How to Hire Quality People

by Dick Moore

The time invested in hiring the right people
can pay big dividends in your quality system.

Most people would agree that it is vital for companies to hire the best and screen out the rest. But how can you best make these determinations? What information should you obtain about job candidates, and how do you obtain it? More importantly, how can you evaluate this information when making a decision between your top two candidates? And what can you do to prepare for the hiring process so you feel more in control during the interview?

For many companies doing business in today's competitive marketplace, positive and encouraging changes are occurring. Rhetoric previously indicating the importance of quality in both products manufactured and services provided is being replaced by new operating realities. Employees at all organizational levels are being asked to walk the talk in order to satisfy the needs of both external and internal customers. The responsibility for quality is no longer delegated primarily to an auditor or a vice president of quality.

Because problem prevention is preferable to defect detection, this goal requires a different set of expectations and accountabilities. A quality management system operating throughout the entire organization, such as ISO 9000, represents one important way to prioritize a company's quality assumptions, values and practices.

Every time you interview someone, you put your own career on the line. Find out too little, and you can hire the wrong person. Find out too much, and you can end up in a lawsuit. It's an important difference, but not rocket science. Your human resources department can provide information about the kinds of questions that must not be asked. Inappropriate questions, such as "Do you have children at home?" are probably more obvious than "Describe the making of a perfect banana split." While the former question could get you into legal hot water, the latter question is just stupid and has questionable predictive validity unless your job applicant would actually be making banana splits on the job.

Your own preparation is important because the applicant whose résumé you are about to review has already prepared for you. Numerous self-help publications are available in bookstores and libraries, and the information deck is stacked to favor job applicants.

Résumés can be thought of as balance sheets with no liabilities. A well-written résumé can make a bad background look great, while a poorly constructed résumé can make a great background look bad.

Some general questions must be answered. First, does the candidate really have the technical job skills indicated on the résumé? Second, how well would this individual's interpersonal skills fit into your organization?

Your evaluation process should also be able to predict the answers to three specific questions: Is the applicant able to do the job? Is the applicant willing to do the job? and, Is the applicant manageable if hired? There should be a good match between the company's needs and the applicant's expectations.

Do your homework

You should know what kind of person you're looking for. Does this sound obvious? Perhaps, but this means more than just having a gut feel. In order to screen résumés and conduct interviews effectively, it is important to identify the "must" and "preferred" job requirements. This is when a job description is very beneficial if based on current needs and information.

The applicant's cover letter should not be viewed as just an expected formality. It should be used to evaluate writing skills and attention to detail (appearance, typing errors, etc.). Also, what does the applicant emphasize as his or her strengths and interests? Are they compatible with your company's needs? An applicant for project manager who primarily emphasizes estimating skills is sending a clear message.

Screening process

The screening process begins by comparing cover letters and résumés with your specific needs and could involve brief telephone interviews. When you call the applicant, explain that this interview will not take too much time because you are screening a number of candidates. Then ask four or five "hurdle" questions, arranged with the more important ones first. Stop the interview at any point the candidate fails to jump a hurdle successfully. Invite any applicants who prequalify using this method to meet with you for a regular interview.

Typical hurdle questions might address:
Job location. Ask "Are there any areas of the country where you would not be willing to relocate?" rather than "Would you be willing to live in Hoboken, New Jersey?"
Salary range.
Specific mandatory job knowledge and/or experience.
Travel requirements. Ask "How much travel would you feel is excessive?" rather than "Would 10 days per month be acceptable?"

Conducting the interview effectively

The procedure used by people who don't have a great deal of experience as interviewers may be summarized by the following process:
Tell the applicant about the company.
Tell the applicant all about the job.
Tell the applicant all about yourself.
Ask leading questions based only on the résumé.


This procedure gives the applicant just enough information to enable the applicant to give you the responses you'd like to hear. A better strategy would be to:
Ask questions about significant areas on the résumé. The more an applicant can explain in detail what he or she did, the better you will be able to evaluate the extent of the person's knowledge and actual involvement in that area. A current job description should be prepared to help you evaluate work history based on the specific job requirements.
Ask additional open-ended questions. This technique helps you learn more about the person than just focusing on the information provided on the résumé.
Tell the applicant about the company.
Tell the applicant about the job.
Tell the applicant about yourself, if you would be the immediate supervisor.


After the interview, compare the applicant's capabilities with the job requirements, company climate and personality of the intended supervisor while making inferences about the person's strengths and weaknesses. Many personnel selection decisions fail for the following reasons:
The interviewer does most of the talking. It's not possible to learn more about the other person while you are talking.
The interviewer gives the applicant the desired responses.
Job descriptions are either not clear, out of date or do not exist.


