I’ve been a Human Resource Manager/Director for the last 12 years and have absolutely loved it. Over the course of those years I have learned quite a bit and also have been frustrated at times. My primary frustration has been the process of interviewing and hiring quality team members. Team members that have a passion for what they do, understand what commitment is and are dedicated to the success of the company they work for. I think I have used every interview process known to man. I have tried multiple interviewing, team interviewing, reference checks, DISC testing, basic skills testing and so on but still felt like I was missing something.
The one thing I wasn’t using was my intuition, my gut instinct. I have interviewed hundreds of people over my career and have learned how to read people. Are they blowing smoke, is their work history questionable, are they putting on a façade, or are they really being genuine. I was always a “show me the facts” kind of guy. I need things I can measure so my decisions were always based off the interview process and testing results and to be honest this wasn’t getting me successful hires on a consistent basis. With the difficulty at this day and age to hire quality team members I needed to make a change.
I finally realized that I need to trust my intuition, that casino online australia feeling in the pit of your stomach that talks with you, and use that in my decision process. Don’t get me wrong I still use everything I have in the past. I still need to know if they have the skills and background we need, but I trust my intuition and use it in my process and have been more successful in the hiring process than I ever have. It plays more of a part in my hiring process. If there’s something eating at you about the candidate then trust your intuition. I have declined hiring someone because of my intuition and I have overlooked my intuition and hired someone. I recently hired a candidate to one of our administrative positions with a bit of doubt regarding her skill/knowledge level despite her solid interview and positive references. My instinct was telling me that something was wrong and she was not going to work out. Despite those feelings we hired her. Within 30 days I could tell my instinct was correct, her knowledge and skill levels were not up to par. Unfortunately we ended up dismissing her from our team. Of course some may say that you may be missing out on a quality candidate if you put your intuition into the hiring mix and make a decision not to hire. Let me tell you, this process may not be for everyone but it has worked for me and our turnover and team member quality have improved.
Human Resource Professionals read people. We deal with them all the time, it’s who we are and what we do. Why shouldn’t we use that part of our talents more often?
