In a segment on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," listeners learned why preschool might be the most effective jobs training program of all.

Alex Blumberg reported that when Nobel-Prize-winning economist James Heckman studied the effects of job training programs on unskilled young workers, he found that the training programs did nothing to help the workers get better jobs.

The problem, he said, was that the students couldn't learn what they were being taught. They lacked an important set of skills that would enable them to learn new things: they lacked "soft skills." Soft skills, which are very important in getting a job, involve things like being able to pay attention and focus, being curious and open to new experiences, and being able to control your temper and not get frustrated. Heckman discovered you don't get them in high school, or in middle school, or even in elementary school. You get them in preschool. And that, according to Heckman, makes preschool one of the most effective job-training programs out there.

As evidence, he points to the Perry Preschool Project, an experiment done in the early 1960s in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Researchers took a bunch of 3- and 4-year-old kids from poor families and randomly assigned them to one of two groups. The kids in one group just lived their regular lives. And the kids in the other group went to preschool for two hours a day, five days a week. After preschool, both groups went into the same regular Ypsilanti public school system and grew up side by side into adulthood. When researchers followed up with the kids as adults, they found huge differences. At age 27, the boys who had - almost two decades earlier - gone to preschool were now half as likely to be arrested and earned 50 percent more in salary that those who didn't. At 27, girls who went to preschool were 50 percent more likely to have a savings account and 20 percent more likely to have a car. In general, the preschool kids got sick less often, were unemployed less often, and went to jail less often. Since then, many other studies have reported similar findings.

In preschool, kids play, paint, build with blocks, and nap. Also, they learn valuable skills: how to resolve conflicts, how to share, how to negotiate, how to talk things out. These are skills they need to make it through a day of preschool now. And they are skills they will need to make it through a day of work when they're 30.

If they learn these skills now, they'll have them for the rest of their lives. But, says Heckman, research shows if they don't learn them now, it becomes harder and harder as they get older. By the time they're in a job training program in their twenties, it's often too late.

Because Heckman is an economist, he thinks about this as a cost-benefit analysis. To him, the message is clear: If you want 21 year-olds to have jobs, the best time to train them is in the first few years of life.

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Your pre-employment hiring test might not be as valuable as you think.  Dr. Wendell Williams, writing for tlnt.com, says he recently did a search for "hiring tests," and Google turned up 84 million listings. "By any standards, selling hiring tests is a big business," he writes. But there is a big difference between a good hiring test and a "leaky" one.

Leaky tests pass through marginal performers and, depending on the type of job (unskilled, semi-skilled, professional, managerial), they can cost organizations between 10 percent and 50 percent of annual payroll. In other words, "leaky hiring tests can be the single most expensive mistake organizations can make."

Leaky tests are great examples of junk science, Williams says, advising businesses to take them with a grain of salt.

Leaks come from many sources: restricted score range, conflicting metrics, useless test factors, self-report errors, overemphasizing manager bias, underestimating job skills, trusting personality to predict actual skills, comparing individuals to group averages, and assuming job titles all involve the same skills.

Read the guidelines to dry up leaky tests ... 

Interview mistakes aren't limited to job candidates; interviewers make lots of mistakes too. Jeff Haden, blogging for Bnet.com, lists several of the most common mistakes interviewers make, and how to avoid them:

1. Talk about possibilities. Interviewers often try to sell the candidate on the job. Without thinking, they describe exciting new projects, enhanced benefit programs, new opportunities - hopeful things that might happen in the future. The problem is the candidate doesn't hear the word "might." The candidate hears "will," and you create false expectations.

What to do: Never describe possibilities. If you can't promise, don't bring it up.

2. Spring the surprise group interview. Group interviews are usually terrifying for candidates. Rarely will you get a candidate's best.

What to do: If the position will require working predominately within a team, a group interview makes sense. Otherwise, hold individual sessions. If you do conduct group interviews, tell the candidates ahead of time.

3. Mistake discomfort or shyness for inability. Some people don't interview well. They're nervous or shy and don't make a great impression. An awkward interview does not mean a candidate can't do the job.

What to do: Don't flip the "no way I'll hire this person" switch too soon. Try to help them relax. You're a leader; your job is to get the best from people.

