ForumsFinancing Tips

As already noted, background investigations are very useful, as are some psychological testing instruments (although you probably won't do enough long-time hiring to make it worth investing in those).

The most reliable predictor of future performance is past performance in a similar situation (93 percent accurate, according to some studies). During the interview, ask what are called "behavior description" questions. For instance, if you want to predict honesty and trustworthiness, you might say, "Tell me about a time when it would have been easy to steal something and not get caught" or "Talk about a time when someone trusted you and you let them down." Give the candidate plenty of time to come up with examples (even if it means sitting in silence for 15 seconds), and then ask probing follow-up questions to learn the feelings and thought processes that the person went through, the lessons that were learned, etc. All of us are faced with temptation, and all of us have fallen short of expectations at some time or another -- whether or not a person can own up to that fact, and what he or she says about that experience will reveal a lot more of the "real" person than "traditional" interview questions will.

As another example, I always ask our customer service candidates this one: "Good service means different things to different people. Thinking back over your experience with customers, what were some of the differences you saw in the type of service that people expected from you?" Candidates are rarely prepared for a question like that, so I don't get "rehearsed" responses. Yet anyone who has actually served customers can talk about that one for a half-hour -- and what they say tells me all I need to know about their attitudes regarding service. You can do the same with questions about any behavior you're looking for.

Hope that helps some. Good luck.