How to Deal with Difficult Employees? Don’t Hire Them
By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady

The best way to deal with difficult employees is to avoid hiring them, advises attorney Dan Forman. BLR,® founder and CEO Bob Brady says that while Forman is half-joking, he makes the serious point that difficult employees usually start out that way. They do not become different people after they get their ID badges and company e-mail addresses. Their “difficult” traits are usually there for all to see—if only we want to look.

Forman, a partner with the San Francisco law firm, Carlton DiSante & Freudenberger LLP, spoke about techniques for screening out potentially difficult employees during his presentation at the California Employment Law Update held earlier this month in San Francisco.

Forman asked members of the audience to talk about the techniques they use to screen out unsuitable applicants. The audience enthusiastically offered numerous suggestions, some of which are highlighted here.

Questions
•One participant suggested asking, “Have you ever worked for a difficult supervisor?” and listening for clues about how they would behave in your workplace. If they say, for example, “Yes, I had to be at work at exactly 8 o’clock,” you are alerted to a big potential problem. “If they think that having to be at work on time constitutes a difficult supervisor, we probably don’t want them.”

•Another member of the audience, citing the difficulty of predicting whether well-spoken applicants will be successful in the sales positions for which they are applying, suggests asking them about what sales awards they won in prior jobs. “And don’t just take their word for it,” she added. “Ask to see the awards.” She observed that sales people are proud of their awards and the good ones will eagerly bring them in.

•Try to get managers of supervisors who interview applicants to reflect on their general impressions of applicants, “and really listen,” suggested another. He looks for subtle clues that managers may have missed but that could indicate mismatches. Recently, a supervisor noted in passing that an applicant “talked a lot.” Reflecting on it, they agreed that this was a warning signal that should not have been ignored. After discussing it, they realized that this was a very bad sign.

•Ask about problems they’ve had at other jobs. If it’s always someone else who is creating the problem, they may be displaying an unwillingness to take personal responsibility that will probably carry over to your workplace.

•How do they deal with the forms that have to be filled out during the application process? If they get things wrong, or make mountains out of molehills, don’t expect them to magically transform once you’ve hired them.

•Replicate the conditions of the workplace during the interview. One participant said that his organization starts work at 6 a.m., so they interview early, too. “If you get pushback on the phone, they’re not going to be on time.”

•Another member of the audience said she has a manager who “always hired problem employees.” Her colleagues sympathized. They suggested extra interviewing help for the manager, and also making that failure a big part of the manager’s performance appraisal.

Behavior
Forman observed—and I certainly agree 100 percent—that one of the interesting (but not new or novel) things about these comments is the way they center on behavior rather than job skills. If it has been said once, it’s been said a billion times: When a new hire doesn’t work out, more often than not it is a life skill failure, not inability to do the “real work.” Despite the fact that we can test and evaluate for job skills pretty well, most interviewers concentrate on them, ignoring equally important behavioral traits.

Behavior Based Interviewing
In previous HR Updates A Plus Benefits has stressed the need to conduct behavior based interviews. Basically, behavior based interviews require the interviewee to think about their answer as opposed to being able to regurgitate the answer that has been memorized, the answer the interviewee figures the interviewer is seeking.

Our HR Department can supply you with a list of well thought out behavior based interview questions as well, our experienced HR professionals can meet with your supervisors and conduct behavior based interview training.

Some interview preparation and good behavior based interview questions can help in not hiring the “bad” employees.

Randall Barker is the VP of Human Resources for A Plus Benefits, Inc.