I find it interesting that after passing an initial screening, applicants at one major corporation are in for at least a dozen long interviews. In addition, each interviewer focuses on traits that most people would call mushy or unmeasurable. One of my favorite quotes is, "We can teach you how to use a cash register, but we can't teach you how to be nice." How would you define nice? How would you determine if your job candidate is really a nice person? (People always try to be "nice" during an interview. But what are they really like on the job?)

Ask open-ended questions

By asking open-ended questions, you can make reasonable predictions
about mental abilities, motivation, interests and even
personality characteristics.

Now is the time to use the creative part of your brain. Remember, you're hiring a person, not a résumé. Again, who is this person?

By asking open-ended questions, you can make reasonable predictions about mental abilities, motivation, interests and even personality characteristics. One response from your candidate may not make or break your decision. This is where your judgment and value system play an all-important role.

Hiring an auditor

Consider the characteristics, capabilities and qualifications you may want to evaluate when interviewing a candidate for the position of auditor. They should include: technical knowledge, people skills, written and oral communication skills, objectivity, judgment, listening skills, diplomacy, analytical skills and confidence.

Additional questions are used to obtain more information for the decision-making process. Again, the candidate's responses would be compared to your knowledge of the structure of your organization, its culture and the people who would work closely with the selected candidate.

Hiring a quality manager

When your company has an opening for a manager or supervisor, the need to make a good hiring decision becomes especially important. In addition to technical knowledge, the person's management skills and supervisory capabilities must be determined and evaluated. This discussion will assume that a manager and supervisor use essentially the same kinds of skills and will use these titles interchangeably.

Supervisors occupy a critical and unique place in any organization. Not only are they part of the management team, but they also provide the vital connection between management and other employees. A supervisor performs this important function by being able to perform a number of different functions, reflecting the ability to motivate, train, coordinate, plan, delegate, communicate, direct, evaluate, counsel, discipline and terminate.

A manager should also be fair, impartial, level-headed and reasonably optimistic when dealing with different personalities and changing situations. This is quite a tall order! But it is still a reasonable expectation, because effective managers solve problems while ineffective managers create and prolong problems. Often, the manager or supervisor determines whether little problems turn into big ones. Good managers promote job satisfaction, minimize absenteeism and turnover, and improve the quality of work by ensuring their employees are well-trained.

An organization's overall effectiveness depends in large measure on the ability to recruit and select managers and supervisors who have the skills and interests to help achieve company goals. In view of the importance of this selection process, how might a company go about selecting a quality manager?

Sample questions: Technical knowledge
What has been your experience participating in cross-functional teams?
What would you do to avoid problems you've experienced with system and design FMEAs, and process FMEAs.
What are some important considerations when preparing control plans?
What has been your experience using quality function deployment in your companywide quality assurance program?
What common problems could occur when managing the QFD process?
What experiences have you had with design of experiments as a continuous improvement strategy?
What common problems can occur using DOE, and how might they be prevented?
Show the candidate some typical statistical process control charts, and ask for interpretations of the process variation observed.

Sample questions: Management skills
How would you describe your management style? (If your quality department does not have the depth of experience you would like, you may not benefit from a manager with a primarily participative style. You may want the manager initially to be more directive in helping provide some basic structure and definition).
How would you describe the ideal boss? (Note how different the response "It's important to know his or her specific expectations" is from the answer "I'd appreciate general direction and then the chance to do my job without close supervision.")
How do you try to motivate the people who work for you?
What motivates you?
What would you do if you notice the quality of work of one of your employees falling off?
What would you do your first day here if you asked an employee to do something a certain way, the employee recommended a different approach, and you agreed? What if you disagreed?
What is more important, your employees' needs or the company's needs? (Obviously, the answer to this question would depend on the situation, employee, etc.) Hopefully, the candidate's response would reveal the reasoning and thought process used to make this judgment. How does your candidate handle this balancing act, and what can you learn about this person's concern for productivity along with the concern for those who report to him or her?
What has an employer complimented you about or criticized you for?
Tell me about a situation when you were frustrated and under pressure. How did you handle it?
What kind of people do you find it difficult to work with? What do you usually do in this situation?


As you develop your own preferred list of typical questions, you can still use judgment and be flexible. Progression from one question to the next can be accomplished logically and smoothly by keying off your candidate's last response. With a little practice, you will become very comfortable using this approach.

Invest the time

Don't gamble by leaving your next hiring decision to chance. Use this method to significantly improve your odds to select winners. The process used to select the right person should take more than a few moments in your already busy schedule. Time invested in this effort is well spent when you consider how much rides on your decision. The success of your company's entire quality management system begins with the people you hire.

About the author

Dick Moore is manager of human resources at Plastomer Corp., a manufacturing company in Livonia, Michigan. He is a member of the American Society for Quality Control.