When interviewing candidates, you need to define how you expect a new hire to operate to fulfill the job requirements and achieve the best outcomes. In the book “First Break All the Rules”, authors Buckingham and Coffman state that the best managers know that people don’t change much so you should hire top people who want to do the work that you want done. In return, top people want job expectations clarified, appropriate materials and tools to be provided so that they can do the work they’re best at, and a manager who will support and develop them in their positions. Candidates take jobs due to the quality of the company, quality of the hiring manager, and the challenge and excitement of the position. 

As hiring managers, you need to make sure your job requirements accurately describe the real job you are interviewing for and when interviewing individuals you need to hire someone with the experience who can deliver results. How do you know the person you’re interviewing can deliver results? Past behavior predicts future behavior! Structuring your interview questions will identify their track record. This will help you gauge whether their accomplishments are key to your objectives and show how they handled situations that may mirror your environment, as well as provide you with examples of their accomplishments or challenges.

Using an objective decision in interviewing makes you review:

• Performance first
• Then character
• And then personal/cultural fit last

Reviewing a candidate’s performance will identify their ability to do the work. Traits to identify performance ability include team skills, drive, intelligence, leadership, initiative, and obtained results.  The character of an individual is their honesty, integrity and responsibility. One’s personality/cultural fit is their attitude, style, pace, first impression, appearance, social confidence and affability.

Here are five tips when hiring for a position in your organization:

1. Wait 30 minutes before making any decision about a candidate’s ability to do the work
2. Avoid “voodoo” hiring methods (mentioned in Patty’s last article)
3. Use a pre-planned structured interview
4. Market your company and opportunity before and after the interview
5. Listen two times more than you talk

The impact of effective hiring to your company provides short-term and long-term advantages. These advantages include reduced turnover, savings of time and money, a competitive advantage, flexible workforce, stronger staff, and a more effective team. By using the techniques that Patty and I have discussed during the past three months, it will help you make the right hiring decisions.

Want to join the next one-hour seminar available for continuing education credit for free? Become a Celebrity client!  Contact us today about your upcoming vacation coverage or strategic staffing needs and let us help you identify top talent to help your company get ready for the economic recovery.

Elizabeth Meyer Ambri, Celebrity Staff Lincoln Branch Manager

About Elizabeth Meyer Ambri
Elizabeth Meyer Ambri has worked for Celebrity Staff since 2003. She was hired as an account manager and since then she has been promoted several times to her current position of branch manager. Elizabeth is responsible for cultivating new business, servicing her customers and the overall operations of the Lincoln branch. Elizabeth has a master’s degree in human resources, a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and psychology and is working toward a CPC. Off the clock she enjoys spending time with her husband and their family. Elizabeth also enjoys hiking, biking and playing golf.

So, now that we are all aware we are “winging” a process that impacts the most important decision we make in our organization — WHO decisions — let’s review the most common interview pitfalls and mistakes made by hiring managers so we know what not to do!

First impressions. A study by the Wall Street Journal indicated that 70 percent of the hiring decision is based upon the following: emotions, biases, chemistry, personality, and stereotyping. All of which have nothing to do with whether someone can actually do the job for which they are being interviewed.

Do you find yourself “liking” someone in the first 90 seconds of the interview? Take a step back for a moment and remember that we don’t have to “like” someone in order for them to be a good fit for the job. I’m not saying likeability isn’t an important factor; however, if we “like” someone we have a tendency to not interview as in-depth as we should. Our questions are easier, we smile more and nod approvingly to the answers and may not ask the same questions. We like them!  Of course they can do the job! We ignore negatives and our investigative process stops.

On the other end of the spectrum, what happens if we don’t instantly like someone? Our gaze may be more intent, we don’t listen as closely, our smiles are less frequent, and the head nods are non-existent. We put more emphasis on the negatives and undersell our opportunities.

Some hiring managers like to hire teams that are like themselves. While you may be a great manager, remember we all have flaws. A team that brings a variety of strengths to the table can help off set individual weaknesses and can often be much more powerful than a team full of “quarterbacks”. After all, someone has to run the ball in and without the kicker you may not hit those “extra points” in business.  (I know it is baseball season, but I am a football fan at heart!)

