Hiring and Managing Personnel

Hiring and Managing Personnel Boston University Medical Campus Human Resources

A Top Candidate • A top candidate is selected for employment as a result of his/her qualifications, abilities, skills, and knowledge critical to performing the essential functions, duties and responsibilities of the position.

Before you start interviewing… • Think about the skills, competencies and education/experience an ideal candidate would possess as related to duties and job requirements. • Working with Human Resources to develop a strategic partnership is important! Ask yourself… • What skills must the ideal candidate possess? • How will an ideal candidate contribute to BU and your department’s goals, missions & values?

Know your working style • Write down a few things about your working style and the type of people you work best with. Some things to consider in making your list are: • Are you a hands-on manager that prefers to supervise people closely or do you like people who work independently? • Do you like regular written communication from your subordinates or do you like to get a general feel for what they are doing from occasional conversations? • Is your working style similar to your supervisor? Is your working style similar to your peer managers? • If your style is different from theirs, are your employees expected to work with the other managers? Are you able to help them understand the different styles?

Know your department’s culture • Do you expect employees to be at work at a specific time or do you prefer that they get their work done within a reasonable time period? • Do you expect people to work from home, in the evenings or on weekends and/or holidays? • Do you expect people to dress in formal attire or is casual attire okay? • Are people expected to compete with each other, work independently or work together? • What are the top 3 reasons people stay? What are the top 3 reasons they leave?

Know your expectations of the job • For each skill, duty or requirement listed in the job description, estimate how much (by hours per week or % of time) the person will spend using each one. • Rank the most important skills and duties. • Identify any skills and duties that are "nice to have" or "not critical" to day-to-day responsibilities of the job.

Know your expectations of the person who will fill the position • Will the person work closely with others on your team? If so, give the others a chance to meet potential employees before you hire them. This shows respect for your team and gives the job candidate a chance to meet their potential co-workers before they make a decision to take the job. • Are there certain weaknesses on your existing team that you expect a new person to fill? Be clear about what those are and that the person knows they are being recruited for those reasons.

What can we learn from aninterview? • Inquisitiveness and creativity • Desire for the job • Grooming and hygiene • Impact on others • Interpersonal skills • Ability to empathize with others • Realistic Expectations • Charisma/dynamism • Ability to handle an interview

The Interview Process • After each candidate take time to jot down strengths & weaknesses relative to job requirements. (Evaluation Forms) • Use a team approach to interviewing. The phone interview covers the basic skills and experience before you schedule the in-person interview. • Ideally, you should have 2 - 3 people interview each candidate. If possible, have one of the interviewers be a co-worker or someone in a similar job. Each person is looking for different things.

Ask about how well the candidate can do the job • Review job description details, working conditions and physical demands of the job. • Give the applicant a copy of the job description, and review the job in general with them. If they are still interested and feel they can do the job, review each component of the job with them. The goal of job detail questions is to learn: • Whether the applicant understands each job requirement and can do each part of the job function. • What experience and background the applicant has to perform the job as described. • How well the applicant can match his/her own skills and background to requirements.

Ask about education and training The goal of education/training questions is to learn: • How the applicant uses their education on the job. • What initiative they have taken to improve or maintain their own training and skills). • What plans they have for continuing to maintain or improve their education. • How well they can foresee future needs to maintain or upgrade their own skills, both on the job and outside. • What motivates the applicant to take on extra training

Ask about decision-making and creativity • One effective and interactive interviewing technique is to describe an actual situation or project that you are familiar with. Describe the situation, the goals and the people involved. • Set up a dialog where, as you describe the scenario and major decision points, the candidate is asked, “What do you do at this point?" The goal of decision-making questions • Understand the candidate's thinking process, ability to be a “quick-thinker”, to communicate and think creatively. Allow him/her to ask questions and pay attention to the information they use to make their decisions. • Prior to making a final decision, ensure that the candidate meets with some of your peer managers, some of your superiors and subordinates. This gives the candidate a better understanding of the personalities involved and gives your staff a chance to be part of the hiring process.

