A good article on recruitment-Rajababu

["rajababu" <>]

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from www.business-today.com, and appeared in HRgyan
> > Between The Lines
> > Seasoned interviewers know more than to base their selection on what's
> said
> > at interviews. They know what's unsaid is equally relevant.
> > By Vinod Mahanta
> >
> > Then I told him, 'It's the shoes, silly'. ''
> >
> > Of all recruitment filters this must be the strangest. Or is it? Speak
to
> a
> > journeyman recruiter about what puts her off someone she is
interviewing,
> > and the list that emerges is stranger still. ''Overgrown nails, tight
> > clothes, nasal hair, dandruff, a loud tie, louder socks, mini skirts,
> > cleavage, tattoos....''
> >
> > Probe a little further, and the list acquires a psychographic tinge:
> > ''Arrogance, obsequiousness, a know-it-all attitude, inability to
> listen...
> > .'' Smart recruiters don't need too much time to look for these: the
> > duration of the interview itself will do. Ask Dr Yasho V. Verma, LG's
head
> > of HR. The company needed a senior marketing exec, the CEO liked one
> > candidate; the head of the department liked the same person; and all
that
> > remained was for YV to meet him, and take care of the details.
> >
> > But Verma didn't like what he saw at all: the facial expressions of the
> > candidate, his tone, and general demeanour, suggested arrogance. And
when
> he
> > was asked to fill a few routine forms, which all candidates had to, he
> first
> > refused to do so, then did so incompletely. Verma didn't have to think
too
> > hard to reject the man: ''I never listen to what people have to say;
it's
> > far more important how they say it.'' That statement should endear him
to
> > proponents of the form-over-content school of thought, but it would only
> be
> > proper to remember that YV had two others, his CEO, and the head of a
> > department, checking out on the content.
> >
> > There's enough scientific evidence to suggest that hiring decisions are
> > based as much on form as on content. Social psychologists have estimated
> > that we make up to 10 (value) judgements on someone we meet in the first
> 30
> > seconds after we've met them.
> >
> > These include those related to economic and education levels (''She
looks
> > like an MBA''); trustworthiness, social worthiness (''He's the kind of
guy
> I
> > won't have over at home''); level of sophistication, and economic,
social,
> > and moral heritage. Not convinced? A 1996-study titled Silent Messages
by
> > Albert Mehrabin, a professor at University of California, Los Angeles,
> > discovered that 55 per cent of the impact we make on others is a
function
> of
> > our appearance, 38 per cent, our voice, and 7 per cent, the content (or
> what
> > we say).
> >
> > ''Every small cue counts,'' says Satish Pradhan, the head of HR of the
> Tata
> > Group. Pradhan remembers an incident when he was working for ICI. He was
> > vested with the responsibility of picking a CFO for a $10 billion
> business.
> > One of the brightest candidates he interviewed was a smart young woman
> who,
> > everyone on the interview panel agreed, was just right for the job. But
> > Pradhan wasn't so sure: she had turned up for the interview in jeans and
a
> > casual shirt, and the job entailed frequent meetings with banks and
other
> > such conservative entities.
> >
> > So, he asked her to meet with the panel again. This time she turned up
in
> a
> > conventional business suit that would have met with the approval of one
> > Reginald Jeeves. ''I just wanted to see how you'd react to the suit,''
she
> > told Pradhan. If there's a moral in the story, it misses this writer by
a
> > mile, but the one thing that comes through loud and clear is that
Pradhan
> > was close to rejecting the best person for a particular job, simply
> because
> > she was wearing the wrong clothes.
> >
> > That happens more often than you think it would: the appropriateness of
> > dress and demeanour is one thing that most interviewers look for in a
> > candidate, and it is a fairly easy thing to measure.
> > What other things do recruiters look for? They try to see whether the
> > candidate's body language is in sync with what he (or she) is saying.
''An
> > interviewer will try and corroborate what a person says by reading his
> > non-verbal conduct,'' says R.P. Singh, General Manager, HR, Philips.
> > For instance, a person who avoids looking straight into the eyes of the
> > interviewer is either unsure of what he is saying, or is lying. ''If he
> sees
> > you in the eye, he believes what he is saying,'' says Sujit Bakshi, the
> > Vice-President (HR) at HCL Technologies.
> >
> > That may seem a trifle simplistic-and most people being interviewed
these
> > days are smart enough to look you straight in the eye and lie-but there
> are
> > other things that seasoned interviewers look for: does the candidate sit
> > still, or fidget? Does he shake his leg or twiddle his thumbs while
> speaking
> > (a sure sign of nervousness)?
> > How does he react to a stressful question? (If he flails his arms,
> stammers,
> > or gets shifty eyed, he isn't used to stress) And even if a person is
able
> > to fudge all these and lands the job, the result is a zero-sum game: it
is
> > difficult to fudge behaviour forever, and the company will get rid of
the
> > person sooner than latter once the truth is out.
> >
> > For the person being interviewed, there is just one way out: to be
himself
> > or herself. ''Often,'' says Pradhan of the Tata Group, ''people forget
to
> > bring themselves into the interview.'' Last word: just improve your walk
> > some. A few recruiters believe in seeing how candidates walk into and
out
> of
> > a room. Yasho Verma does that, and he is certainly no crank.
> >
>


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