http://www.employerhelpcenter.com/KnowledgeBase/ Employer Help Center Knowledge Base en-US Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:01:53 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.1 q http://www.employerhelpcenter.com/KnowledgeBase/search.php http://www.employerhelpcenter.com/KnowledgeBase/topic/hiring-people-who-will-stay-with-the-company#post-9 Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:43:27 +0000 Robert French 9@http://www.employerhelpcenter.com/KnowledgeBase/ <p>Yes there is one question I know that will help you with this. </p> <p>However, a good way to know how long a person will stay with your company is by analyzing his/her résumé as described in Step 7 of the guide How to Hire Great Employees First Time, Every Time.</p> <p>Ultimately, what will make someone a long term employee is how much they like working for your company and how well they fit with (a) the people who are currently working there and (b) the future employees that you hire.</p> <p>As an employer, one of your key jobs is to create an atmosphere in your company in which your employees are happy, productive and self motivating. This will do more to turn your employees into long term employees.</p> <p>However, having said that, people have personality traits that make them 'settled' or 'restless'. A restless personality will probably not stay with your organization more than two or three years (sometimes less). A very settled personality may stay with you for life.</p> <p>If you ask the question, "How is your current job different from what you were doing five years ago?" it will give you an answer somewhere between "very much the same" and "completely different". People who give a positive answer that tends towards the "same" will be more likely to be a settled personality and more likely to stay longer with the company. People who give a positive answer that tends towards the "different" will be likely to switch jobs more frequently.</p> <p>An interesting example of this was when a friend of mine was hiring an executive secretary. Because she had only been in her current job for about eighteen months, he was concerned that she might leave him after a similar time. He asked her the question above and she answered that her current job was very much the same. When he looked at her résumé he saw that five years before she had been a homemaker which most of us would consider a completely different job. When he questioned her about this, she said that looking after a family was very much like looking after a CEO and his company. She stayed as his secretary for seven years, until he left the company.</p> <p>This question is not infallible but it can be a useful indicator. </p> http://www.employerhelpcenter.com/KnowledgeBase/topic/psychological-testing#post-8 Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:58:03 +0000 Robert French 8@http://www.employerhelpcenter.com/KnowledgeBase/ <p>Like you, I was skeptical. In fact when I first started work, I went through several psychological tests, some of which I found stupid. I remember one question "Who would you rather be, the Pope or a rock star?" I have no idea what information that question was trying to elicit and it certainly was not gender neutral!</p> <p>When I got into management positions, I employed various psychological tests and mostly I found them of limited value. On occasions, they would point out valuable information - for example a lack of honesty or integrity in a candidate - but they generally did not give me answers to the questions I really wanted to know the answers to.</p> <p>For example, these tests would tell me that a specific candidate was confident, outgoing, ambitious and hardworking but just because the candidate was all of these things did not mean that he was going to be a a good salesman in my organization.</p> <p>Fortunately, over the last ten years or so, some psychological testing has focused on competency. There are now several tests on the market that allow you to compare the psychological profile of a candidate with the profiles of your top performers. The companies offering these tests usually allow you to profile the top performers in your organization so that you can compare potential employees to your current best. If you do not have top performers in certain positions, the testing companies usually have profiles of people who have performed well in similar positions in organizations like yours.</p> <p>Clearly, it is better if you can profile candidates against people who are performing successfully in YOUR organization. That will give you a sense that the candidate will be a good fit.</p> <p>If you opt to use psychological testing make sure that it is competency based and that it lets you compare profiles of candidates to the profiles of proven, successful employees.</p> <p>We are soon going to be doing an evaluation of psychological testing methods and will be publishing a white paper on the subject. If you are already a customer of the Employer Help Center, you will automatically receive this white paper. If you are not a customer, go to our Home page and sign up for our free newsletter. </p> http://www.employerhelpcenter.com/KnowledgeBase/topic/stealing-from-competitors#post-7 Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:26:41 +0000 Robert French 7@http://www.employerhelpcenter.com/KnowledgeBase/ <p>This is not a question with a straight yes/no answer. </p> <p>To some extent it may depend upon your industry. If you are in an industry with a strong industry association where members tend to cooperate with each other, head hunting from competitors may be regarded as a no-no, especially if the members of the association have agreed not to steal each others' employees.</p> <p>However, if you are not bound by the guidelines of an association, you are on better ground. Clearly there is nothing unethical about fair competition between companies and there is no reason that you should not compete with other companies for the best staff. However, even this is not a simple matter. Sometimes competitors have a friendly attitude towards each other and you may well be friends with your counterparts in a competitive company. </p> <p>Like all ethical questions, there is never a straight answer, however, in the menu bar above, there is a item marked ethics. Click on it to see the ethical standards by which we govern ourselves at the Employer Help Center.</p> <p>If you have a more specific question in this area, please post it below. </p> http://www.employerhelpcenter.com/KnowledgeBase/topic/stealing-from-competitors#post-6 Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:58:03 +0000 Anonymous 6@http://www.employerhelpcenter.com/KnowledgeBase/ <p>Is it ethical for me to try and steal employees away from my company's competitors? </p> http://www.employerhelpcenter.com/KnowledgeBase/topic/psychological-testing#post-5 Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:48:15 +0000 Anonymous 5@http://www.employerhelpcenter.com/KnowledgeBase/ <p>I am very skeptical about psychological testing. Do you really believe it is worth it? </p> http://www.employerhelpcenter.com/KnowledgeBase/topic/hiring-people-who-will-stay-with-the-company#post-4 Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:44:00 +0000 Anonymous 4@http://www.employerhelpcenter.com/KnowledgeBase/ <p>I really liked the interview questions in the guide that let me know if someone is a team player and if they will take responsibility for their mistakes.<br /> I am interested in knowing if there are any questions that I can ask in the interview that will indicate if the candidate is the sort of person who will stay with the company and not quit after a couple years. </p>