by Beth | Mar 14, 2025 | Uncategorized
I have a former client in the tech industry who called me out of the blue. He said that he was worried that he had just gotten off a zoom interview with a fake candidate. I said “How did you know?” “Well… frankly, I am just not sure.”
I will tell you this: he is right to be skeptical. According to Inc magazine, deep fake candidates are definitely a thing, and they are especially a thing in the tech industry. Read more here.
What my client did right was to NOT ignore his instinct. You as the employer have the right to not hire someone that you think isn’t on the up and up. But what if you can’t tell and you are still interested in them? Here are a few tips:
- Set up an in-person interview. Yes, it will cost money to fly the candidate to where you are, but that money is nothing compared to being scammed out of your intellectual property.
- Fly someone from your company to them. I have flown to many a different location to have an in-person interview with a candidate.
- Call the university where they attended college, if they went to college. Confirm all information that is on the resume.
- Check ALL references. A lot of companies don’t call references, or only call 1 or 2. Call every single one listed.
- Don’t accept the excuse that the camera isn’t working, they don’t have references, or the dog ate their homework. If they are legit, they will make sure that you can vet their legitimacy.
- ALWAYS trust your gut when something doesn’t feel right. No candidate is worth your business.
And finally, I actually think that some “Deep fake” candidates aren’t trying to scam you. I think that there is a valid language barrier. Either way, fake is fake. Hold out for real.
POWER THOUGHT: “Deep fake” candidates feel fake. Don’t let them fake you out.
by Beth | Feb 27, 2025 | Uncategorized
I had a client call the other day, and we were talking about his company culture. He was telling me about his company core values and how he has worked so hard on developing a culture that he is proud of. Then, out of the blue, my client asked me “Do you have a trust fund?”
I was quite taken aback by his question. I quipped back “Isn’t that a bit personal?” He laughed out loud and said “I’m not talking about money, Beth. I am talking about trust.”
My eyes opened wide, and I said to him “Tell me more!”
He said to me, “Think about it. Trust has to be earned. Trust has to be built. If you have a trust fund with your clients, your employees, your vendors, then you have a bit of leeway if you make a mistake.” I have spent the last 2 weeks thinking about the concept of a trust fund, not being about money, but about trust and faith that you have in your relationships.
This concept is especially helpful when you are talking about your employees. Employees want to be at a business where they are valued, where they feel heard, where there is transparent leadership. In other words, where they can trust the powers that be. If you as the leader focus on building a trust fund, your staff will be more forgiving when you make a bad call.
I told my client that I felt like I had a trust fund with my clients already in place, and I am going to make sure that it is healthy and thriving. After all, there doesn’t seem to be anything better to focus on than that.
POWER THOUGHT: If you don’t have a trust fund in your business, I recommend building one as soon as possible. Trust me on that!
by Beth | Feb 13, 2025 | Uncategorized
If you haven’t read part 1, read it here.
When I made my horrible bad hire that made national news, I immediately started reading every hiring book I could get my hands on. I needed help! I needed guidance on how to hire people so that I could run my restaurant. It was completely daunting. Almost every book that I read had a list of questions at the end. One book Hiring the Best by Martin Yate had a list of over 400 questions.
Who has time for 400 questions???
What I have found after interviewing almost 20,000 people in my career is that the questions are less important than the structure of the interview.
Here are 5 tips that are more important than the actual questions:
1) Put a list of 8-10 questions together and ask the same questions in the same order to every single candidate. The analysis is so much easier when you don’t have to question your questions.
2) Ask the question. Listen to the answer. Ask the question. Listen to the answer. An interview is not a back and forth. Your answers to the questions don’t matter, so let the candidate say their answers.
3) Interview in a group. This protects you all from any liability, and you will hear things that your counterpart won’t and vice versa.
4) Limit your list of questions to no more than 15 per interview. I find that after awhile, the candidate gets tired (and so do you). If you have more questions, schedule another interview.
5) And finally, if you are talking, then you aren’t listening. There is a reason that you have 1 mouth and 2 ears. And if you find yourself talking too much, see tip #2.Interviewing a candidate is hard work. It is even harder when you are making up questions as you go along. When you have some structure and consistency in your questions, it becomes way simpler to focus on your candidate.
My clients regularly tell me that just listening helps them make better hiring decisions. And isn’t that what we all want? Don’t forget, if you don’t have the time, energy, or bandwidth to hire yourself, A-list Interviews is here to help.
