5 Takeaways to Improve Quality of Hire from Ben Mones and William Tincup A Recruiting Daily Webinar Recap

After we published our new Recruiter’s Guide to Quality of Hire, we connected with our friends at Recruiting Daily for a webinar to walk TA leaders and professionals through some of the most noteworthy topics recruiting deals with today: how to hire great-quality talent. 

‍The webinar started with Recruiting Daily’s William Tincup pulling out his magic wand – yes, for real – and asking Fama’s CEO, Ben Mones, “if you could swish this wand and hire the best people, how would you define what’s best.” 

While the end was less magical and more strategic, practical, here were some of the highlights from the event:

‍The experts agree: skills-based hiring isn’t great 

In theory, hiring people for their skills makes total sense. But, as Ben points out, “work doesn’t get done in a vacuum.” As an online screening solution specifically for workplace misconduct, Fama has found all sorts of highly qualified professionals engaging in such gross misconduct – think doctors trying to illegally harvest organs from coma patients and professionals publishing violent manifestos – that makes it clear they don’t have the integrity and good-nature to positively contribute to an organization. ‍

What makes a quality hire? 

That said, what makes someone a good hire? 

For starters – Ben and William agree that having the right qualifications is a no-brainer. It’s not even a question. If someone doesn’t have the skills or credentials to do a job they won’t make a good quality hire in this particular role at this time. 

But, there’s so much more than that. 

“We don’t even consider someone who has the right skills as a quality hire,” Ben says, “we consider them a qualified hire.” Continuing, “if someone isn’t qualified, they aren’t quality. That’s not even a question. So quality needs to focus on behaviors.”

“To us,” Ben shares, “it’s more about how people are willing to learn, to adapt, to go through a hard time, to be a good person who contributes positively to the team.” 

In agreement, Tincup finishes, “The person is more than just the sum of their skills. You just hit the nail on the head. The real question is: will they be a good person?”

How is misconduct at work a quality of hire issue for recruiting? 

Unfortunately, there’s plenty of research showing that not only does a small amount of misconduct have a BIG impact on an organization. Ben shares two studies from Cornerstone OnDemand and Harvard Business School, which show that it only takes a small amount of misconduct to result in harmful consequences, and just how contagious misconduct is. 

He cited one study from Harvard Business School, which found that Financial Advisors are 37% more likely to engage in misconduct if they meet a colleague who engages in misconduct. 

We’ve done the research on this – literally – Fama has a study of our own publishing next week. Request your free copy here.  ‍

This is why misconduct is such an important part of hiring. “We used to talk a lot more about misconduct before Covid. But, I think, the pandemic changed our conduct,” posits Tincup. “When companies started hiring a lot of people – like 1,000 engineers at a time – we stopped thinking about misconduct and started thinking about getting butts in seats. It’s time to bring it back,” Tincup says. 

“It’s about not hiring the person who will harass others and make good people leave,” says Ben.

What approach can help Talent Acquisition reduce misconduct and improve candidate quality? 

Small changes in the way we make hiring decisions can make a big impact. When assessing and evaluating candidates, Tincup simplifies the suggested approach into 3 questions: 

1. Is the candidate qualified?
2. Is the candidate a quality human?
3. Should we hire them? 

By asking and answering these questions separately when thinking about hiring a candidate, the experts say, it can make the hiring decision easier. 

What tools can help determine the quality from the qualified? 

“Everyone can be perfect when the lights are on,” says Ben. That’s why it’s important to look at candidate behaviors, words, and actions over a long-period of time. “Looking at words and actions over time is a better way to assess quality,” says Ben. 

This is why it’s important to do your due diligence. 

Our new research backs this up. 

Out of 9 industries benchmarked in The State of Misconduct at Work Report, the only 2 that kept misconduct to safe levels were the two industries that are highly regulated and conduct enhanced background screenings on candidates. 

“The problem with traditional background checks,” Ben says, “is they determine workplace misconduct by focusing on the absence of finding anything. ‘Has the candidate committed crimes? Nothing pops up. Great! There’s no misconduct.” 

“But, that fails to consider other kinds of misconduct that aren’t typically picked up in the criminal justice system, which is why Fama bases misconduct on people’s own words and actions.” 

At the end of the day, hiring is a challenge, and hiring great-quality candidates is even harder. But, we spend so much time at work. Personally and professionally, the people we work with can make or break our experience at an organization, our reputation, our legal standing, and our ability to earn a living and grow profits.

When hiring teams make the wrong decisions, “it makes good customers and good people leave the organization,” says Ben, who founded Fama after hiring someone who looked great on paper but engaged in misconduct that drove out the top sales reps.  

Instead of hiring people for their resumes and skills, companies must focus recruiting efforts on hiring “upstanding people who do the right thing.”

For more information on assessing and improving quality of hire, watch the webinar now. 

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