Interviewing Styles. Are you the “Chatterbox” who talks AT the candidate versus asking questions OF the candidate to learn about them? An interview should be about questions, not about monologues. What about the “Art Critic” who can “read” people by getting to know them through a series of non-work related questions but end up learning nothing about their genuine experience. Do you take the “Sponge” approach and let everyone in the office ask the same questions in hopes you and your team “soak up” information about the candidate? 

Another favorite of mine is the “Fortune Teller”. The questions center around “what would you do…” which only set the stage for your candidate to tell you exactly what you want to hear. In this strategy, the truth is yet to be told, but there is no better predictor of behavior than past experiences. The past predicts the future. 

Does your company use Aptitude Tests in the hiring process? There are many wonderful tools out there, however remember they are TOOLS in the process, and should not be used as a determinant to proceed. Most firms that provide assessments will tell you that it is just one piece of the candidate puzzle, and all pieces together should help you formulate your decision.

So what do you do now that I have told you all you are doing is wrong? Prepare.  There are more than 1.8 MILLION Web sites on preparing for a job interview.  Your candidates are preparing, why aren’t you?

Here are some questions to ask yourself to help you prepare for your next interview.

• What is our interview process, or do we even have one? Who is involved and have they been trained in interviewing? 
• Do we ask the same questions of each candidate?
• Do we know how to describe the position and why someone would want to work for us?

As Elizabeth Ambri, Manager of the Celebrity Staff Lincoln office and I reviewed these hiring pitfalls in our last seminar, many attendees chuckled and even volunteered which method they have used and where they have fallen prey to traps. If you are like many of our customers, you have made some of these mistakes at one time or another. I have. They are easy traps. It takes a concerted effort to refrain from making a decision about an interviewee in the first 90 seconds, it takes practice to develop an appropriate interview style, and it takes restraint to reserve making your decision about a candidate for at least 30 minutes after the interview concludes. 

So the next time you contact your Account Manager at Celebrity Staff for assistance in finding the right candidate, invest in some preparation so you make a good evaluation of the candidates we present. What is the pay off to preparation? Reduced turn over, increased productivity, and saved time and money by hiring the right person the first time build a more effective team, and the list goes on and on. One more pay off? The people you hire are a reflection of you!

Want to join the next one-hour seminar available for continuing education credit for free? Become a Celebrity client!  Contact us today about your upcoming vacation coverage or strategic staffing needs and let us help you identify talent to help your company get ready for the economic recovery.

Patty North, CPC, Celebrity Staff Regional Manager

About Patty North, Celebrity Staff Regional Manager
As the regional manager of Celebrity Staff, a leading staffing and recruitment firm, Patty North has assisted organizations across a four-state region with the development and implementation of best practice strategies in the areas of talent acquisition and talent management. Her collective insight and expertise on workforce planning, garnered from her 15 years in the staffing industry, has enabled clients ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations to improve performance and gain a competitive advantage in their respective markets. Celebrity Staff is based in Omaha, Nebraska and serves the Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri region.

Sarah Bonow, Celebrity Staff Operations Manager, after completing her first half marathon in Lincoln, Neb. on May 2.

For this employee, remaining active is a way of life. Sarah Bonow, who is the Operations Manager of Celebrity Staff, likes to stay active by participating in group fitness classes at her gym, walking with friends, and also running. Like many people, Sarah has a hectic schedule so it can be difficult to find time to fit in her fitness.

“I have to just make time. Some weeks are easier than others, and I have to turn down a lot of happy hours, but I feel so much better for it,” Sarah says.  She also recommends finding the time of day that best works for you. For her, evenings work best and give her a chance to clear her mind and de-stress from the day.

Everyone has his or her own personal reason for staying active. For Sarah, it’s the feeling she gets when finished. “I believe I’m a lot easier to be around when I have worked out. It’s a great stress reliever, increases your endorphins, and just makes me more energetic.”

On May 2 Sarah completed her very first half marathon. In the past she’s participated in several organized events, such as the Corporate Cup, Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer walk/run, and the Memorial Day Run at Boys Town; however this will be the longest organized run she’s completed. Running the 13.2 miles is a huge accomplishment because of all the sweat and dedication that went into training for it.

