According to the Huffington Post, the reason why a recent video of an adorable honey badger destroying an entire forest secured over two million views was because their interest was piqued by the destructive yet amusing antics of the animal. The term ‘honey badger’ is now used among HR professionals to describe people who are fun to socialise with but are unproductive individuals at work.
Here is how you can prevent honey badger from becoming part of your workforce:
1. Perform a social media audit. One of the quickest ways to spot a honey badger is to go through people’s social media profiles. Their status updates, photographs and the content they share can provide valuable insights about their interests, priorities and emotional intelligence – key factors that shape their work ethic.
2. Conduct a ‘morality’ check. It is a standard pre-hiring practice to verify the educational and work credentials of all applicants. However, organisational psychologists are now urging recruiters to ask about their ‘moral code’as well while conducting background checks. This is important because employee practices such as absenteeism, showing up late to work consistently, missing deadlines or turning in error-ridden work results in monetary loss and reputational damage for the business.
3. Ask the ‘right’ questions. Design interview questions that elicit details about people’s personality and work attitude. If their responses indicate a lack of commitment towards goals, a tendency to shirk responsibility for the consequences of their decisions and a ‘do now, think later approach’, the chance are that you have a honey badger in front of you.
4. Set a trial period. While a probationary period – varying between one to six months – is common in employment contracts, a recruitment practice gaining traction is ‘hiring by trail’, whereby recruiters shortlist three to four candidates for a vacancy , who are than asked to work at the organisation for a designated period . This gives both recruiters and supervisor and opportunity to observe potential employees in action and determine whether or not they fit into the organisation.
By Arisha Wasif Ahmed. The writer is a corporate trainer.