies that have worked out how to avoid hand grenades on the Top 20 page at https://gibli.com/top-20 because they have optimised their teams to delight their customers.

The invisible interview

The problem with interviews is that we can discriminate against applicants for reasons we may not even be aware of. For a start we tend to like people who are like us. This can mean everything from social class and accent to age and religion. The risk in this is that we recruit a clone rather than the best person for the job. This could then damage the company because the best people don’t get to work there.

Additionally the applicant may be nervous and not perform well at interview and this may have nothing to do with their intelligence or ability.

Therefore interviews can be performed in the form of questionnaires, either on paper or online.

Online interviews are better because you can monitor the time it takes them to finish.

The questions may include such things as technical skills the company needs, but may also ask mathematical and grammatical questions. Even general knowledge can be questioned.

Lastly the applicant can be anonymised before decision makers see it, so that they are able to make decisions without being blinded by sex, age, colour, religion, race or anything else.

You are likely to see companies that do this on the Top 20 page at https://gibli.com/top-20 because they employ the best people and look after their customers extremely well.

What’s missing from most CVs or Resumes?

If I asked most people what was on the reverse side of their CV or Resume, they might be surprised at the question, but would show me a blank page.

What I believe should really be there is some description of the person’s character, morals and ethics. How they have faced adversity, survived hardship or overcome challenges.

It’s the stuff that the interview process is supposed to uncover. Do they have moral fiber, are they willing to take difficult decisions and are they ready to take on responsibility?

Let’s take an example and use a hypothetical salesman called John. The front of his CV demonstrates he’s a brilliant salesman, repeatedly exceeding his sales targets and doing very well for all the companies he’s worked for.

But the reverse shows that he’s dishonest, cheats and avoids responsibility. Whether he would reveal this information is another question. But if you knew all the facts, would you employ him? After all he might be a credit to your company one day, and then do severe damage to it the next!

But how can we uncover these facts about John if he’s not likely to reveal them himself?

Psychometric tests are a good technique for discovering more, but the results are likely to give hints rather than reveal solid facts.

Searching the internet is an excellent technique, as people reveal things online which they might not even tell their closest friends. The various facets of his character might be found on Facebook, MySpace or Linkedin, his blog might reveal more and his Tweets on Twitter might cast further light. Obscenity or insulting language can tell us bad things, interest in charity or small acts of kindness tell us good things.

Websites like Gibli can also reveal the respect that their knowledge and honesty are given by other users.

On the other hand people are likely to reveal positive things about their characters quite openly.

However they might be shy or bashful about some facts. For example having cared from a sick relative, volunteered for a charity or performed a selfless act.

They may feel these don’t gel well with the professional side of their CVs, but they are important factors for us as they reveal the ethical sides of their characters.

Even today we still have heroes and villains much as in any Charles Dickens novel, but they are better hidden perhaps today than they were in the past.

Race, religion, sex and sexual orientation are all red herrings which tell us next to nothing about their character or morals.

Trying to get to grips with what they are like as people and what sort of character they have is more difficult now than it was ever before because most people are not even honest on the front of their CVs never mind the reverse.