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Colleagues and clients are surprised to learn that at Confidante we feel so passionately about behavioral based interviewing and hiring practices, and that we often play an integral part in that process.

After over fifteen years of involvement in the field of Workplace Violence prevention and response, and reviewing hundreds of personnel files, including job applications, incident reports, attendance records, performance evaluations, counseling notes, and prior investigations, the reactions we most often have are:

"How did this person ever get hired?"

"How did this person make it past the probationary period?"

"How could this behavior have been tolerated for so long, or at all?

Our professional experience tells us that when behavior is not a focus for an organization, when the idea that getting the job done is more important than how the job gets done, bad things happen, lawsuits ensue, efficiency and production suffer, and everybody loses. Sometimes, people get hurt and even die.

There are several things that behavior experts agree upon, including the fact that past behavior is one of the best indicators of future behavior and that there are warning signs and cries for help before employees attack one another or arm themselves. Even more importantly, most acts of workplace violence are preventable.

Also true is the fact that there are warning signs evident during the hiring process that indicate that a person may not be a good fit for this work group or this workplace. Often the behaviors that show up early on are more subtle, harder to detect, easier to ignore, and often overlooked by busy and distracted managers. However, astute employers don’t need psychology degrees to determine that an employee is at-risk.

Employment applications, background investigations, resumes, and reference checks are all tools for gathering critical pre-hire behavioral information. Additionally, utilizing your company’s job descriptions and codes of conduct to formulate questions to be used during the

interview process can provide important opportunities for you to discover early indicators of behaviors that could create problems down the line. A comprehensive hiring process could prevent you from making hiring mistakes in the first place!

Just recently, we were retained by a Fortune 500 employer to assist in the hiring process for a key position. During the interview process the manager flinched and physically withdraw from an interviewee who had an aggressive communication style and an arrogant attitude. The thought of these two people working together daily, or working under very stressful conditions, made us flinch! Yet time and again, we see such behaviors overlooked or explained away because of the very real stress of the interview process itself or pressure to fill a position, and a troubled relationship begins. "Always honor your instincts during the hiring process" is the lesson well learned over the years.

In another situation, we were assisting a manager initiate a disciplinary process. The employee in question blamed others and inappropriately displayed anger that created an unsafe environment. We discovered that these problems had been evident from the first days of this individual’s employment two years prior. When the manager described the behaviors, we made the obvious inquiry: "So, why did you keep this person on so long?" The lesson in this instance is, "React to problematic behavior at the earliest possible time. It almost never gets better."

Maintaining a behavior-based focus during the hiring process can often prevent an undesirable employee from becoming embedded in your organization. Here are some helpful tips we’ve gleaned from the "Workforce Management" publication that you might consider regarding reference and background checks:

• Ask job applicants to sign a waiver giving their former employers permission to talk about them.

• Ask references to rate what kind of employee the job candidate was on a 1 – to – 10 scale.

• Ask if the reference would hire the employee again and listen not just to what they say, but how they say it. Any hesitation or backpedaling?

• Conduct standard background-screening on all employees including a credit check; review of DMV and criminal records; reference checks; and verification of employment, education, professional licenses, and Social Security number. When part of a pre-employment evaluation process, background checks can be legally conducted with the knowledge and written consent of the applicant.

• Create a checklist to document that key aspects of the hiring process have been completed.

Please feel free to contact us at (415) 451-6200 if you would like more information on these or other workplace behavior related topics.