Eliminate the Red Flags in Your Agency’s Seasonal Hiring Process

Being in a rush to choose something for dinner at the store on your way home and grabbing the first thing you see isn’t likely to cause much more than a few complaints or wrinkled noses at the dinner table. But if you use that same rushed strategy to make hiring decisions, the consequences could be more significant — including having to fire someone and possibly facing a lawsuit.   

Feeling pressured to make a quick decision is, in fact, a leading cause of poor hiring decisions, according to Sarah Yager, an attorney with Laner Muchin, Ltd., a Chicago law firm specializing in labor and employment law. “The number-one thing I hear from employers during lawsuits regarding employees whom they fired is: ‘I knew I shouldn’t have hired Employee X when I interviewed him, but I really needed someone for the position immediately.’” Employment decisions that boil down to hiring someone simply because he’s in the right place at the right time often create more problems than they solve.

Yager suggests allowing at least three-to-four months to hire seasonal workers. She also recommends that after your busy season is over (and while the information is still fresh), hold supervisor meetings, so managers can discuss recruiting and hiring processes that worked, ones that didn’t work and the timeline for recruiting and hiring for the following season.

While it can be a challenge to check every employment detail for a job candidate, Yager offers some insights on spotting red flags. 

• Employment gaps — “Jobs have been harder to find since the economic down turn, but lengthy or multiple gaps in employment can indicate a problem with the candidate,” Yager notes.  

• Job hopping — Many jobs over a short period of time may have an innocent cause, but it might also be a red flag. “Employers often have policies of providing only neutral references or practices of never giving negative information about former employees,” she says. “That’s why the job changes, in and of themselves, should raise a red flag — rather than negative references from former employers of the candidate.” 

• Interviewing — The applicant will never be better than when he’s interviewing with you. “If you have doubts, don’t hire him,” Yager recommends. “Or at least schedule another round of interviews with other managers, so you have additional opinions.”

• Answering questions — Ask the candidate for specific examples such as, “Tell me about the last time you were frustrated at your current job and how you handled it” or “Have you ever been disciplined at a previous job, and how did you respond to the criticism?” An applicant who accepts no accountability, blames someone else for the problem or evades your question should raise a red flag.  

Yager points out that sometimes employers make costly and unnecessary mistakes in the hiring process. “Don’t even bother giving an interview to an applicant with a sub-par resume,” she urges. “I’ve had employers invite an applicant — who the employer had no real desire to hire — just to ‘see’ if there was something missing from the resume. These same employers are then dismayed when they don’t hire the applicant, and the applicant files a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or another agency claiming he wasn’t hired due to race, age, etc., — something the employer would not have known but for the interview. In short, if the resume is not good, throw it in the garbage and move on.”

Another important aspect employers often overlook in the hiring process is having the job description in front of hiring managers during the interview, so they can ask questions relevant to the job. “Don’t hire an applicant because he was ‘nice’ or loves the Bears,” says Yager. “Instead, ask a preschool teacher who will have his patience tried how he dealt with it the last time a child tested his patience.” Then pay close attention to the answers. If the applicant says something generic but doesn’t answer your question (“Well, I love kids.”), does that person have the experience you want in a preschool teacher? If the applicant’s body language suggests he dislikes children or isn’t used to dealing with behavioral issues, listen to your gut.

While the law forbids discrimination against disabled applicants and employees, it does allow employers to determine whether an individual is able to perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodations. “You don’t have to ignore reasonable, objective evidence that the person may be unable to do the essential functions of the job,” Yager adds. “For instance, if a person is being interviewed for a job that involves heavy lifting, but her arm is in a sling during the interview, the situation will likely trigger a duty to communicate and interact with the applicant to determine whether she can perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodations.”

And where physical health or skill is a job-related requirement, you may want to conduct post-offer, pre-employment physicals to determine fitness for duty. “Talk with your PDRMA Risk Management Consultant and your agency’s legal counsel before setting up this type of testing to ensure it meets local, state and federal requirements,” Yager suggests.