How To Avoid Hiring Blunders

This is a Guest Blog by Paul Hemp of the Harvard Business Review

Hiring people? Who has time to think about that these days, when most organizations are trying to figure out who to lay off and how to do it humanely?

The Harvard Business Review says you're making a mistake if you don't carve out time to plot your hiring strategy, according to Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, a senior executive at the search firm Egon Zehnder International and the co-author--with Harvard Business School professors Boris Groysberg and Nitin Nohria--of an article in the May issue of Harvard Business Review, "The Definitive Guide to Recruiting in Good Times and Bad."

Although few companies are adding--or even replacing--people now, hiring will become a key source of competitive advantage as soon as the first signs of recovery appear on the horizon, says Fernández-Aráoz, who also is the author of the recently published book Great People Decisions.

In the current HarvardBusiness Ideacast, Fernández-Aráoz catalogs some of the mistakes people make when hiring and offers advice on avoiding them. One of the biggest errors is assuming that the worst thing that can happen is hiring someone who turns out to be a disaster. A potentially greater mistake: not hiring someone who would have been a star performer.

After you listen to the IdeaCast, you can also take Recruiting Practices Self-Assessment, a "painless, 21-question" quiz, developed by the authors, to see how your hiring practices stack up overall and in seven distinct sub-categories.

Before hiring you, Bozeman, Montana wants to know: "What are you doing?"

(CBS) If you're planning to apply for a job with the city of Bozeman, Montana, be prepared to hand over much more than your references and résumé.

The Rocky Mountain city instructs all job applicants to divulge their usernames and passwords for "any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc."

"Before we offer people employment in a public trust position we have a responsibility to do a thorough background check," Chuck Winn, Bozeman's assistant city manager, told CBSNews.com in an interview on Thursday. "This is just a component of a thorough background check."

"Shame on us if there was information out there available about a person who applied for a job who was a child molester or had some sort of information out there on the Internet that kind of showed those propensities and we didn't look for it, we didn't ask, and we hired that person," Winn said. "In many ways we would have let the public down."

An attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group based in San Francisco, questioned Bozeman's choice to ask for usernames and passwords. "I think its indefensibly invasive and likely illegal as a violation of the First Amendment rights of job applicants," said Kevin Bankston, an EFF attorney. "Essentially they're conditioning your application for employment on your waiving your First Amendment rights ... and risking the security of your information by requiring you to share your password with them... Where does it stop? How about a photocopy of your diary?"

Interesting huh? Naturally we don't want criminals or deviants of any kind employed by our municipalities and give those offenders access to areas where they could potentially cause us a great deal of harm. And of course we are all proponents of throrough background checking and pre-hiring due diligence before offering anyone a position. That has always been good procedure and will continue to be.

But what do you think? Is the City of Bozeman entitled to do whatever their leadership deems necessary to ensure good hires or are they actually treading on applicants' First Amendment Rights in their zeal to weed out any undesirable applicants and actually doing more harm to the City in the long run?

Extreme Truck Stops

World's largest truck stop, best food, gaming, lots of chrome and all kinds of 'toys' for your truck ... you're going to want to keep this list handy as you travel across America!

Iowa 80 Truck Stop
Walcott, Iowa
Dubbed "The World's Biggest Truck Stop," Iowa 80 parks 800 trucks and has 15 fuel stations and 450 employees to manage the 5,000 visitors that come through the truck stop each day. Iowa 80 is the home away from home for the truckers, boasting a 50-foot salad bar, 24 private showers, two game rooms at the Driver's Den Lounge, a business center, a 60-seat movie theater and a barbershop. What's not to love?

Seven Feathers Truck and Travel Center
Canyonville, Oregon
Seven Feathers Truck and Travel Center houses a 22,000-square-foot convention center and the adjacent 147-room Seven Feathers Hotel and Casino Resort, featuring 1,300 slot machines, table games, poker and bingo. For truckers with a late check-in, the 24-hour Cow Creek Restaurant is ready to serve.

75 Chrome Shop
Wildwood, Florida
A family-owned business for more than 13 years, 75 Chrome Shop is a wonderland for trucking "toys." Where else can truckers relax, take a shower, do their laundry and trick-out their trucks? Open 8 a.m. to midnight, shoppers can collect colorful truck grilles, horns, light, CB radios and more.

Billy Bob's Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Also known as "honky-tonk" heaven, Billy Bob's Texas truck stop has been serving truckers for 27 years. Customers come from all over the U.S. to relax and have a few cold ones. Since its opening, Billy Bob's has served over 29.7 million beers!

Lee Hi Travel Plaza
Lexington, Virginia
Said to be the place truckers will rearrange their schedules for, Lee Hi Travel Plaza boasts 4,000 square feet, dedicated to its three restaurants -- Tin Toy Café, Pedal Car Diner and the Railroad Dining Room.