“Training is tough, like everything else, you are on a limited and busy schedule, the weather does not always cooperate and life gets in the way sometimes. Luckily, I have several friends also participating in the run and they keep me motivated to keep working,” Sarah said.

In fact, group fitness is one of Sarah’s favorite ways to stay in shape. She participates in free fitness classes through her gym membership at Lifetime Fitness. Some of her favorite classes include Total Conditioning, which is an interval class, Kickboxing and Dance Jam. She says the classes challenge her to work harder. With an instructor she feels she is able to not stress about what to do next, rather she just listens and reacts.

When asked about her summer plans for staying active, Sarah is most excited about yard work and mowing her lawn. “I love mowing because you get to be outside, getting something done and getting a little work out in at the same time!”

Staggering unemployment rates have made for an employer’s market.  As a staffing firm representative, a common comment that I hear is, “Candidates are in abundance, why should I pay for your service fees?”  To some, today’s market seems to negate the consideration to use a staffing partner.  Candidate abundance is a reality, a shockingly overwhelming reality to hiring officials. Companies are inundated with a vast number of responses to job postings so that choice to screen and interview becomes time intensive. Choosing to partner with a staffing recruiter can prove to be a time saver. The dollar signs associated with paying a staffing firm is a reasonable business expense that more businesses are incorporating to annual budgets and strategic planning. 

As one local engineering client commented to me, “I have received more than 150 resumes for an administrative assistant role, so the need to bring on a temporary individual is necessary while we complete our full search process.” I had the right candidate, with impeccable skills, glowing references, and ironically who offered previous administrative experience in the field to fit the position. After a thorough search conducted on their own, with many advertising dollars spent, it was determined that Rachel, my temporary candidate currently working in the position, was the best match for the job.

Using recruiting resources should be a strategic consideration to your business plan. Employment costs such as insurance, healthcare, taxes, and benefits are soaring at the same time companies are under significant pressure to do more with less. The answer to managing these costs, maintaining productivity with fewer employees, and preparing for economic recovery is part of the strategic staffing agenda businesses face. 

A business that lacks an HR department or that has not used a staffing recruiter should consider the positives and values to a staffing partnership. The marketplace is much different now from recent years. The sheer number of people looking for employment at this time is a valid reason to invest in a staffing vendor relationship. These relationships will provide assistance in the search process for the best fit in addition to helping enhance bottom line profits so business plans get executed while keeping costly hiring mistakes to a minimum. 

Why companies use professional recruiters
Whether your company is looking for a candidate with a specialized need or skill set, or has a challenging position to fill that requires a great investment of your time, partnering with a professional can help you fill your positions faster.

Recruiters provide several value factors and eliminate time consuming tasks of the initial recruitment process. Staffing firms have the ability to advertise on specific and usually expensive job boards, eliminating your advertising costs, in addition to posting positions to its networking organizations and membership Web sites. Once a candidate is selected, a staffing firm will save you time by reviewing resumes, qualifying candidates, checking references, and screening backgrounds.

Respected, reputable, and well-networked recruiters know who to connect with to identify potential prospects. They have built rapport and have relationships with individuals from various industries to candidates’ motives and are able to determine what it will take for a candidate to consider a job or career change, thus eliminating candidates who are unsuitable and do not fit the profile.

Candidate connections and sources may be currently employed and wish to maintain confidentiality by working through a recruiter. Other candidate’s may not be actively searching for a job or responding to job postings. A professional recruiter will find these passive job seekers and work to recruit them for a new opportunity.

Businesses that plan to terminate existing employees often turn to recruiters to confidentiality start the search process and identify and bring in candidates so business operations remain uninterrupted. Recruiters will maintain your company’s confidentially and protect your company’s interest.

Companies that do not have HR departments or the resources on hand to conduct candidate searches should hire recruiters and staffing vendors. Recruiters provide expertise and guidance as a professional consultant to guide the interview process so that businesses devote time to interviewing only the most qualified candidates.

