Interesting story today from the AP – Employers study applicants’ personalities – that discusses hiring processes designed to see if a candidate is the right fit. These processes are a good start, but much of what they are trying to accomplish could be done through assessments.
Despite a labor shortage in many sectors, some employers are pickier than ever about whom they hire. Businesses in fields where jobs are highly coveted — or just sound like fun — are stepping up efforts to weed out people who might have the right credentials but the wrong personality.
But if you would rather take the longer route, there is this approach:
Rackspace CEO Lanham Napier said, “We’d rather miss a good one than hire a bad one.”
The 1,900-person company is divided into 18- to 20-person teams. One team is so close, the whole group shows up to help when one member moves house, Napier said. Job interviews at the San Antonio-based company last all day, as interviewers try to rub away fake pleasantness.
“They’re here for nine or ten hours,” Napier said. “We’re very cordial about it. We’re not aggressive, but we haven’t met a human being yet who has the stamina to BS us all day.”
I suspect that the ideal process is somewhere in the middle.