Hiring? Traditional is No Longer Conventional

Starting out in the legal world, things were tense. They usually are in a fresh new business. Each obstacle you overcome gives you new insight, making the rest of your experience easier. When it came to hiring, I’ve had my fair share of bad experiences, one in particular where I hired someone who I thought was extraordinary, but turned out to be a disappointment.

I trust the interview process primarily because I’m a great judge of people, but I don’t find it to be the only way to learn useful information about the person on the other side of the table. People exaggerate their accomplishments, take credit where it should go to someone else, and often pretend to have skills they don’t have.

Hire the Best Fit

In 1999, I needed an assistant badly. Being a solo practitioner is not easy, and I tried to get one. I needed someone good on the phone, with extensive experience in a law firm, patience, and probably a thousand more qualities that would satisfy me. Here’s where I was advised to spend a little more money, though. I hired my secretary for $50,000 yearly, and Laurie stuck with me for 11 years. She changed my life, and helped my office run more smoothly, efficiently, and profitably.

The Tests You Should Use

The best test for measuring cognitive skills is Wonderlic which will allow you to see how your candidate processes information. If you’re going to use only one test, you can use this one!

To measure emotional intelligence, we recently used the Enneagram test. A person’s emotional intelligence comprises three abilities, a knack for identifying and naming emotions, corralling their emotions and applying them to the task at hand, and managing their emotions or of those that are around them.

Here are other tests we have used or are considering:

Prevue: It is based on the ICES personality inventory, which measures independence, conscientiousness, extraversion, and stability.

Wechsler test: This test will give you a general IQ score of your candidate.

CBI test: Stands for Counterproductive Behavior Index and helps you to identify candidates that may have questionable behaviors, attitudes, and values. This will keep anyone who wants to steal from your company at bay.

Kolbe index: This particular test will reveal a person’s instincts and method of operation. It does not measure personality, intelligence, or social style but will spotlight a person’s natural abilities and preferences.

Testing isn’t exactly a foolproof process, and you may make mistakes along the way. However, you can always outsource these tests to other companies, and finding one for yourself is fairly easy. One final tip before I bid you farewell, “Hire slow and fire fast.”

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