Recruiters handle the salary and benefit topic upfront with all parties involved. The negotiation process is set up to move the offer process forward eliminating chances of an offer decline. All parties involved with the hiring and interview process understand the dynamics of the position’s role, expectations, basic salary, and benefits information.

Using a professional recruiter is a big cost savings. If a hired candidate resigns within 30 – 90 days depending on the level of the position, a replacement guarantee is provided. The recruiter will continue to recruit and refer suitable candidates at no additional charge. 

Recruiters provide open and honest feedback and communication to hiring officials offering industry trends, current market demands, competition, and industry information.

An effective professional recruiter will work hard to gain your trust, establish a long-term relationship, and take the time to fully understand the company culture, organizational dynamics, and scope of the position to bring the right individual in ensuring a return on your investment and a long-term commitment by the new hire.

If you are involved in the hiring decisions of your organization either as a business owner, department manager, or human resources professional, working with a staffing recruiter can be a vital component to your organization’s strategic business plan and can aid in the hiring process by scouting talent and providing the best candidate match. 

A quality staffing vendor will provide trust, experience, and value. The recruiter’s ability and unique access to a vast range of candidates is one of the most essential benefits offered to business clients. By engaging in a staffing partnership, you can quickly fill a need with the assistance of using a staffing recruiter to search for the right candidate with the necessary skill set and experience. Those hard to find candidates can be used for specialized projects, seasonal needs, or hired on for a regular full-time position. This flexibility is another reason why smart businesses achieve a competitive advantage, keeping payroll and benefits expenses to a minimum.

Angie Smathers, Celebrity Staff Senior Account Manager

About Angie Smathers
Angie Smathers joined the team at Celebrity Staff in 1998 and has been in her current role as a senior account manager for the Lincoln branch since 2005. Angie has had great success cultivating and maintaing lasting business relationships with clients across all industries. She has worked with hundreds of businesses and made successful candidate placements that have resulted in long-term commitments and career paths. She enjoys identifying top talent and assisting clients to help make smart hiring decisions that meet business goals. In 2007 and 2008 Angie earned President Club, Celebrity Staff’s top sales award. She is a member of Lincoln Human Resource Management Association (LHRMA) and has served on the planning committee for the Nebraska Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) conference. She is currently studying to complete her Certified Staffing Professional designation and in her free time she enjoys time with her family and friends, traveling, exercising and looks forward to taking up a new hobby — golf!

My best friend is a dental hygienist. She speaks so passionately about teeth that you can’t help but get excited about flossing. She is a captivating, interesting person whom I love spending time with, not only because we share common interests and values, but because she is full of passion for what she does. She LOVES her job.

When you are passionate about what you do, you do it better. You work past quitting time, not because you are buried in paperwork, but because you were so excited about what you were doing that you weren’t watching the clock. The weeks fly by, you have more energy, you are a positive energy source in the office, and people love to be around you.

So how do you find that passion? How do you become the most positive person in the office? Here are some handy tricks we suggest on how to LOVE your job.

1. Do what you’re good at.
There are different components to all of our jobs, some more desirable than others. They’re all necessary, but what we suggest is that you become an expert in one or more facets of your job. Are you a rock star writer? Offer to help a co-worker write an awesome employment ad, story for the Intranet, or company memo, etc. Doing things you’re good at on a consistent basis raises your self-esteem and leveraging your talent helps the team as a whole.

2. Get creative.
When we do the same things routinely, they have a tendency to become boring. Think of a new or different way to do the tasks you have on your “to do” list. Be innovative and forward thinking to break up the monotony.

3. Get to know your co-workers.
We spend more time with each other sometimes than we do with our own families! Find out something interesting about a co-worker today that you didn’t know before. Are you training for a decathlon or taking a cake-decorating class? Share your interests with co-workers and they’re bound to reciprocate.

4. Give and take compliments graciously.
Recognizing a co-worker for a job well done is a great way to spread the LOVE. Even the little things are important and it’s nice to see that someone notices. And when someone compliments you, don’t defer the praise to others or brush it off, accept credit where credit is due, smile and say, “Thank you”.

5. Get a little nostalgic.
Remember your first day at your job? I remember how excited I was to dive in and really change people’s lives by finding them amazing job opportunities. Tap in to that energy and remind yourself why you got into your profession in the first place.

