The Challenge: Avoiding "Eddie Haskell" job candidates

The 60 Second Solution:

They're dangerous. They can cost your company tens of thousands in lost productivity and profits.

Who are they? They are those job candidates who looked great on paper, but suddenly become under-performers and troublemakers once they're hired.

Here are four ways you can prevent these problem candidates from corrupting your office:

1. Recruitment Advertising
The next time your local newspaper prints the employment section, take a quick read. If you can keep your eyes open long enough to get past the first few ads, you'll see a disturbing trend. Most recruitment ads are horrid. They're dull. They're little more than a list of requirements, and they offer almost nothing to attract real talent.

Online job posts are no better. Sometimes they're longer, but again, most say little more than "this is what we need." Remember, Eddie's out there reading these, and he's looking for the next new thing to pique his interest.

Recruitment advertising, whether online or off, is marketing. To make your marketing successful, and attract real talent, you need to create compelling copy. You need to sell. And you need to give candidates a strong reason to take action--now! Make ads visible with intriguing titles that capture the attention of the best candidates. Include detailed information about the benefits of working for your company.

2. Resume Screening
Many online recruiting methods are great resume generators. To separate the gems from the masses, most companies employ some sort of resume screening process. Typically, these processes focus on making sure a candidate's skills and experience meet or exceed posted job requirements.

Eddie knows this, and he knows how to beat your process by carefully "beefing-up" his resume. He may "puff-up" his responsibilities or load-up on key words for your resume scanning system to find.

While the solution is not to abandon the resume screening process, you may need to devise a new scoring system--one that emphasizes past records of accomplishment, success trends, job longevity, and participation in activities that are consistent with the profile of your ideal job candidate.

3. Candidate Sourcing
Eddie Haskell is easy to find. He'll come running to you. But your ideal job candidate is probably happily employed somewhere else right now. To avoid hiring Eddie, you need to find creative ways to capture the attention and interest of these passive candidates.

The two best methods for attracting passive job seekers are through referrals and direct recruiting. Start with your current exceptional employees. Create incentives for referrals. Get them involved in brainstorming recruiting ideas.

If that fails to produce the results you want, or if time is a critical concern, get a professional staffing or search firm involved. Challenge them to cull their database and use their network to uncover the best available talent.

4. Hiring Process
Here are a few other ways to improve your recruiting process to avoid hiring the wrong people:

Prepare "success profiles", each containing a standard job description as well as information and measurement criteria to help determine the traits needed and the achievements expected from each employee in your organization. Include this profile information on your websites and in your recruitment advertising. Great candidates, who will make great employees, want to review information about what it takes to be successful and what they need to "fit well" and succeed in your company.

Be pro-active. Create a process that will push the best people responding to your advertising to the top of the list. Contact those people immediately or you will lose them to someone else.

Train your staff to work with the best people. The best candidates need extra effort. They want to know more about the companies they are going to approach for career opportunities. The caliber of the people you hire will directly reflect the quality of your recruiting team.

The Secret to Success
Keep in mind that the process for locating the best personnel is very different from the process used to eliminate bad candidates. Take a good look at your hiring process. See where Eddie might be able to slip past the cracks. Spend the resources needed to attract the best people, and make sure you know how to spot--and get rid of Eddie when he shows up at your door!