Facibus Reviews

There is evidence to suggest that some firms are hiring the wrong people - they look for those that are good at interviewing but not necessarily performing.

Once upon a time there was a man named John Holmes - not the bloke with the big shlong, the other one - the dog trainer and author. He wrote a book in England in the 40s or 50s called The Family Dog. His argument against buying the lovable mongrel was this: the Labrador has been bred for lots of years to retrieve things from water, and the Greyhound to run like buggery, and the Border Collie to work sheep - in other words, they have been bred selectively for a specific purpose. The only thing that mongrels have been selected for is, well, being mongrels - it proves that one or both parents were adept at either being neglected or jumping fences. Not a good choice for the family pet.

Do we hire the same way? Do we select for those people who are good at interviewing to the detriment of those abilities that might fulfill the organisation’s promise to deliver? As a young man I was told, I kid you not, that a colleague had been promoted because “we know he can’t do the job, but he put in a corker of an interview”. I laugh about it - now.

PS: I have to add that I’ve owned several dogs through the years that have been of mixed parentage - some have been wonderful animals, some not. It doesn’t mean that I’d hire someone who couldn’t, or wouldn’t work.