Grete Ruder, Celebrity Staff Recruiter

About Grete Ruder
Grete joined Celebrity Staff in 2005 and has helped build its Kansas City office from the ground up. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Kansas, has served as Chamber Champion for the KC Chamber of Commerce for two years, and has completed numerous training sessions on professional cover letter and resume writing.

We can all agree that the bottom line to a company’s success depends on the caliber of its employees, right? So, the number one priority in hiring is getting the most qualified candidate in the job for all parties involved. Or is it? 

Well, let’s see. There’s the process, the precedence, the principle, the budget, an existing relationship, a contract, a pricing agreement, and a dozen other factors that are often thrust into a hiring decision. Everyone involved should have the same end result in mind, but unfortunately, the more people involved in the hiring process, the more factors there are convoluting the simple concept of hiring the best person for the job.

We all hope we won’t soon need an attorney, a doctor, a pharmacist, or even a plumber, all of which are absolutely necessary professional services. Similarly, HR professionals hope they won’t need to outsource recruiting functions. Many HR professionals view staffing services and headhunters as “a necessary evil”.  Why outsource a search you can handle on your own at no additional cost? (Coming soon: The Fallacy of “No Additional Cost” Recruiting)   

Outsourced recruiters are absolutely necessary and having a relationship in place with the best recruiters in your niche is essential even if you don’t think you will ever need one. Let me explain. Take insurance, for example. We all hope to not rely on life insurance, but, if we’re smart, we buy it. We make the payments month after month just in case we ever need it. It’s a harmonious business relationship. Your insurance agent wants to sell you adequate coverage for your family needs and you want to buy it to protect your family.  This is the kind of business relationship we all want. Much like everyone should have insurance, everyone involved in the hiring process should have or develop a relationship with a recruiter, someone you trust in your niche.

The challenge in recruiting, though, is that on the surface we all have different perspectives and objectives.

HR professionals generally believe that centralizing the hiring process will streamline and create efficiencies thus controlling expenditures. They believe that managing the entire process and limiting vendor relationships will increase buying power and, once again, reduce overall costs. They’re right.

Hiring managers generally place less importance on the existing process or the existing agreement thus creating more options for themselves. They believe that maintaining control and developing their own relationship with headhunters and recruiters will result in better service and increased quality. And, they’re right.

Recruiters want to make a placement. Bottom line. But, make no mistake; good recruiters only want to make solid placements that will result in future business and referrals. Recruiters believe they will perform better if they have direct access to hiring managers. They desire to go direct to the source to see body language or hear emotion, which can paint pictures that words cannot replace. Recruiters feel that, much like the telephone game, essential information is lost in translation when they’re required to work through HR or any mediator. They, too, are right.

So, how can all three be right?

All three parties may be viewing the situation from a different vantage point, but all three ultimately have the same end result in mind – hiring the right person the first time. 

It is possible for all three parties in this relationship triangle to have his or her objectives met when all three keep the end goal in mind. None of the other factors aforementioned, such as a streamlined process or an existing contract, for example, should ever become a priority over hiring the best candidate.

HR professionals should absolutely take the necessary steps to streamline wherever possible. However, if Recruiter A is a preferred vendor but fails to produce the candidate you need, turn to Recruiter B. HR has a responsibility to manage costs. However, if the budget for hiring the department manager would be stretched to its limit with the recruiter’s fee, but the candidate presented is the best option, the budget should be secondary. Resistance to outsourcing is expected by HR, but refusal to outsource in the right circumstances can be an even more costly decision.

Hiring managers have the unique challenge of respecting and following the systems and processes in place while, at the same time, ensuring they have the most appropriate key players. Processes are important yet hiring the right person is critical. Similarly, when the hiring manager holds an established relationship with his or her own trusted recruiting source, one which differs from the preferred source of HR, he or she should be at liberty to tap into that resource with the intention of introducing all parties to one another. Furthermore, the hiring manager should be receptive to the resources HR has identified. Everyone involved, all the while, must ensure that hiring the best person remains the priority.

