How to avoid the Halo Effect in Recruitment

In the 2002 Hollywood blockbuster, Catch Me If You Can , Leonardo DiCaprio plays the real-life character of Frank Abagnale Jr., who impersonated a Pan Am pilot, a doctor, and a legal prosecutor though he was only seventeen years old. As the tagline went, “Frank didn't go to flight school... Frank didn't go to medical school... Frank didn't go to law school... Because Frank is still in high school.”

It was “the true story of a real fake” who, before his nineteenth birthday, committed frauds of millions of dollars by forging checks.

Frank was a skilled forger who not only eluded capture, but really enjoyed the trip.

In 1967, an FBI agent, Carl Hanratty makes it his life’s mission to capture Frank and chases him around the world. After a few years of pursuit, Carl meets Frank in a motel room—only to be fooled into believing that he is actually a Secret Service agent. He escapes once again.

Then in a roller-coaster of events, Frank surrenders to the French police, gets captured by Carl, and then escapes yet again, and finally surrenders again, to Carl this time, and is sentenced to 12 years in a maximum-security prison.

His skills were not entirely wasted, and it seems he became friends with Carl, and later made a living as a leading expert on bank fraud and forgery.

So, how did Frank manage to fool so many people for so long?

It can be explained by something called the Halo Effect. It occurs when one particular aspect of a person is so strong that it creates a “halo” that overshadows defects in other areas.

In the case of Frank, it was his charming personality and the glamor of being an international airline pilot—remember, this was back in the 1960s—which made others miss out the forgery of his checks.

How is HR affected by this?

The Halo Effect in Recruitment

If you have conducted interviews, you have probably encountered the Halo Effect. You probably have come across candidates who are so impressive and talk so well, and only find out the hard way that they don’t deliver.

This matters because getting saddled with a wrongly recruited candidate is expensive! Just look at the numbers.

The tricky thing is that background checks are not designed to check for the Halo Effect. Background checks only verify if people are who they say they are, whether they had the salaries they claim, worked at the places that are mentioned on their CVs, don’t have a criminal record, and have the degrees and designations they purport to hold, among other things.

So how do you avoid the Halo Effect when recruiting someone?

Here are some red flags to watch out for.

·????? Smooth talkers

If your candidate is just too perfect to be true, s/he might be just that. There are way too many candidates who only ace interviews but never deliver on the job. There is huge gap in “knowledge” and “action” so don’t get beguiled by impressive speeches.

·????? Lack of evidence of performance

Is there any proof that the candidate has actually done what s/he claims? Look for evidence of achievements and qualifications that cannot be “forged” as far as possible. Remember, even degree certificates and marksheets can be faked.

·????? Frequent job switches

If candidates are switching jobs too often, then it’s probably not the job that is the problem. For instance, 1-2 switches every year, consistently, is a definite red flag. Ask for references from previous employers to avoid any ambiguity.

What we do at Zuci

Recruitment at Zuci is a multistage process and all candidates are vetted and verified way before we make the final offers. Here are some steps we follow:

·????? Include diverse opinions

Decisions are seldom made unilaterally. We always include a bunch of diverse views and outlooks and weigh each aspect of hiring someone before making a decision.

·????? Look for proven performance

We ensure that our people actually do what they say, in various ways, such as reviewing their past work, conducting mandatory face to face evaluations, and getting feedback from previous colleagues, among others.

·????? Use referrals whenever possible

We strongly encourage referrals so that our people are not only known to be proven performers but are also able to integrate more easily within our organization.

Apart from the standard background checks and fitment of qualifications and skills, these are some processes that you can adopt to ensure a more accurate selection of candidates and reduce turnover, and its attendant expenses. What processes do you have in place during your recruitment drives?

Keep an eye open for the Halo Effect because it can prove to be costly in the long run. Very often, even show-stopping drawbacks get ignored due to it.

Watch out for the red flags and take some simple precautions to make sure you only select the real gems your organization deserves!

?Photo by Vlad Hilitanu on Unsplash

References:

1.????????? According to the U.S. Department of Labor

2.????????? As per a Harvard Business Review study