5 Red Flags in Hiring a New Employee

5 Red Flags in Hiring a New Employee

There are a lot of dos and don’ts in recruitment.

Employee searches are difficult. First you probably get a mountain of applications. Then you have to go through the interviews. Well here are five ways to know whose resume to dump and who not to invite back for a second interview.

Weak Resume

Most job seekers have already heard about what not to put on their resumes. Don’t add a picture, personal likes, hobbies or anything that sounds like what people put on their Facebook pages. But for the people on the human resources side of the equation there are a lot of other red flags, including what a resume does not say.

If some has a lot of different jobs in different fields over the years, the candidate is probably not for you. If they have a number of very short job tenures on their resume, you probably don’t want them. This is a sign that the person either cannot hold a job or just has no interest in staying anywhere for long.

As for what might be missing – gaps between years. It’s ok if someone took time off because they had kids, or someone was sick, etc. But this should be explained in the cover letter or on the resume itself.

The Interview Part 1: What they ask

If the person only asks about his salary and benefits, etc., then this is a red flag. The candidate should not even be asking about this at a first interview, except for maybe at the end. These days employers usually ask a candidate for his or her salary expectation. And no one should be interested in what perks they might get or what holidays they get off at the interview. While some people do have special needs such as children who – God forbid – might be ill, this should be discussed at a later time.

A candidate should never ask his interviewer any personal questions. There will be plenty of time to get to know the people that they work with if hired. It’s one thing if a person just asks about a family picture on your desk, or about pictures of you hiking or skiing. But that should only be done in a polite perfunctory manner.

And forget about someone who asks all about what your company does. If they couldn’t be bothered to do their homework before coming in for an interview then they probably won’t work so hard in their job.

The Interview Part 2: What they don’t ask

What a candidate fails to ask an interviewer might even be more important than what he does ask. Someone should always be interested in what the job actually is. They do need to discuss themselves, but at a certain point they should also express curiosity about what their day to day job would be like. But they should, of course, have a basic idea of what the open position is.

The candidate should also ask some questions about corporate structure and where they would fit in to the company long term. Be suspicious if they do not.

The Interview Part 3: The negotiator

Be wary of anyone who talks about having other job offers. So what if they do? It’s not relevant. The process of hiring a new employee is not like signing a free agent in baseball. Such attempts to play off other job offers only apply when someone is being recruited, when a firm specifically sought the person. This has no place when applying for an open position.

A job interview is never a negotiation. If the candidate tries to play the game of you need him more than he needs you, look for someone else.

Social Media

Look a person up on social media. If they have a Facebook page or a Twitter account be sure to review it. There are an unlimited number of red flags to be found on someone’s social media account. Some of this varies depending on the feelings of the employer and what he or she needs in an applicant.

But much more is universal. For example, you don’t want someone who brags to his friends that he took a sick day just to go to the beach. You also don’t want someone who makes volatile or hostile kinds of social media posts.

Aldo, if someone does post crazy things on Facebook without the common sense to have a privacy secured account which strangers can’t see, then you probably don’t want them.