Recruiters who choose to partner with a company that has adopted a centralized system should absolutely involve HR at all stages of the recruiting process. The key word here is “involve”. Direct communication should never be removed. The vendor and the end user must work together to experience a truly successful partnership.  There are a number of communication mediums that can involve all interested parties to eliminate second hand messages or misinformation such as joint meetings, conference calls, e-mails, etc. Recruiters need feedback directly “from the horse’s mouth.” The emotion, the emphatic tone, the excitement or even the frustration can sometimes convey more meaning than the words themselves. Direct communication between the recruiter and the hiring manager is imperative but both must, when asked, keep HR involved throughout.

Though each party in this three-way relationship may approach the process of hiring from a different point of view, the trade-off for a bit of compromise and a sincere effort toward collaborative teamwork, as outlined above, is that everybody wins.  

So, is three really a crowd? Can the chime of the hiring triangle ring in harmony? With synchronized objectives of hiring the highest caliber of candidates into the right roles, it’s safe to assume each member of the “ménage a trios” of recruiting are sure to have a gratifying experience.

Monica Fuehrer, Celebrity Staff Account Manager

About Monica Fuehrer, Account Manager

Monica has worked for Celebrity Staff since 2000 having held a number of positions in business development, recruiting, and leadership roles encompassing internal staff development and training. Currently, Monica is a trailblazer in the attorney placement niche. In 2008, Monica was recognized by the Midlands Business Journal as a 40 Under 40 Business Leader in Omaha. She is the Co-Chair for the Media Relations Committee with the Human Resource Association of the Midlands and is also the Chairperson of the Board for Outlook Nebraska, Inc., a nonprofit with a mission to employ the blind and visually impaired. Off the clock Monica enjoys cooking, reading, music, and creating fun with her husband and two children.

The announcement is featured in the magazine’s January/February 2010 “Best of Omaha” issue.

“This is very exciting for C&A, to have been recognized not only this year but for two years in a row,” said Scot Thompson, Chief Executive Officer, C&A Industries. “Whether in prosperous or challenging times, our mission is to be the staffing provider and employer of choice. To be named as among Omaha’s best employers says a great deal about C&A.”

Since 1992, Omaha Magazine has been awarding, based on public vote, the “Best of” in a wide variety of categories, including restaurants, arts & culture, retail, and more. Omaha Magazine is a regional lifestyle publication that serves a readership of more than 100,000.

For more than 20 years, Omaha Magazine brings its readers captivating stories on area politics, home and garden, leisure life, food and dining, style, the arts, entertainment and travel, as well as service articles and compelling features on the area’s most interesting people and places.

It is amazing how much the sun, or lack thereof, can impact one’s mood. Employees can go to extremes.   Heavy eyelids and snarls in response to “good morning” indicate grouchy moods; restlessness in the afternoon is sign that the passage of time is slow when the color of gray is all we see when we look out the window.

So what can employers do to get employees motivated, excited, and focused?  Get creative!  Sometimes a little fun in the workplace is all your staff needs to lift their sprits and get them back on track. According to a 2007 Business Week article by Karen E. Klein, Chris Robert, an assistant professor of management at the University of Missouri-Columbia, is quoted saying, “joking around on the job can actually have a positive effect on productivity and employee retention.”

But, humor affects much more than productivity. Research shows that creativity, communication, and overall performance are all positively affected by a touch of humor. “[Humor] has a meaningful impact on cohesiveness in the workplace and communication quality among workers. The ability to appreciate humor, the ability to laugh and to make other people laugh actually has physiological effects on the body that cause people to become more bonded,” Robert said, in a 2007 Science Daily article. 

Authors Scott Christopher and Adrian Gostick’s latest book The Levity Effect: Why it Pays to Lighten Up, puts this idea to work providing a plethora of case studies and research from companies that have seen the positive effects of having a little fun at work. 

So, what about hosting a potluck lunch with a “fiesta” theme? Little umbrellas in cups and some fun decorations can certainly inspire! What about silly hat day, or ugly sweater day?  Or, maybe a contest to earn a day off early, a car wash, or a coveted parking spot? Contests can be tied to knowledge of company history, procedures, or production requirements that offer a little “boost” to increase activities. And that’s just the tip of the ice burg!

