Tricks or treats: Navigating the perils of hiring
Happy halloween!
I hope as you’re reading this, you’re getting into the holiday spirit! And if not, perhaps my tales of spooky and scary situations I found myself in as of late will help.
Like many employers, hiring new talent is always top on the priority list. And what a competitive market we find ourselves in! Matching the right candidate at the right time for the right role can sometimes seem like an impossible task. But my goal is growth and expansion, and I know that a good team is the only way to get there.
Recently, we brought on someone who I thought was an excellent team member. He impressed us over multiple interviews with multiple members of staff. And when he started, whoa! Did he hit the ground running! He was quick to new ideas and produced great results quickly.
However, we started to notice some gaps. Small things at first, like his communication style that was once so strong and so quick started to fall out of pace. Ideas that we thought we were solid on did not come to fruition in the way that we had discussed. Not enough to be truly suspicious but enough to raise an eyebrow or two.
But it was when we delved into our bag of tricks and asked for follow-up information from his application, like a diploma, that things started to unravel quickly. After weeks of requesting his diploma, it was revealed that he didn’t have one. And while he said that he attended school his last semester, the transcript he supplied with the student ID number, we found out was falsified. The mask was off and the person inside the costume had been revealed.
At my company, we have a set of core values. These core values were voted on by the staff at the time. It was an open-ended questionnaire, and we took the Top 5 responses and turned them into company culture. Those core values are tightly woven throughout the interview and onboarding process. These values include honesty, transparency, and integrity.
I love these core values! And I’m the first to raise my hand and say it is up to me to walk the path first each and every day. Why? Without these core values, there is no trust. And without trust, there is no future. Ultimately, we had to let this team member go.
Not every team member is going to work out, and it might be scary to take the risk and bring on someone new. But whether or not there is a trick or a treat behind the door, core values will help keep those who walk that path on the team and quickly separate them from those who don’t.
It’s much like dating. Not so recently single, I find myself in the dating world again. And yes, there are many similarities between interviewing for a new team member and interviewing for a new partner. The virtual world does not make any of this any easier. Much like hiring a team member through LinkedIn or another online platform, and then using Zoom as your only medium to meet, you’re often meeting your next date online, and who someone poses to be virtually is not who they show up as.
I have experienced it all from exaggerations of height and weight to job employment to income to living situations to dating intentions to marital status.
But the same core values I have in my professional life I carry through in my personal life. Without honesty, integrity, and transparency in my personal relationships, there is no trust, and without trust, there is no future.
So, yes, it is hard to put yourself out there. Yes, it is natural to be fearful of rejection. But that is never an excuse to show up as anything other than who you really are.
What we all need to recognize is that at some point, the mask and costume are coming off. And no matter the situation I found myself in, what I am always hoping for are sweet, wonderful treats – and never a spooky trick!
