面试官最不应该问的问题

企业家内部网络是一个在线社区，美国创业界一些最睿智和最有影响力的人物会在这里及时回答与创业和职业有关的问题。今天的问题是：“如何避免招错人？”回答者是A Player Advantage公司创始人里克·克罗斯兰。

对于企业家来说，杀伤力最大的一件事莫过于给企业招来了错误的人。我们在职业生涯中可能都曾犯过这种错误。如果团队招错了人，不仅有损公司文化，甚至可能影响公司的发展和利润。那么有没有一些行之有效的方法，能够使企业避免这种错误呢？

以下是7个被证实有效的步骤：

只招募A级人才

这个经验虽然简单，但效果非常明显——记住，只招聘最优秀的人才。A级人才指的是，在你给出的薪水范围内工作能力达到前10%的人才，以及那些你心甘情愿重新聘请的人才。如果他们的薪水要求比其他应聘者高10%怎么办？没关系，因为他们的工作产出要比B级人才高出两到三倍。没有任何大事是靠“中不溜”的人干出来的。

准确描述职位

这是一个很多公司都会犯的错误。在发布职位要求的时候，千万不要忘了详细描述工作职责。我将这种职位描述称为“A级人才协议”，也就是说，它要列出这个职位的“A级人才”所需要的全部技能要求。如果没有对职位精确定义，就连很多大公司也搞不清楚某个职位到底需要哪些技能和经验。如果不这样做，你几乎肯定会招聘到错误的人才。

建立强大的后备人才库

你见到的人才越多，你挑选人才的眼光就会变得越敏锐。即便如此，有些职位的备选人才库也是极为有限的。以我的一家客户正在招聘的某个岗位为例，在任何时间点上，全国可能只有二十来个能够胜任的人才。尽管如此，耐心和审慎选择还是必不可少的，不要因为不够耐心而选择了一名B级人才。

借助有效的评估工具，检验应聘者的“DNA”

在我这个行业，评估工具可以说是“帝王的游戏”，每个咨询顾问和每个博士都有他自己最喜欢使用的评估工具。这些年来，我用过好几个很不错的评估工具。记住，要找一个易于理解、直达目的的工具来评估应聘者。我个人比较喜欢Caliper招聘评估测试，因为它易于解读，而且还有外部专业人士的咨询意见。一个好的评估工具，就好比从应聘者身上取了一份DNA样本。由于这些工具已经在成千上万应聘者身上验证过效能，因此在面试前，你就可以将行为特征不符合职位需求的人筛除了。

使用基于行为的面试方法

很多公司在面试时常犯的一个错误，就是询问假设性或模棱两可的问题。其中最差劲的问题之一就是：“介绍一下你自己。”所以，要尽量询问与真实情境和结果有关的问题（也就是进行基于行为的面试）。如果你问的是一些假设性或者模式化问题，那么就连资质平庸的应聘者也能回答得很动听。在面试一整支高管团队时，我的公司使用了布拉德·斯玛特发明的Topgrading面试技巧，在这个过程中，我们会询问应聘者的整个职业生涯，面试时间长达2到4个小时。由于面试时间变长了，你也能了解关于应聘者的更多信息。你会发现，有些人在45分钟的面试中表现得很不错，可能是你想聘用的人才，但在2个小时至4个小时的“马拉松”面试中，他们就招架不住了。他们的答案开始变得模棱两可，不够明确，这也是B级或者C级人才的特征。然而A级人才却喜欢这样严格的流程，因为他们的答案是明确的，而且他们也能通过这个过程了解你的公司。同时他们也能看出，你是真心想招聘一流的人才。

与证明人谈话

在实际面试中，记得询问应聘者在职业生涯中合作过的一些重要经理人的名字。那些最优秀的应聘者乐于安排你与这些证明人见面。记住，你与证明人会面的时间每次不能少于30分钟，而且同样要提出基于行为的问题，以验证应聘者在面试中的回答是否真实。如果证明人只能证明应聘者曾在他的公司工作，那么这名应聘者很可能并不是最好的选择。

