Mapping Actual Results

Who wants to employ a centre player who never scored a goal, a sales director who never increased sales in his area, or a production director who never got a production line started?

Even though many agree that this is important to know, there are many employees hired without looking into the area of accomplished results, which can lead to expensive and unnecessary mistakes.

What to look for

Positive responses

• The applicant has no problems proving that they have had high production levels in earlier employment.
• The applicant has accomplished proven results in earlier employment.
• The applicant's production has improved during the years.
• The applicant has been in difficult situations and shown that they have handled them well.
• There are no ‘holes' in descriptions of their production which cannot be easily explained.
• The applicant shows an obvious interest for the part of the interview which concerns productivity and results.

Negative responses

• The applicant cannot provide any evidence of successful production in earlier employment.
• There have been no good results produced in earlier employment.
• The applicant's results have decreased during the years and they cannot explain why.
• The applicant has difficulties defining valuable products they have produced.
• The applicant has never, or seldom, handled difficult tasks.
• There are ‘holes' in the applicant's production which cannot be explained.
• No, or little interest is shown in talking about earlier results or levels of production.

Questions to ask to ascertain past results

1. What position do you have today? (if this is not already obvious)
2. In your current job, what results do you contribute to?
3. Is there any way to measure how effective you are in your current work?
4. How much have you achieved in terms of results at your current job?
5. How was your production level in comparison with others who had similar tasks to you?
6. Who can verify the results you've mentioned to me?
7. Tell me about projects or results in life outside your career you have been responsible for, and how did they go?
8. How did you go about getting the results you've mentioned?
9. Did you keep an even level of production, or was it variable?
10. Whom did you report to?
11. Can that person also verify your information about results?
12. If you have had a job where you did not reach good results, what happened?

Can the applicant prove that they have reached good results, or at least give a clear and acceptable description of their production? If yes, carry on with the interview, but if not, thank the person for having shown interest and end the interview.

Summary

• Does the applicant show interest in earlier production levels?
• What has the person actually done? (end results)
• Does the applicant actually know how they got results in previous jobs?
• Is the applicant's description of earlier results theoretical or non-practical?
• Can the applicant verify past results?

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