PRESS RELEASE: So You’re Trying to Hire Staff

Media Release
16 August, 2022
For Immediate Release
Dr Ken Byrne
Corporate Psychologist
0419 182 227
[email protected]
www.drkenbyrne.com
Seeing Behind the Job Applicant’s Mask Before You Hire

So You’re Trying to Hire Staff
Put Your Unconscious to Work

If you’re like most people, hiring staff seems secondary to your “real job”. It’s time-consuming. Often unrewarding. And mostly, since it’s something you don’t do very often, you end up relying on intuition.
In these situations, intuition, or gut feel, can be your best friend if you know how to use it.
By knowing the right questions to ask, it’s possible to make sense of your in intuition. Often people about to make a hiring decision will say to themselves “I just have this feeling about this person”.
Here’s how to unravel that feeling into something sensible.
Next time you’re considering hiring someone, try asking yourself this question:

1. Would I want someone who I love to work with them?
• How would they get along with the person I love?
• How would they handle conflict with this person?
• Would this person willingly “go the extra mile” when necessary?
• How much direction or support would they need?
• How would they cope with negative feedback about their performance?
• If given an unpleasant assignment, what will their likely reaction be?

Try not to edit your answer. Pay attention to the first thing that comes to mind.
Now, compare this information with what you already have from looking at the applicant’s resume, past history and how they come across during the interview.
Put all this information together and you have a pretty accurate fix on the kind of person this is. It may not tell you great deal about their skill – but that can always be taught. It will tell you who they are as a person. What their character is like and whether they will be a good fit for your business.

So What Is intuition?
Also called gut feeling, intuition means that we have an instinct about someone that seems to come from nowhere. Knowing something by intuition means we arrive at a conclusion beyond our conscious reasoning. It is expressed as a feeling or sense about something. This sense just seems to pop into our mind from some unknown source.
Yet there is a deep neurological basis for intuition. Scientists call the stomach the “second brain” for a reason. There’s a vast neural network of 100 million neurons lining your entire digestive tract. That’s more neurons that are found in the spinal cord, which points to the gut’s incredible processing abilities.

What’s the purpose of intuition?
Intuition is the mind’s way of trying to predict the future. The brain constantly compares incoming information against memories of previous experiences. The goal is to predict what will come next.
Intuition always has two things gong for it: it is always in response to something, and it always has your best interest at heart.
Here’s an example. You are walking alone in the city at night. You see someone approaching you on the other side of the street. This person immediately gives you the impression of someone who is tough and potentially aggressive. You feel frightened. Sound familiar?
How do we know all this about a person at just a glance?
With time, we could look at a whole range of cues that this person is giving off. The way they are dressed, their style of walking, the look in their eyes, and a thousand other subtle hints are all read instantaneously by your unconscious mind. Would you disregard your intuition? Probably not.
What is very likely happening is that your unconscious mind is doing an instant comparison to a wide range of other people you have met over many years. Your mind sifts through this group and lands on some people who all have something in common: they caused you to feel anxious or afraid.
This can work in reverse. Have you ever met someone who you were immediately drawn to? They just seem to exude a sense of warmth and kindness. You felt you wanted to get to know them better. Here again, your unconscious mind is doing an instant comparison to others you’ve met.
Instinct and Age
Ever wonder why adolescents seem to make silly choices? It’s because they don’t have enough experience to draw upon. When their unconscious mind tries to tap into past experiences, they don’t get much, because they haven’t lived long enough to have a mental library to draw on.

Conclusion

Your unconscious mind is a powerful source of wisdom. It will protect you from mistakes. And hiring the wrong person can be a very expensive mistake indeed.
Dr. Ken Byrne, a Corporate Psychologist with over forty years of experience in evaluating job candidates, is an expert at reading people.

If you’d like to find easy to apply and practical advice about hiring, try his new book: Seeing Behind the Job Applicant’s Mask Before You Hire : Secrets of a Corporate Psychologist.

Profile
About Dr Ken Byrne
For the last 40+ years Ken has specialized in serving as a second opinion to clients making a hiring or promotion decision. In Australia his advice has been sought by the ANZ Bank, Coles-Myer, The Government of Tasmania, The Walt Disney Company, Tattersalls, Optus, Telecom, Wrest Point Casino and a host of businesses in the SME market. For over twenty-five years he consulted to many Australian police departments and a range of other public safety agencies to improve the accuracy of their hiring.