放弃没有让你感到兴奋的应聘者

这也是一条简单有效的经验：放弃那些没有让你感到兴奋的应聘者。有些应聘者可能各项素质都合格，但就是无法让你感到兴奋，那就不要聘用他。优秀的应聘者会使你对他们的技能、成绩和知识感到兴奋，而且他们也应该与公司文化高度契合。（财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎

审校：任文科

The Entrepreneur Insider network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in America’s startup scene contribute answers to timely questions about entrepreneurship and careers. Today’s answer to the question “How do you avoid hiring the wrong people?” is written by Rick Crossland, founder of A Player Advantage.

Perhaps nothing is more devastating to an entrepreneur than hiring the wrong people, yet we’ve all done it at one point or another in our careers. The wrong people on your team hurt not only the culture of your organization, but can also set back the growth and bottom-line profitability of your firm. So what are proven methods for preventing the wrong people from being inadvertently hired by your company?

Here are seven proven steps:

Hire only A players

This a simple, but very powerful point. Only hire the best. A players are defined as employees in the top 10% of their profession for the compensation offered, and are those you would enthusiastically rehire. So what if they cost you 10% more? They are two to three times more productive than B players. Nothing great was ever accomplished with average.

Define the position

This is a common mistake many companies make. Do not post a position without defining it through a detailed job description, or what I call an A Player Agreement, which lists in detail all of the skills and activities to get an “A” in the position. Without defining the position, even established businesses get murky on what candidate skill sets and experiences are needed for the job. This is a sure-fire recipe for hiring the wrong person.

Build a robust candidate pool

The more candidates you have to look at, the keener your eye will be in selecting the right talent. That said, some searches will have a very finite candidate pool. One that I am currently working on for a client has perhaps only about two dozen viable candidates in the country at any one time, but it’s important to be patient and selective. Don’t get impatient and settle for a B player.

Check their intrinsic “DNA” with a robust assessment tool

In my profession, assessment tools are the “sport of kings,” meaning every consultant or Ph.D. has his or her favorite. I’ve used several good ones over the years. Find one that is easy to understand and straightforward to deploy to candidates. I prefer theCaliper hiring assessment because it’s easy to interpret and comes with a consult from an outside professional as part of the service. A good assessment tool is like taking a DNA sample from the candidate. Since the tools are validated on thousands of candidates, you can screen out those who don’t have the right behavioral characteristics to be successful in the role before they come in for an interview.

Use a rigorous behavioral-based interview approach

One common interview mistake is to ask hypothetical or vague questions. One of the worst: “Tell me about yourself.” Instead, ask questions about actual situations and results (conduct a behavioral-based interview). If you use hypothetical or canned questions, even just average candidates can make up good-sounding answers. My firm uses one two to four-hour interview with the entire executive team using author Brad Smart’s structured, Topgrading interview guide, which includes asking about the candidate’s career history. With the longer interview, you get more data to successfully onboard your candidate. You’ll find that people who you would hire in a 45-minute interview cannot keep up the facade for a two to four-hour interview. Their answers become vague and nonspecific, which is the hallmark of the B or C player. Paradoxically, A players love the vigor of this process because their answers are specific, they get to learn about your firm, and they can tell you are serious about top talent.

Interview references

During the actual interview, ask the candidate for the names of key managers they have worked with over the course of their careers. The best candidates will be happy to set up reference interviews for you with these managers. Be sure to budget at least 30 minutes per interview and ask the same kinds of behavioral-based questions about the same situations the candidate was interviewed on. If the references only validate employment, the candidate probably isn’t the best fit.

Pass on the candidates who don’t excite you

This is a simple but powerful point: Pass on any candidates you aren’t excited about. Hiring a candidate who just ticks the boxes but doesn’t excite is a formula for a mis-hire. Great candidates should get you excited about their skills, results, and know-how, as well as the cultural fit they bring to the party.