Interview Questions • Gather information on positions the candidate held, relevant to the job you are filling. You may use the candidate’s resume/application for specifics. Ask general, open-ended questions. The goal is to learn: • The candidate's duties and responsibilities in each job held. • What was most rewarding about each position. • Candidate’s personal responsibility/contribution to company goals and objectives. • How well they worked with other employees/colleagues. • How much initiative and/or leadership they showed. • How they handled/dealt with problems and challenges. • What new ideas, products or innovations they contributed. What impact did these have on the candidate’s career. • What motivated him/her to take the position, achieve promotions and/or leave the position. • How that prior experience contributed to their ability to do a good job for you. • How they got along with different types of people. • How well they will deal with the specific people they will interact with on a regular basis (clients, students, co-workers, other departments, etc.)

Ask about the CULTURAL/DEPARTMENTAL FIT • Explain the service your department offers, its history, and how the job described fits into the overall scheme of things. • Ask questions to describe how the candidate can add value. The goal of these questions is to learn: • How much prior knowledge the candidate has of your company, your industry and your corporate culture. • How well the candidate can apply his/her own experience to your needs. • How well the candidate will fit into your department. • What contribution the candidate will make to the overall success. • How well the applicant is able to communicate his/her skills and abilities into what is appropriate for your department. • What initiative the candidate took in preparing for the interview.

Sample Interview Questions • Tell me about yourself. • Tell me about your experience. • What is your most important accomplishment to date? • How would you describe your ideal job? • Why did you choose this career? • What goals do you have in your career? • How do you plan to achieve these goals? • How do you define success? • Describe a situation in which you were successful. • What do you think it takes to be successful in this career? • Are you a team player? • What motivates you? • Why should I hire you? • Tell me about some of your recent goals and what you did to achieve them. • What are your short-term goals? • What is your long-range objective? • How do you handle conflict/pressure? • What is your greatest strength/weakness? • If I were to ask one of your professors (or a supervisor) to describe you, what would he or she say about you? • How has your education prepared you for your career? • What were your favorite classes? Why? • Do you have any plans for further education? • What do you know about Boston University/Department/Lab?

Early Signs of an Employee exhibiting performance/behavioral issues • Dishonesty • Incompetence • Reluctance/Resistance • Lack of Dependability • Attitude • Attendance Issues

Dishonesty Lack of honesty is the first warning sign of employee insubordination. You may catch the employee in "white lies" that are not a big deal at first, yet they propagate into an emerging pattern if not duly addressed.

Incompetence Intentional • An employee pretends to not understand the job requirements and is trying to see what he or she can get away with. Unintentional • Difficulty concentrating or following directions. • Lack of appropriate skills/training.

Reluctance/Resistance • Unwillingness or general reluctance to change. • Active attempts to disrupt or undermine work projects. • Negative conversations with other employees. • Over-reacting to problems/issues. • Strained relationships with other employees. • Irritable outbursts while on the job. • Insensitive and disagreeable behavior. • Not meeting key performance areas (missing meetings and not responding to emails, for example).

Lack of Dependability • Failure to complete duties assigned. • Failure to reach any of the targets set for them. • Lack of self-motivation; willingness to do anything other than work. • Unnecessary shift of duties to other employees. • Lack of continuity and consistency. • Unnecessary expenditure of supervisory time. • Interference in normal procedures causing delay in work completion. • Lack of compliance with required timelines/deadlines.

Attitude • Apathy and Engagement • Detached, unfocused, without much of an attention span. • Not engaged in the job and less likely to work to the fullest potential. • Signs of apathy to include withdrawing from other employees and being physically, but not mentally present at work. • Discourteous conduct, poor professional judgment, job carelessness and disruptive behavior.

Attendance • Is there an attendance problem? • Generally this employee will exhibit lack of punctuality and tardiness from the very start of employment. • Excessive absenteeism. • Consistently arriving late for work or leaving early. • No reason is provided for the absence(s). • No legitimate reason for the absence(s). • Exhibiting such traits by a previously punctual employee may entail dissatisfaction and stress within the current workplace.

Healthy Practices • Active communication with employees. Make sure they know your expectations. Tell them when they are doing well or poorly. Provide ongoing feedback. • Listen to your employees. They have valuable insight into the workplace. • Act consistently. Apply the same standards of performance and conduct to all of your employees uniformly. • Follow your own policies. • Treat employees with respect. • Make job-related decisions. • Take action when necessary.

Questions?

Hiring and Managing Personnel