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Recruiting Darwin Awards – Not Everybody Evolves

By Bryan Johanson, June 4, 2008

Several years ago my children introduced me to the Darwin Awards. We've had a lot of fun reading some of the stories of the winners (or should I say "losers"?). These awards go to members of the human race who do something so dumb that they end up removing themselves from the gene pool – hence the name. For instance, take the guy who had a fuse in his car blow out on a long trip. He had the bright idea to use a bullet to replace the fuse. The logic was sound – it's made of metal and conducts electricity, doesn't it? Everything was going fine until the bullet heated up and exploded, leaving a big hole in his chest. As we travel the world talking to recruiters and recruiting organizations, I've become aware of some practices that, while not quite as deadly as the above example, do cause one to wonder what people are thinking. In the interest of brevity, I'm going to list just a few of the more egregious examples. I'll stop short of naming names, but know that every example is real.

Read more articles by this author.

Related Topics:

Interviewing, Newsletter, Recruiting

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The Antidote for Bad Interviewers

1. Over-compliance. Don't get me wrong – I'm all for compliance. We do need to have fair hiring practices in place, and the whole process should be devoid of racism, sexism, and any other type of "ism" that might exist, but some organizations have taken compliance to a whole new level. In fact, they are proud that they are "over-compliant." One example is a very large technology company that has instituted a policy prohibiting managers from talking to anybody about a job opportunity unless that person's information is captured neatly in their ATS system. In fact, their HR managers have been instructed to call managers if they become aware of a conversation about a job and ask them to stop interacting with the candidate until they have officially applied for a job. I'm sure they are 1000% compliant, but at what cost? First, there is no law that says you can't talk to potential employees unless they are in your ATS system. Second, by putting this type of restriction on the manager, they've almost guaranteed that they will get sub-par candidates. The best candidates aren't ready to apply for a job, they don't have updated resumes, they aren't even sure they want to be in your ATS. How do they become sure? By talking it over and exploring opportunities. Only candidates who have already made a decision or who are desperate for a job will apply before exploring – especially if that application process is onerous, time-consuming, and disrespectful. One large pharmaceutical company in the started their application process with two pages of legalese that the candidate had to read before proceeding to apply. The last sentence stated, "If you lie at any time on this application you will not be considered for the position and will not be eligible for future employment with our company!!!!!" Who would want to work for a company that doesn't trust you from the outset?! This type of thinking almost guarantees that these companies are fishing for future employees in the shallow end of the gene pool.

2. Asking really dumb interview questions. Yes, they are still out there. Microsoft is famous for them, but other companies continue to adopt questions that are supposedly designed to show creativity, innovation, or ingenuity. Some are blatantly illegal, while others sound intelligent, but aren't. Just for fun you might want to read this real job application from someone who was actually hired by McDonalds: http://www.funlol.com/funpages/mcdonaldsjobapplication.html. They apparently hired him for his honesty, but he could have just as well turned out to be an ax murderer – not that the questions they asked would have revealed his true character. This does give some insight into what candidates think when you ask poor interview questions. Below are some sample interview questions actually asked by recruiters and hiring managers of candidates. You might want to avoid these.

1. "What caption would you want on your tomb stone?" (I was too smart to work for your company!)
2. "If you were an animal what kind of animal would you be?" (Lion – top of the food chain, you know. It may depend on the job: customer service – monkeys are very friendly and groom each other. I'm not sure what the right answer is.)
3. "If you were a car what kind of car would you be?" (A Honda – reliable, dependable, and it goes forever.)
4. "See that tree over there (interviewer points to tree)? How far away do you think it is?" This was a real question asked of a software developer.
5. "What ... is your name?"
6. "What ... is your quest?"
7. "What ... is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?" American or European? (Just checking to see if you are still paying attention.)
8. "How many gas stations are in Chicago?"
9. "How would you move Mount Fiji?" (I like it just fine where it is.)
10. "Is there any reason we shouldn't hire you?" (This is really an intelligence question – only an idiot would answer this honestly.)
11. "Why aren't you married yet?" (Because everyone I've met so far ends up being like you.)
12. "What church do you attend?"
13. "What would you do if I gave you an elephant?" (I'd ask, "What, no pooper-scooper, too?")
14. "If you could be a dog, what kind of dog would you be?" (The kind that bites you.)

In the interest of full disclosure, many of these have been gathered from various postings around the internet. You can Google them to find these and others. A little common sense would go a long way here. If you are not familiar with our two-question interview, I highly recommend that you check out these classic articles on our website entitled "The Best Interview Question of All Time" and "My Favorite Interview Question."We believe you can conduct a great interview with only two questions. Check it out; it might save you some embarrassment.

3. Using Vendor Management Systems as a shield. I believe that some HR managers view their Vendor Management Systems as the ultimate Star Wars program proposed by Reagan. These systems tend to be viewed as a way to protect organizations from hostile or low-value-add vendors. The goal is to automate the interaction and limit access to internal resources. In this mistaken world view, every vendor is viewed as a commodity. VMS systems provide an excuse not to partner with external resources that could become a valuable extension of the internal teams. One of the key complaints of quality third-party recruiters is that they no longer have any access to the hiring managers for whom they are recruiting. We spend a lot of time teaching recruiters (both corporate and third-party) how to partner with hiring managers so that both parties are on the same page with respect to the real job. If managers and recruiters are not in constant contact during the recruitment process it's almost impossible to attract, recruit, and retain the top talent they desire. I'm all for limiting the number of recruiting organizations corporations engage. I'm even more in favor of only contracting with quality partners with proven processes. But what often happens in purchasing departments is a push to sign up any recruiting partner recommended by a hiring manager without regard to quality or accountability to high recruitment standards. Because they have so many partners they don't give their good partners access to the hiring managers, and yet they still expect good recruiting results. There are great partners out there that should be given that partner status. I know – we've trained many of them.

These are just a few examples from my recent experience, but I'm open to hearing about others you've found. I'm collecting stories and nominations for the real Recruiting Darwin Awards to be announced later this year. Feel free to email your nominations to me at bryan@adlerconcepts.com. I'll keep you posted on the best entries. Remember, nominations must include the specific action or program undertaken to exclude top talent from consideration. If your company has policies like the ones above, you might want to look for a better company.

Happy Recruiting.