Hiring the Best

by Martin Yate

Book Overview

Employees are your company's number one asset. Hiring the Best offers managers and HR personnel a proven and practical approach to recruiting and selecting the right people for the job. With over 400... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1558502823
• ISBN13: 9781558502826
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Adams Media Corporation
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

If You Hire, This Is A MUST Read

Like many small business people, I was a complete bozo at hiring for many years. Fortunately, at some point I woke up to that fact and decided to educate myself. I took classes, read books and did everything I could to become a skilled interviewer. Without question, one of the most helpful tools to escaping Bozoland was this book. Although I am now a freelance business consultant and have no employees of my own, I frequently assist my clients with their own hiring processes, and in so doing I still refer extensively to Martin Yate's excellent book.

The best book on hiring & interviewing

This is an extremely well written and very useful book on hiring techniques and methods. The author analyzes all aspects of the hiring process beginning with the different types of resumes and when each type is used; what flags to look for and how to evaluate an applicant's overall resume. Chapter five focuses on short-listing through a `phoner' while the subsequent chapters are devoted to interviewing techniques and the science of asking questions. The author introduces four different interviewing techniques - Situational; personality profile; stress; and & behavioral - and also gives a very useful and informative analysis of the different types of questions that can be asked in a hiring interview like half-right reflexives; hamburger-helper questions; and question layering. In the following chapters, the author focuses on evaluating the candidate's ability and willingness to do the job as well as manageability. The questions and the author's commentary on what to look for and red flags in an applicant's answer are informative, highly usable, and extremely useful. These are not your 'standard' interview questions (though there are some pretty standard questions included). They are well formulated and clever probes into the applicant's skills, knowledge, personality, and background. The rest of the book is devoted to functional areas with a chapter devoted to clerical, management, sales, contingency workers and law hires. Again, I found the advice and suggestions relevant and informative. In formulating the hundreds of question suggestions scattered throughout the book, the author has given a lot of thought to the qualities, experiences, and areas of concern that hiring managers and HR people focus on.

My favorite interview book

I use this book both for interviewing techniques and for preparing to be interviewed. Its a great book for interviewing because he presents the pros and cons of different techniques and gives what I consider to be a good framework for identifying quality candidates. Its a great book for preparing to be interviewed because it helps you identify the objectives of interviewers and make a better case. As a hiring manager, you should be able to pass an interview with flying colors, shouldn't you? Perhaps the most enlightening wisdom I got from the book was the enumeration of the qualities of a good employee: 1. Ability to do the job 2. Willingness to do the job 3. Manageability of the candidate Most interviews focus on the abilities of the candidates and stop there. Big mistake! Mr. Yate gives you guidance on evaluating the whole candidate, and in general I like and agree with his advice. Other good ideas are evaluating the cracks in resumes, phone screening, and lunch. Never hire anyone without checking background, verifying employment and education, and seeing if they can carry on a conversation at lunch. I draw ideas for interviews from several books, but this one is the overall framework that I have worked from. I feel the style is readable, the length is appropriate, and the content is excellent.

Well worth the investment of your time and money

If you are looking for a solid foundation of your interview process, take a look at this book. It provides helpful ideas on how to approach your job candidates. Can they do the job, are they willing and can they be managed. It provided lots of helpful questions and processes for a successful hiring process. I have to say, that I am not a professional recruiter just someone that needs to hire and evaluate his new employees.

Indespensible tool for Interviewing

This book is fabulous. You quickly learn both interviewing skills and interviewing strategies. There are many examples and sample questions which help elaborate on the ideaa presented. It is so helpful that I've ordered three more copies to pass around at work.