Although we can’t create sun, as managers we have the power to mimic the effects of the sun through some fun activities that will not only boost employee morale during these dreary winter days, but boost the bottom line.

Patty North, CPC, Celebrity Staff Regional Manager

About Patty North
As the regional manager of Celebrity Staff, a leading staffing and recruitment firm, Patty North has assisted organizations across a four-state region with the development and implementation of best practice strategies in the areas of talent acquisition and talent management. Her collective insight and expertise on workforce planning, garnered from her 15 years in the staffing industry, has enabled clients ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations to improve performance and gain a competitive advantage in their respective markets. Celebrity Staff is based in Omaha, Nebraska with offices located in Lincoln, Nebraska and Kansas City, Missouri.

I’m sure that like many of you, the man in the commercial prepared tirelessly for his big interview, ironing his shirt, researching his potential employer, rehearsing answers for common interview questions, and a host of other tasks. However, his preparation was for naught when he accidentally dribbled coffee on his shirt. While the commercial depicts a comical representation of a typical interview, I feel that it is a stunning example of how sometimes it’s not the glaringly obvious faux pas that can cause an interviewer to form a negative opinion of a candidate, but sometimes it’s the “little things” that contribute to a negative first impression.

After working in the recruiting industry for four years, I have learned a lot about myself as an interviewer. The biggest, and perhaps most shocking personal quality that I have uncovered is that I judge candidates based on their physical appearance. Yes, I said it!  I may be doing it consciously, but I may not. We live in a superficial society and whether we would like to admit it or not, individuals are judged on their outward appearance. Now, I hire individuals for administrative, marketing, and management roles, not for entertainment or modeling purposes. I am not judging people as if they were in a modeling contest, but on the basis of how their appearance and work performance correlate. I am also not judging them in the moral sense of the word. I’m sure some of the scruffiest people have hearts of gold. But at the end of the day, when you are programmed, like I am, to make decisions quickly about the suitability of a candidate for a particular role, the most easily observed criteria often play a large part in my evaluation.

I’m not alone! In fact, major findings by the Job Center of Wisconsin concluded that:

• 95 percent of the employers interviewed said a jobseeker’s personal appearance affected the employer’s opinion of that applicant’s suitability of the job.
• 91 percent said they believed dress and grooming reflected the applicant’s attitude toward the company.
• 61 percent said dress and grooming had an effect on subsequent promotion as well.

“It takes only three to five seconds to make a first impression, but it can take a whole career to undo it,” says Dana May Casperson, author of Power Etiquette: What You Don’t Know Can Kill Your Career.

When preparing a candidate to interview for a job, the biggest piece of advice I can give them is to prepare oneself knowing that the interviewer has perception biases.  For example, my dad believes that all individuals with tattoos or multiple piercings are lazy and untrustworthy.  If my dad were to interview a tattooed candidate, he would not be able to look past the surface exterior of the candidate. He may ask the perspective candidate a series of 20 questions and if one answer semi-matches his perception (all tattooed individuals are lazy) he would automatically think “Aha! I knew I was right about you!” and therefore decide not to hire that candidate. 

While Tide may have not won me over as a customer, they have made me more conscience of the “little things”.  I find myself looking closer in the mirror for stains, wrinkles, or anything else that might do the “talking” for me.  The old philosophy of hiring the most qualified candidate is long-gone. Now, it seems, the qualified candidate who makes the most of their first impression gets the offer.      

Grete Ruder, Celebrity Staff Recruiter

About Grete Ruder
Grete joined Celebrity Staff in 2005 and has helped build its Kansas City office from the ground up. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Kansas, has served as Chamber Champion for the KC Chamber of Commerce for two years, and has completed numerous training sessions on professional cover letter and resume writing.

A Gallup poll conducted in 2005 showed that 90 percent of companies in North America are using staffing services to hire temporary and full-time staff.  More than two million employees per day are employed by staffing companies; of those, 25 percent are in office administrative professional fields.

