What are the biggest tips you have for companies looking to avoid 'bad hires?'

Screen for competence and cultural fit then assess for job fit, i.e., job required talent. Most employers do not assess for job fit even though it only requires an hour of the applicant's time.

Background Screenings that go beyond simple criminal checks and include employment verifications. Many times if the information provided by the applicant is incorrect, you will know what kind of employee they will in turn be for you.

Speaking from a Call Center perspective:

1. Stop asking for Resumes up-front, and instead start conducting ‘Voice Auditions’ with your Job Candidates. Regardless of what’s written in someone’s Resume – you need to ensure that a Candidate has the right ‘Telephone Personality’ for your Contact Center jobs. It’s very important that you hire Agents with a pleasant, clear speaking voice (power, pitch, pace and pause). Your customers want to speak with Agents who communicate professionally –who are easily understood - and who don’t sound like a ‘script reader’. It’s only after a Job Candidate passes their ‘Voice Audition’ that you should invite them to submit a Resume.

2. Administer Skills Testing to your Job Candidates. You need to ensure that a Candidate can demonstrate a minimum acceptable level of proficiency in specific areas such as: Names, Spelling, Comprehension, Typing Speed & Accuracy, Grammar, Audio Transcription, and Data Entry Skills. Please keep in mind that while it is a Best Practice Step to screen Candidates using Typing Tests, Audio Transcription Tests, Windows Literacy Tests, etc. – a Skills Test Pass Rate only increases the likelihood of predicting the long-term effectiveness of a Job Candidate for a Call Center Agent position to 53% - and that’s just a bit better than flipping a coin!

3. Administer a Personality/Job-Fit Assessment to your Job Candidates. Personality/Job-Fit Assessments are best at forecasting the future success of a Job Candidate for a Call Center Agent position. Candidates for Call Center Agent job need to have a unique constellation of Traits - and specific amounts of those Traits - in order to successfully complete the Job Requirements. A Call Center Agent’s long-term success depends much more upon Temperament/Personality/Job-Fit Factors than on Product Knowledge, Past Experience or Skill Set. Personality/Job-Fit Assessments allow you to select new Call Center Agents who will fit your employment needs better - and stay on the job longer - leading to a Call Center Agent Workgroup that has more experience and is more productive.

Top performing Contact Centers drive their Revenue & Performance through superior hiring tactics. We help employers gain better insight & more accurate predictions as to which applicants from a pool of Candidates would perform up to, or beyond their established standards. You can find out about a Free Trial of SPAS Call Center Agent Pre-Employment Screening Software at http://www.telesoftsystems.ca/64201.html

The interviewer should know all about body language. There's no sure fire way to get the perfect candidate. Just because a person has a clean criminal record, doesn't mean they haven't committed a crime, it just means they haven't been caught. Drug screens can be passed too for drug users. Then there's the credit check. I know someone with terrible credit, due to the economy, but is an excellent worker. She may not be able to pay her bills timely, but she shows up to work timely and excels at everything she does.

skills' assessment tools, IQ tests, Stress Tests to evalaute ability to work under pressure and multi-tasking, structured interviews, well defined career paths, apprenticeship programs, structured on-boarding and training, credit and criminal check.

This is pretty tough. I think no matter what you do, there is always a small % of bad hires that could occur. With that said, here are four things I have done to avoid bad hires (when I used to hire people in consulting firms)
1. Give a behavorial case study - tell them about a typical difficult situation they may be in and ask them how they would handle it.
2. Give a "hard skills" case study - depending on the work that you are interviewing for. Given them a real life situation and ask them to tell you their thought process. Consulting firms like McKinsey always does this to see how people communicate under pressure, how well and organized people think, what questions they ask. It's less about the final answer and more about the process they go through to get to it.
3. Ask a question like "What is their ideal work situation?" It's open ended and their answers can be revealing. You can judge attitude and what they truly think and see what say really fits what your company offer
4. Have different people that they will work with interview the candidate - especially people with different work style and personalities. Make it a team decision so you can judge the candidate from multiple angles.

Also after hiring, monitor progress and cut your losses early if needed - if someone doesn't do well within 6 months and after coaching and development efforts, put them on probation.

If you stop by my web site, see below, and click on the bottom five links, you'll see how we identify; a bad hire (42%), marginal hire (75%), good hire (88%), and a great hire (95%). There is one PDF page for each of the four types of hires.

http://www.gatelyconsulting.com

When it comes to Call Center hiring - in a Study on “The Comparative Validities of a Variety of Predictors of Hourly Wage Jobs in Reducing Turnover in New Hires” the following Results were uncovered:

Interview -- 14% Predictive Ability
Reference Checking -- 26% Predictive Ability
Job Preview -- 44% Predictive Ability
Skills Testing -- 53% Predictive Ability
Personality/Job-Fit Assessment -- 80% Predictive Ability

Interviews are a subjective and potentially biased process. This Study demonstrated that regardless of an Interviewer’s Skill – or a Candidate’s ability to present well – an Offer of Employment based on a strong interview alone only had a 14% chance of predicting the long-term effectiveness of a Job Candidate for a Call Center Agent Position.

Adding Reference Checking to the Interview Process only increased the likelihood of predicting long-term effectiveness in a Job Candidate for a Call Center Agent Position to 26%. And we all know that it’s getting harder to perform meaningful & insightful Reference Checks.

Job Previews - via software-based call simulators - or through having the Candidate just spend some time on the Production Floor shadowing Agents/Supervisors - only increases the likelihood of predicting long-term effectiveness in a Job Candidate for a Call Center Agent Position to 44%.

Skills Tests such as Typing Tests, Audio Transcription Tests, Windows Literacy Tests, etc. only increase the likelihood of predicting long-term effectiveness in a Job Candidate for a Call Center Agent Position to 53%. That’s just a bit better than flipping a coin!

With an 80% Predictive Ability, Personality/Job-Fit Assessments are best at forecasting future success of a Job Candidate for a Call Center Agent Position. Personality/Job-Fit Assessments Weed Out Job Candidates who will Burn Out Fast – or Quit - because they aren't suited for the work - and Identifies the People with the Personality/Job-Fit, Soft Skills, Motivation, and Work Ethic to be Top Call Center Agents. Personality/Job-Fit Assessments allow you to Select New Call Center Agents who will fit your Employment Needs Better and Stay on the Job Longer - leading to an Agent Workgroup that has More Experience and is More Productive.

Top performing Contact Centers drive their Revenue & Performance through superior hiring tactics. We help employers gain better insight & more accurate predictions as to which applicants from a pool of Candidates would perform up to, or beyond their established standards. You can find out about a Free Trial of SPAS Call Center Agent Pre-Employment Screening Software at http://www.telesoftsystems.ca/64201.html

Background screening is a good option to avoid bad hires. Any company who wants to hire new employees should have a mandatory background check. This will give the employer all the necessary information about the applicants which can help them see if they are fit for the job or not. This is usually what companies do because there might be certain cases which might just happen when employees are hired. This can only lead to conflicts in the offices which will not be good for business.
For more information regarding this pleas visit
http://www.bacgroundcheckswiki.com

Syed, I agree with your advice, "Any company who wants to hire new employees should have a mandatory background check." A bad hire may be another employer's average or better employee so a background check won't help in that situation.