Appearences can be deceptive, warns recruitment expert

SMALL businesses are risking their entire future by hiring staff on appearance alone, a recruitment expert has warned.



New research shows that as many as one in ten small and medium sized firms admit that how a candidate looks is the most important factors when it comes to recruiting.

And while appearances are important, recruitment expert David Hunt warns that firms who rely on looks alone are flirting with failure.

ìMost of us wouldnít buy a holiday novel purely on the basis of its front cover,î said recruitment expert David Hunt of Alexander James Executive Search.

ìYet here are small companies gambling with the future of their business by selecting key members of their staff at first sight.î

A report by Bibby Financial Services found that ten per cent of small businesses in the UK cited personal appearance as the most important attribute in an interview.

And one in five appointments are made on the basis of a candidateís sense of humour or ëchemistryí - with apparently scant regard paid to qualifications and experience.

ìFor SMEs, recruiting the right senior person can mean the difference between success and failure,î warns David. ìIn the worst case scenario, it could put someone out of business.

ìSo for them, there are a lot of things to take into account whenever they need to recruit a key member of staff,î said David.

ìAppearance and how someone comes across in interview is always important but anybody can get on well in an interview for an hour.

ìThat is where having someone from outside the company can help, bringing an objective view to proceedings together with skills like competency based interviewing and psychometric testing which go behind the public face and identifies which candidates are most likely to be good for the company in the long run.î