Adapted from North Dakota Employment Law Letter, written by attorneys at Vogel Law Firm.
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Every employer has dealt with an unexpected resignation from a valued employee and had to scramble to fill the vacancy. Driven by a sense of urgency and the need for a "quick fix," you may be tempted to conduct a preemployment "sales pitch" instead of an interview. But hasty hiring practices result in hiring mistakes.

   Learn from a recent California appeals court decision - a case in which the employer paid a seven-digit penalty for a manager's hiring blunder. Then brush up on your interviewing skills by reading five common interviewing mistakes.

Haste Makes Waste

In the California decision, a car dealership had located the perfect candidate to fill a vacancy. During the in-person interview, the applicant explained his nonnegotiable monthly salary expectations - an amount that was higher than the dealership was prepared to pay.

Rather than explaining that, the manager pulled out the previous year's company financial statement and represented that the applicant's annual salary (if he had been employed) would have exceeded his expectations.

Relying on that representation, the applicant resigned from his existing job to work for the dealership. Of course, when he got his first paycheck, he was understandably upset. When he repeatedly complained, he was fired. He sued the dealership for fraudulent inducement - false statements about salary and compensation that induced him to leave his former (well-paying) position.

The jury awarded the former employee compensatory and punitive damages equaling $2 million. That amount was reduced by the court of appeals, leaving the employer liable for just more than $1 million.

While a verdict of this magnitude may be unlikely in your state, mistakes made by the dealership and its manager were the result of sloppy hiring practices and a sense of urgency to fill a vacant position.

Don't compromise in your hiring decisions. Even if you feel under pressure to hire someone quickly, take the time to interview effectively so the outcome doesn't lead to an even bigger problem down the road.

Five Common Interviewing Mistakes

Of all the steps in the hiring process, most experts agree the in-person interview is the one hiring practice where most mistakes occur. The following list includes some of the more common interviewing mistakes:

1. Prejudice or personal bias: No one is without personal bias, both positive and negative. Any predisposition will affect the success of the interview. It's important to acknowledge, admit (at least to yourself), and be aware of personal biases that could
arise during a job interview and to set them aside.

Successful interviews require focused objective attention. If you believe a particular bias may interfere with your interviewing skills, step aside and let someone else handle the process or participate in a team interview.

2. Focus on flaws. You have made hiring mistakes in the past, so you start the interview looking for flaws to prevent making another hiring mistake. Or you dislike the interviewing process and want to eliminate as many applicants as quickly as you can. Neither approach serves the hiring process well. The perfect applicant doesn't exist. Objectivity requires attention to all attributes.

3. A sense of urgency to fill a vacant position. Everyone has experienced this - you have a major project to complete; a key employee unexpectedly resigns, and she's the only one who can train someone to do the job; the company can't operate to capacity unless the position is filled; or you're sick and tired of interviewing and just want to be done with it. All those business pressures cause frustration and can lead to hiring mistakes.

Consider this: Would you go on a blind date and propose marriage after 30 minutes? Probably not.  Employment and marriage have obvious differences, but they're both consensual relationships with legal obligations that are easier to initiate than dissolve.
Most employment firings, like marital dissolutions, are a result of behavioral and value mismatches.  Neither should be entered into lightly. Succumbing to pressure has its costs.

4. Talking, not listening. The 80-20 rule applies to job interviewing. You can't learn anything if you're talking, so the more you talk, the less you'll learn about the applicant. The primary purpose of an interview is to learn about the applicant and determine whether she's a good fit for the vacancy.

5. Giving away the answer. Sometimes an interviewer favorably impressed with an applicant will give away the "right" answer. For example, if an interviewer says "The position requires some weekend hours. Are you available to work weekends?" while shaking his head "yes," the applicant will respond accordingly. Be conscious of body language.

Additional Resources

   HR Hero Audio Conference on CD:
   Interviewing Effectively: Secrets to Hiring the Best
   (Great tool for training supervisors!)
   http://www.HRhero.com/audio/interviewing.shtml?HLe

   Special report:
   A Legal Guide to Successful Hiring
   http://www.HRhero.com/special_reports/hiring.shtml?HLe