POWER THOUGHT: Avoid questioning your questions. Put a list together and use it in every interview.
by Beth | Jan 1, 2025 | Uncategorized
Approaching the new year, here I am stuffed full of cheese and chocolate, and I had a former client call me out of the blue. He said: “Beth, I have this employee who started off great, but this person is making my life hell!”
He went on to describe the ultimatums and threats this employee kept saying. Things like: “if you don’t do this, I will quit.” My client was so frustrated! “I gave this person a great bonus, I have allowed them to work from home, though I suspect a lot isn’t getting done, and I just lost a big client because of shoddy client service from this person.”
“But do you want to know the straw that broke the camel’s back? I just realized that I don’t want to go back to work- AT MY OWN COMPANY- because I HATE working with this person!”
It is a new Year and a new you. If you have eaten cheese for 2 weeks, and you don’t feel excited to go back to work with that soul-sucking employee, then it is time to fire that person. Just like you start a new diet or a new exercise program, the new year is the time to do some intense evaluation of what is working and what is not in your business. Start the new year fresh!
In addition, the busiest day of the year for applicants looking for a job is the second Tuesday in January. Think about this: the people who are fed up with their work environments are also looking to make a change. So, if you want to start the New Year with someone who REALLY wants to work for you, get going! Now is the time.
POWER THOUGHT: New Year, new goals, new awesome employee and new culture!
by Beth | Dec 18, 2024 | Uncategorized
Over the Thanksgiving holiday a few years ago, my daughter and I were listening to the radio. A song came on that we both love. I began belting out the tune at the top of my lungs and sang along to the chorus of the Zac Brown Band song. I sang “Long Gone” along in perfect pitch (to me at least). My kid laughed uproariously. “MOM”, she yelled, “Those aren’t the words!” I said, “Yes they are!” She giggled “No, really. It’s not ‘Long Gone’. It’s ‘Home Grown’!” She had to Google it for me to believe her.
This misunderstanding happens in interviews for new employees all the time. Someone on the interview team will recount what the candidate said and someone else will have heard the words from the person completely differently. The very first step in the analysis of an interview for the hiring team is to agree to what the candidate actually said. The candidate’s choice of words that they used are very important. For example, “My boss is really great to work with”. Did they really say “with”? Are you sure they didn’t say “My boss is really great to work ‘for’? That simple word changes the entire meaning of the sentence as well as the intent of the comment. The word “with” denotes that the candidate doesn’t acknowledge their bosses’ authority, and if they don’t acknowledge it in the interview, they really won’t when they have direct deposit.
I talk about listening to the exact words all the time to my clients to ensure they get to hire someone who will fit with the company culture, leadership style and even the position itself. If you are not paying attention, you can miss something important in an interview which can lead to a bad hire. You can also really embarrass yourself in front of your beloved daughter.
POWER THOUGHT: Did you really hear what you thought you heard?
by Beth | Dec 11, 2024 | Uncategorized
I recently conducted a training on how to improve the hiring process, and one participant blurted out “What do you do about a brown-noser? We have this guy who doesn’t perform until the manager walks through the door. Then, this guy sucks up to the manager and the manager doesn’t even see it! It is SO frustrating!”
“What do you do about it now?” I asked him.
He said “We call him Rudolph behind his back. Rudolph the brown-nosed reindeer, and we laugh about it. We have to let off steam somehow!”
There are several things about this reindeer farm that are alarming: First, the company has a bunch of reindeer that are getting paid to talk about someone behind their back. This is NOT good for reindeer culture. When your reindeer are focused on the behavior of another, it disrupts the flow of business, and it inhibits teams from performing well – meaning getting the gifts to the people.
Second, this makes the manager, Santa Claus, look inept. All of the other reindeer, who laugh and call him names, are secretly wondering why Rudolph hasn’t been fired. They think Santa is too busy eating cookies to get work done. And finally, there will be reindeer who quit working, because Rudolph doesn’t do his job. Why should I do mine?
A brown-noser is ultimately bad for business, and the last thing we want in our reindeer culture is a reindeer who doesn’t do their job and hides that fact. We have gifts to get out, people! Fire the brown-noser and get back to business.
POWER THOUGHT: When employees laugh about anyone behind their back, you have a culture ruin-er. Brown-nosed reindeers must go.
