More and more, companies are finding that it's no longer good enough to simply hire a certain number of people to perform a certain amount of work. Haphazard hiring can result in such inconveniences as a high turnover rate, low morale and low productivity, or such devastating consequences as expensive lawsuits or harm to customers or employees.

Many employers seek to improve their productivity and limit human-resources headaches through pre-employment testing and smart hiring practices. The methods of hiring vary as much as the types of people they are designed to screen out, but there are some systems that human-resources managers find particularly valuable, from interview strategies to personality, proficiency and intelligence tests and background checks.

Put to the test

There are many versions of the pre-employment test. Examples are the Jung Typology Test and Kiersey Temperament Test, both of which purport to describe a person's personality in foreseeable, measurable ways.

"We use a very effective tool, the Predictive Index Management tool - a series of questions we pose to a prospective new hire," says Jill Tirone, human-resources manager for Noco Energy Corp. "All of that information is run through a database, and the report that's generated gives us a good idea how this person is going to perform in terms of their teamworking abilities, their leadership abilities, and the way they're going to interact with people already on the team."

But an employer has to be careful about which tests they choosre.

"For instance," says lawyer Richard Braden, a partner at Goldberg Segalla LLP, "the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, which many firms have used in the past to determine personality traits, was recently found by a U.S. district court to be capable of identifying psychiatric disorders, and therefore deemed to be a medical exam. Employers can't give medical exams to applicants, they can only give medical exams to employees. So the process can get complicated, and employers have to understand, and keep up with, current legal requirements."

Interview basics

The interview process itself has become increasingly intricate as companies strive to standardize the types of questions posed and to train their interviewers accordingly. The days of a simple back-and-forth exchange and hiring on gut instinct are largely over.

Interviewers have a wealth of questions at their disposal to discover how prospective employees are likely to react on the job, respond to stress, solve problems, set goals, etc. A lot of this preparation also focuses on the intangibles: using body language, or a comfortable seating arrangement, to put the interviewee at ease.

Before they even get in the door, though, prospective employees had better be sure that they're putting their best foot forward.

"I'll look at the resume - not to read it for content at first, but to look it over for consistency, punctuation, typos. If anything is incorrect or sloppily put together, it's a fair assumption that that person might also approach their job responsibilities the same way," says Tirone.

"Absolutely," agrees Karen Bush, senior account executive at AppleOne, an employment agency. "A three-page resume is a red flag. If they've been a job hopper, chances are they're going to stay that way," she says. And first impressions count. "How professional are they? How are they dressed? Are they on time?"

Plus, she emphasizes, one of the benefits of outsourcing hiring to an agency is being able to hand off many of the human-resources troubles that larger corporations have to deal with. "We look into all that. We do all the legwork. And we're also up on all the legal requirements, so the employer doesn't expose themselves as much."

Toeing a fine line

There wouldn't be labor-and-employment departments at large law firms if there weren't so many things for employers to keep track of.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and New York State Division of Human Rights have extremely strict regulations regarding what an employer may ask or test for in the interviewing process, and, on the flip side, what an employer may or may not dismiss an employee for.

"It's a fine line," says Braden, "because employers need to be on top of their testing and selection procedures to make sure that they're hiring the best candidates without unintentionally violating the law by, for example, using a process that disproportionately excludes a protected category of applicants. At the same time, many employers need to be concerned about potential liability for negligent hiring. Those employers should strongly consider conducting criminal background checks," Braden advises, "especially for positions in which employees are going to have regular contact with the public or with customers, and particularly when the employee will be unsupervised."

Employers are finding that the best way to avoid expensive litigation over the termination of a poorly performing employee is to not hire that individual in the first place. Therefore, human-resources departments are emerging as not only integral to a company's success, but also as a key factor in a company's strategic plan.

Adopting - and strictly adhering to - a structured and lawful hiring procedure can help an employer attract and retain top talent while screening out many problem employees.

Terri Parsell Hilmey is a Williamsville free-lance writer.