Zero Defect Hiring

• What would your former employer say about you--positive and negative?
• What would your former subordinates say about you?
• How do you recognize incompetence? What do you do about it?
• How do you recognize excellence? What do you do with it?
• What about yourself would you like to improve most?
• What makes you lose your temper? Tell me about the last time it happened.

Seek Closure by Announcing the Five-Minute Warning. "We have about five more minutes..." is a useful statement before closure. Pay attention when the candidate says, "By the way...," "Oh, one more thing...," and "I almost forgot...," which means, "This is the most important thing I'm going to say."

In my psychiatry practice, I always announced when we were coming to the end of an hour, both as the timekeeper and because I knew there was another patient in my waiting room. Men and women invariably say something that's really important at this point, regardless of the time we've already spent together.

Later, I became a consultant to businesspeople who also had experiences with last-minute revelations. They'd be taken to lunch by a client, and not until dessert or coffee would the client cough and announce, "By the way...," which was always the prelude to the real reason for the meeting.

If you've had a good interview and the candidate feels relatively comfortable, you may expect a variety of surprises after you've indicated that the interview is almost over, and not just around the job description and compensation but about more personal issues. For example, with five minutes to go in our interview, a sales manager who was being recruited while he was working for another company said, "I should tell you that I really can't consider the new job."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I'm worried about health-insurance coverage." And with this, the candidate teared up. "I have a five-year-old daughter who has been diagnosed with leukemia."

His health insurance covered his little girl for doctors, hospitals, chemotherapy, and radiation, but the illness had been a nightmare. "And if we cancel our health insurance because I change jobs, it's going to be an even bigger nightmare, which we can't afford." Then he asked, "What do you suggest?"

We put the issue on the table, talked with lawyers and insurance brokers, consulted the company's benefits person, and learned that the company had a policy in which no preexisting condition for a new employee's family could be excluded. But if this health issue hadn't surfaced at the end of the interview process, this excellent candidate would never have shifted jobs.

Pick a Subject in Which You Are the Expert. Since I know very little about finance or marketing, I rarely ask questions about those specialties, except for saying, "Give me a five-minute summary." Instead, I ask something rather simple, such as, "Tell me about an employee you had to fire."

Although it's only one piece of a 200-piece puzzle, one middle-aged candidate gave an answer that I'd never heard before: "Sorry. I've never fired anyone." We continued the interview without missing a beat.

Compare that answer with another candidate's response: "My stomach was in knots, yet I knew the person's performance was mediocre and reasons for his termination were well-documented. However, the time was never right, since I was always out of town on Fridays, the best day to terminate an employee. No, that's a rationalization. The truth is that I hate firing people, and this was no exception. So I called an outplacement firm and got their advice, plus an outplacement executive to come to our offices on that fateful Friday. The meeting was straightforward. We went through various financial packages that gave the employee some control over the process. Despite an at-will clause in his employment agreement that protected the company, the more the man said in my office, I knew the less likely he'd be to consult an attorney. Anyway, we shook hands, and he went down the hall to meet with the outplacement executive. Fortunately, the fellow found a great job within three months. But I still get upset thinking about that situation."

Another candidate said about a similar circumstance: "The guy wasn't performing. That's the bottom line. So I fired him. If you want more details, I'd be happy to go into them."

Do you prefer a thoughtful and complete answer, or a no-nonsense approach to your question? It's your call, and whatever suits your style is the right answer. In this case, I thought both candidates knew what they were talking about. On the other hand, when an experienced individual says he's never fired an employee in his life, and no details are forthcoming, whistles and bells should go off.

Throw a Few Curveballs at the End of the Interview. Do something unpredictable after the interview, like walking the candidate to his or her car. Note its make, model, location, and anything else that says something personal about the candidate. Look for surprises.

Cars tell a lot about a person. Once I met a rather odd candidate, who arrived late to our interview. He was a prospect for the sales manager's job at a chain of retail stores. Afterward, we walked to the man's car, which was parked at an angle to the curb and stuffed with clutter, clothes, tools, and newspapers piled up to the windows. As dogs sometimes look like their owners, so did this man's car look like him.

My biggest surprise walking a candidate to his car was when I discovered the candidate's wife sitting inside the automobile, waiting for him. She and her husband knew our interview was to last two hours. Why wasn't she in my waiting room? Why didn't the candidate suggest a soft drink from my kitchen? Why didn't she walk five minutes into the town of Mill Valley? Two hours in a hot car on a warm August day said more about the candidate and his relationship with his wife, and her acceptance of that relationship, than any of my questions in the interview did.

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