# Hiring New Staff - How to Determine Who to Hire? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 13, 2012, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiring-new-staff-how-to-determine-who-to-hire/640853 "2012-11-13T02:15:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2012, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiring-new-staff-how-to-determine-who-to-hire/640853/21 "2012-11-14T19:32:50Z")
Well, there is an Army general or two in the job market now. How fine a screen do we want to put these people through? It would seem that a screen without holes is, uh, … ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiring-new-staff-how-to-determine-who-to-hire/640853/22 "2012-11-15T02:00:17Z")
As I said, we don’t care what they do on their own time so as long as it doesn’t spill into work hours we don’t care if they’re having extramarital affairs. Nothing confidential in our workplace, so that form of security isn’t an issue. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![LurkerInNJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@LurkerInNJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkerInNJ)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiring-new-staff-how-to-determine-who-to-hire/640853/23 "2012-11-15T16:39:51Z")
The best vetting tool in your particular situation is your intuition since hers is broken. You can learn a lot more about a person in a 15 minute conversation than you can with a formal background check, and frankly that’s overkill for this type of job. They will tell you more about themselves through simple questioning and conversation. Go for normal. Someone with a steady work history who was laid off. Someone who has outside interests; drug addicts don’t collect antique decoy ducks or vintage tin signs. Someone who is aware this job is below their skill and education level but is willing to put their skills and education to good use to do an honest days work for an honest days pay and have it possibly lead to a better situation with the company or just a stop on their way to another job with no hard feelings. Everybody wins. Get a feel for what kind of person they are by talking with them and let that be the deciding factor. ---
**Author:** ![solosam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@solosam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solosam)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiring-new-staff-how-to-determine-who-to-hire/640853/24 "2012-11-15T17:55:22Z")
I vote for Thunderdome. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiring-new-staff-how-to-determine-who-to-hire/640853/25 "2012-11-15T18:24:00Z")
> [@LurkerInNJ](#): > > drug addicts don’t collect antique decoy ducks or vintage tin signs. If I ever encounter one who does, I’m so gonna point it out to him/her. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiring-new-staff-how-to-determine-who-to-hire/640853/26 "2012-11-16T19:04:44Z")
You might try Googling an applicant to see what you find. (Of course, you’d have to be sure anything you learned was about the person who’s asking for a job, not someone with the same name.) Otherwise, I agree with Joey P.'s suggestions. ---
**Author:** ![fisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fisha)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiring-new-staff-how-to-determine-who-to-hire/640853/27 "2012-11-16T19:24:18Z")
You can run a simple background check for anywhere from $20-$50. you can run some general personality/skills testing for about the same amount. Usually what we do when hiring is put out a detailed description of the job duties, cull through the resumes/applications, have an interview with one of the key personnel, if they pass that interview, test them, another interview, background check. It gets us a much higher level of candidates, although it’s still a crapshoot. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiring-new-staff-how-to-determine-who-to-hire/640853/28 "2012-11-16T23:00:26Z")
> [@Turble](#): > > School bus drivers make for great part-time help for the hours they are available. They are pre-qualified to be sober and dependable. Quite a few of them are looking for additional income. I been thinking about this for days now; HTF could someone drive a school bus full of kids around and _not_ have a pint hidden under the dash?😕 ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiring-new-staff-how-to-determine-who-to-hire/640853/29 "2012-11-18T00:20:32Z")
Finally moving forward with hiring more warm bodies at work. Did the free internet background check on the prospects, our two best looking ones are clean (actually, they all are). Referred them to the boss who I believe will be doing the background checks that require money. Planning to call them on Monday to schedule interviews for Friday. Would be nice if we can get them in the first week of December. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiring-new-staff-how-to-determine-who-to-hire/640853/30 "2012-11-18T01:33:05Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > A credit check is not a bad idea either. As mentioned, this is often illegal. It’s illegal in Illinois, no exceptions (as of last January), so you’d want to check before you try this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiring-new-staff-how-to-determine-who-to-hire/640853.md?page=1)