You may still be thinking, “Why partner with a staffing service when I can do the hiring on my own?” Or “That is what I have a human resources team for.”  When is the last time that you had an opportunity to review the responses your human resources team received after posting a job opening in the paper or on your company’s general Web site?  If you have not taken that opportunity in a while, I suggest that you inquire about the responses.  Human resources professionals that I work with state that they receive an average of 75 responses for one general administrative posting. Out of those 75 responses, they will typically weed out the “absolutely not qualified”, “partially qualified”, “could work”, and hopefully they find the diamond in the rough for a “perfect fit”.  How many are actually in the later category? If you are looking for that diamond in the rough, the sources that you use to identify the caliber of employee that you are looking to add to your staff could be the difference between “diamond” and “cubic zirconium.” Typically, when someone is in the job market, if they are a top player they will not post their resume on a general job board because they never know who might see that resume. When you partner with a staffing service, it is their job to find candidates that are top talent but might not be in an active job search through access to a number of different recruiting sources.

A staffing service not only has their social network, but they also have access to the recruiting sites that a number of smaller companies may not have access to due to financial limitations. A good staffing partner is always on the cutting edge of all new job boards and recruiting sources.  Professional recruiters are highly networked and well trained in social networking and will ask about your competition not be afraid to cold call and recruit its top talent for your company.

While your human resources staff is sifting through those 75 resumes, who is handling their other job duties like projects and employee relations? This is why some of the largest companies partner with staffing firms and allow their HR staff to focus on core duties and responsibilities. 

When you partner with a service, you may wonder what should you expect or receive from the service.  A service will help your company save time and money. Time:  Only the most qualified (diamond in the rough) candidates will be presented to your company for the position you are looking to fill.  The candidate will have already completed a comprehensive interview with the staffing recruiter.  That recruiter will know the candidate, their work history, what is motivating the candidate to make a career change, and how your company would benefit from the candidate’s experience.  References and skill verification will also be presented.  You will have one point of contact and you will not have to worry about tracking all of your candidates during the hiring process, as this is streamlined through the agency.   

Money:  This is the bottom line to every company and watching costs is extremely important.  Have you calculated the cost to run an ad in the paper or to join a job posting service? How about he cost of your HR department’s time to review 75 unqualified resumes?  These costs are growing rapidly every day. When you partner with a staffing firm, there are no hidden costs.  Rates are discussed up front and reviewed before moving forward. There is not a cost to interview candidates and you are not billed until there is an offer and acceptance from the candidate. The staffing firm covers the cost of all of the recruiting, sourcing candidates, references, first interviews and assessments.  You only pay when a perfect placement is made!

Here’s an example of how one of my clients saved both time and money by partnering with my company, Celebrity Staff.  A current client was in need of a specialized recruiter. They posted the position on a local job board, and had a few interviews. The client commented that they were, “not seeing anyone that really impressed them.” The client stated that if Celebrity was able to present them with a candidate who was above the caliber that they were seeing on their own, they would be interested in meeting them. A candidate was presented to the client the same day, was interviewed, and is today the client’s specialized recruiter. The client had already invested two weeks of time interviewing candidates who were not “perfect” fits and invested valuable money in advertising, along with HR’s investment in screening the resumes and the conducting the interviews. 

The owner of the company commented to the manager of the department that the recruiter was a great find and wanted to know where they found them. This client saw the benefits of partnering with a staffing firm – we provided a candidate of high caliber and made the interviewing/employment process streamlined and simple. If this client is in need of staff in the future, I believe the first call will be to Celebrity.

If you find yourself in a legal matter, you would call your lawyer. When you have a staffing need, call the experts at a staffing firm.  You have nothing to lose, but time and money to gain. I think everyone should have the number for a good doctor, lawyer, and recruiter – for my clients, that number is Celebrity Staff 402-938-2000.

Leslie Shook, Celebrity Staff Senior Account Manager

About Leslie Shook
Leslie began her career with Celebrity Staff as a recruiting supervisor nearly a decade ago. Since then she has been promoted several times and is now a senior account manager. In combination with her year’s of experience, Leslie holds an Associates Degree in Business Administration – and has been nominated by her peers as Employee of the Quarter. She is a member of HRAM and is currently working toward her Certified Personal Consultant distinction. 

In her free time, Leslie enjoys playing with her new grandson, Lane or taking a nice, long ride on her motorcycle with her husband Richard.