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Shopping Centers Today -> October 2001
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APPLICANT SCREENING CALLED KEY TO CENTER HIRING
By Debra Hazel
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| Security consultants say the shopping center industry needs to thoroughly screen applicants. |
Ask anyone in the shopping center business who’s trying to hire new staff, and they’ll tell you that attracting and keeping personnel is a continuing challenge. Despite the economic downturn, unemployment remains relatively low, and the industry must compete to get the best employees.
Yet most managers probably could be even more selective than they are now. Because so many employees interact with the general public, it behooves the shopping center industry to be extremely careful in selecting new staff, according to security consultants.
“Even though we’re a private entity, the public might suspect there’s a greater onus on us,” said Ken Hamilton, executive vice president for shopping center security consultant IPC International, Bannockburn, Ill.
To that end, more companies are turning to more extensive testing and background checks for potential employees. Some developers, such as Chicago-based General Growth Properties (GGP), outsource much of their front-line personnel, including security and maintenance staff, noted Judy Herbst, vice president of human resources. All potential hires are subject to drug testing (failure is automatic disqualification) and a background check that provides more than just basic history.
“We often do that to check if they will fit into our culture and our company,” Herbst said.
But even background checks can be incomplete. A criminal background investigation works only if the applicant has been caught and convicted, and if the company has searched in the right locale.
“There’s been a growing need for companies to have information on criminal backgrounds, but unless fingerprints are submitted, it’s tough,” said Hamilton, who also advises credit and driver’s license checks as screening tools to find noncriminal but perhaps questionable behavior.
It’s even tougher if those making the hiring decision are not as thorough as possible. All GGP managers are required to take extensive training courses, including six hours of instruction on recruitment and hiring. But they may be the exception.
“There often is a lack of training on the part of managers,” said Steven C. Millwee, president and CEO of SecurTest, a Tampa, Fla., supplier of employee screening services. “We train people for what they can do, but not what they can’t.”
Usually, managers know exactly what they legally may not ask an applicant during an interview: marital status, religion, age, etc. But they often are unaware of what can be asked, and how questions can be phrased to best elicit information about an applicant’s background and personality.
“Where people miss getting the information is from the applicant,” Millwee said.
After all, he observed, many managers may be reluctant to ask a possibly offensive question to someone they may later see every day, or don’t give him/her the opportunity to elaborate. They may not always be able to read body language effectively.
“We don’t ask open-ended questions. We always ask ones answered by yes or no,” Millwee observed.
To help provide the basis for a more thorough interview, SecurTest’s SecurAPP 2001 is an online or written questionnaire that queries applicants in a manner that generally gets them to reveal difficulties in previous positions (such as lateness or difficulty in getting along with co-workers), criminal behavior (including theft, harassment and use of weapons), drug use history and other potential liability red flags. SecurTest staff evaluates the responses and advises hiring managers as to whether to interview the applicant, where responses can be explained in depth.
The company has 212 versions of SecurTest that are industry- or job-specific. The key is in the way the questions are asked, and surrounding more serious questions with innocuous ones. A question about a teacher in high school may be followed by, “What is the worst thing your last employer will say about you?” Applicants answering about 85 questions in about 15 minutes have admitted to a broad range of activities from stealing office supplies to homicide.
Just asking the questions can protect a company from liability in the event of a bad hire.
“You’re asking the question; that’s due diligence. You’re asking the questions directly and recording the answers,” Millwee said. If the hiring company is still interested, it can follow up for further explanation of questionable items in the personal interview.
SecurTest’s fees change depending on volume, but can total as little as $7.95 per applicant. Regardless of cost or service provider, it may be more expensive in both time and tears not to do extensive searches on potential employees.
“Our best advice is to check everybody out. You do everything the law allows you to do. It’s money very well spent,” Hamilton said.
There may be more applicants to check out than in the recent past: The difficulties in hiring may be easing somewhat, according to Herbst. The implosion of the dotcoms has sent many professionals in search of more solid industries.
“I really believe we are in the midst of a huge change. We’ve had a huge labor shortage over the past few years, and we’re now beginning to see the pendulum swinging back,” she said.
This means that companies can now focus even more on putting the right person in the right position, rather than looking desperately to fill vacancies.
“We’re in a great time in our history,” Herbst said. “It’s time to raise the bar and upgrade the quality and type of individual in the workplace.”
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