South of the Border Truck Stop
Border of North and South Carolina
Spreading over 350 acres of land, "South of The Border" is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It's a combination truck stop, rest stop, Mexican-themed amusement park and boutique mall. If a full day at this rest stop has you wishing you could stay longer, check into the 300-room, South of the Border Inn.

Trapper's Kettle
Belfield, North Dakota
This rustic-themed truck stop has a variety of bow-hunted animals for sale, motel rooms for rent and stables where you can house your horse for the night.

Foghat, Carly Simon, Aretha Franklin, and The Beatles Can Improve Your Twitter Experience

Twitter is being discussed everywhere today it seems. New users are joining Twitter in droves. Many of these new Twitter users are convinced that getting as many followers as possible, as quickly as possible if of utmost importance. As you may have surmised by now, I don't agree with that point of view. Conversely if you really want Twitter to work for you, you’ll take a step back and follow some simple guidelines.

Slow Ride
Unless you are Oprah or Ashton or Usher, and you just joined Twitter a week ago and you already follow dozens of people. you may doing it wrong. Slow down. Twitter is not a race, and following hundreds of people is meaningless unless your goal is simply to amass a huge list of people you follow. Community-building takes time and patience. Follow people based on their interests. Talk to them. See who they talk to and if you're so moved, follow those people. Be patient. By being more selective about who you follow, you will create a stronger network around yourself, and that is the key to building brand loyalty.

Respect
Did you read a great blog post today? Give the writer a mention on Twitter. Did someone in your Twitter stream write something amusing? Re-tweet it. Did a fellow Twitterer help you out with a project or question? Thank them by name in your Twitter stream. Be generous with giving praise to others and crediting someone else for a great link. The internet culture celebrates sharing, collaboration, and mutual respect. You are a truly good netizen for pointing out the strengths of others.

You’re So Vain
Twitter is not your own personal soapbox or advertising space. It is a place where people congregate, collaborate, and share ideas. If all you are doing is pushing your own agenda, that list of followers you worked so hard to build will quickly begin to drift away. You might not realize they’ve left your stream but believe it, they’re not listening any more.

There’s nothing wrong with mentioning your brand, or your company, or even your personal agenda, but be balanced. What are you reading about? Did you learn something new worth tweeting about today? Can you recommend a great read? Be human, be interesting, and be friendly. You don’t have to sell yourself or your product with every tweet. You don’t even have to do it every day. If people like you, if they find you interesting, intelligent, creative, or even controversial at times, they’ll find out who you are and what you have to offer.

Help!
Read your Twitter stream. Pay attention to what people are saying. Offer help, encouragement, advice, and your expertise whenever possible. Make time every day to contribute to the Twitter community. Offer up some good links, funny Tweets, responses to requests for help, whatever it might be. Participate. Leave the site better than you found it!

Our Nation's Truck Fleet: A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing?

In doing research on truck safety I stumbled upon an interesting blog today titled “Truck Accidents: Could Your Vehicle Keep You Safe?"

In short, the writer’s belief is that trucks are a menace on the nation’s highways and therefore passenger vehicle drivers need to protect themselves from deadly entanglements with trucks by driving vehicles that can survive a car-truck collision. The writer states twice in the blog:

The trucking industry isn’t going anywhere any time soon, and while we can hope that some of these measures begin to drastically reduce the number of highway deaths, now is the time to make sure you’re driving the safest vehicles you possibly can.

In making his case that trucks are out of control and a danger to the occupants of cars he describes a particularly tragic accident that happened in California and then writes:

This isn’t the first time the safety of sharing our roads with oversized semi-trailer trucks has been questioned. Trucking industry practices are continuously being reformed to address the number of fatalities these vehicles cause, including reducing the amount of time a truck driver is allowed to drive without a break, instituting new methods of driver payment that do not include “paid-by-the-mile” incentives, and adding more highway patrol officers designated to specifically crack down on truck drivers that don’t keep proper log books or break traffic laws. But is it enough?

Finally he goes on to discuss which vehicles and which vehicle features are the ones automobile drivers will want to keep them safest. In other words if “the trucking industry isn’t going anywhere any time soon” these are vehicles he believes would be your best bet should you and your passengers tangle with an out of control truck.

Our response to that blog follows:

You expound an interesting point of view. Your blog reads as though you are advising readers to assure their protection by arming themselves with a vehicle that can survive a crash with a truck. Fight fire with fire, if you will.

And although that may be good advice at times, better advice all the time is to drive safely and when driving show a lot of consideration and respect for trucks and of course truck drivers. How often have you seen automobiles

darting in and out of traffic around trucks, tailgating trucks, or driving beside trucks and failing to pass?

Lets keep in mind that CDL truck drivers are schooled, trained, have gone through orientation, and in the end are indeed professional drivers. Can the same be said for those that they share the nation’s roadways with? Automobile drivers are equally responsible if not more so for the majority of truck-car accidents that occur every day through the United States.

Sure, get a safe vehicle to drive your family around town in, and the next time you are on the highway with trucks - drive that safe vehicle safely.