Hiring The Best: A Manager's Guide to Effective Interviewing and Recruiting Paperback – Bargain Price, August 30, 2005

I browsed through this book before I had to interview potential employees. There is some good info in here. Nicely put together.

Great book. Have used it several times in various editions to select quality candidates. Most recently used the book to help a family member develop questions for hiring a new support person. The book is clear and well written and provides several different strategies for interviewing and selecting the best candidates. A must for managers at any level who interview and make hiring decisions.

This is one of the best books on the topic out there.I went with four stars because the author gives a very one-sided view of drug testing.

Much of this might be considered common sense, but we tend to forget & overlook. Will be using many of the suggestions here for several new hires.

I first read this book 10+ years ago. The advice has gotten better with age. Hiring is not complicated. It takes some discipline and focus. Yate boils it down to 3 questions, restated in the most direct terms:1. Can you do the minimum requirements of this position? (behavioral interviewing techniques follow naturally)2. Are you highly self-motivated? (more behavioral interviewing ... give me another specific example ... )3. Are you manageable? Do you willingly pursue the manager/firm's goals? (more behavioral interviewing ... with some sharper questions and pointed follow-up to trigger honest reactions and discussion)This approach greatly reduces the risk of "hiring errors", especially if you require a team of interviewees to agree that a candidate passes all three tests. The chosen candidate may not be an ideal highflyer, but they will be able to do the job, be low maintenance for their manager and not derail the work of others.This approach forces hiring managers and HR to agree upon essential qualifications up front, it scripts interviews for consistency, it reduces the allure of only hiring people just like me, it eliminates ethereal discussions about future growth potential, it neutralizes the sparkling personality advantage, it creates some tension and variety that yields more honest answers AND it sets the clear tone for managing the candidate once hired.This approach also allows you to evaluate internal transfers in a fair way and give priority to them even if external candidates seem to be slightly "more qualified" or to provide internal candidates with clear feedback on what they could do to become more qualified for a position when you have to turn them down.At the end of an interview, I have even posed these questions to candidates one at a time to give them a final chance to convince the interview team of their qualifications. The very best candidates really shine when the questions are asked directly. They are talented, motivated team-players and can speak to these qualities. The pretenders make faces and sputter!In the current 10-15% unemployment market, this approach is especially valuable, since it focuses two-thirds of the time on the subjective drivers of success: self-motivation and selfless teamwork. "Can you do the job?" has evolved into a search for who can prove best beyond a shadow of a doubt that they have done every bit of this job repeatedly in the past - a very low ROI approach that leads to the future discovery of "hiring failures" and individuals who do not have another promotion left in their repertoire.