4. Fail to go off script. An interviewer should follow a plan and ask a reasonably specific set of questions, but it's easy to get so focused on asking questions that you don't listen to the answers. The best questions are almost always follow-up questions.

What to do: Listen. Then ask why. Or when. Ask how a project turned out. Ask what made a position hard or made a project difficult.

5. Monopolize. Interviews often turn into monologues delivered by the interviewer. Candidates rarely interrupt. Thirty minutes later the interviewee walks away dazed, and your hiring decision is based on whether the candidate is a good listener.

What to do: Describe the position briefly. Explain you'll answer questions at the end. Then dive in. The conversation should be 90% candidate and only 10% you - at most.

6. Assume 10 "maybes" equals "yes!" Do you want to hire the candidate whose qualifications and interview fail to raise any red flags (or really excite you), or do you want the candidate who excels in a number of critical areas? It's easy to check off mental boxes during an interview. Before you realize it, a mediocre candidate with no negatives seems like a great candidate.

What to do: An absence of negatives is not a superlative. Always look for excellence. Never settle for good enough; if good enough is all you find, keep looking.

7. Fail to debrief the front desk. Job candidates give you their best: They're up, they're engaged, they're on. But how do they act when they are not trying to impress you?

What to do: What candidates do in the lobby can indicate a lot, so ask. Find out how they treated the receptionist, what they did while they waited. A great lobby manner never outweighs poor qualifications, but a jerk in the lobby is a candidate you don't want to hire.

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It is undeniably difficult to give constructive feedback or criticism to employees. But ignoring problems can make them worse. Without feedback, employees don't know if what they are doing is right, wrong, or if anyone cares. These feelings soon translate into decreased morale.

Not good at giving constructive feedback? Here are a few tips from Katie Morell, writing for OpenForum.com:

Be specific: Instead of telling someone they have a bad attitude, try giving them solid examples of how their attitude manifests itself in the office.

Look at your processes: Is the employee the problem or is there something wrong with the business process? "For example, maybe the employee always answers the phone when a customer is in the store--often prompting the customer to leave. The solution could be assigning a second person to answer the phone," writes Morell.

Turn the table: Instead of coming at your employee with a laundry list of offenses, first ask them how they think things are going. An employee is far more apt to listen to you if you also listen to them.

Focus on the "dos": Instead of approaching an employee with a list of never-agains, focus on the positive. "Tell them what it is that you want them to do, not what you want them to stop doing."

Check yourself: Emotions have a way of seeping into an office, especially in a small business setting. Before giving feedback, make sure to evaluate how you feel.

Don't wait: Feedback is best given as close to the event as possible. Instead of waiting for a yearly performance review, speak up right away. "That said, make sure to pick the time and place carefully. Reprimanding someone in the middle of a room in front of employees or customers isn't going to do any good and it will just make you look like a jerk."

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We are always looking for ways to improve our interview performance and were impressed by the approach used by Alan Trefler, founder and CEO of Pegasystems, a business technology company. He recently was interviewed by Adam Bryant, the "Corner Office" columnist for The New York Times.

Bryant asked Trefler about his hiring practices, and Trefler replied that in interviews he always tries to learn something he doesn't know. He'll look at a candidate's résumé and find something they probably know better than he does. Then he asks them to explain it.

"I've had people explain how the engines of a locomotive work, and how they did archaeological research." Trefler says he believes that being able to explain things clearly is an important trait for a thought leader. Also, he maintains that you get to tell whether the candidates like teaching. "I believe that really good people in the business context are folks who want to share information and want to explain."

Next, Trefler says he tries to find some things that are beyond the limit of what the person knows. He says he does that for a couple of reasons. One is to unearth the boundaries of their knowledge. He also does it to see how people react to not knowing something: "Are they curious? Do they respect content, and do they actually like to dig into things? It's about that inclination. It's not just whether you have capacity to dig into things. It's whether you like to dig into things."

Trefler says he also is interested in people who build sustaining relationships. "One question I've found to be extremely powerful as a predictor of how well people will do in customer-facing roles is to ask for specific names of people they've worked with as those people moved between companies or roles, or as the candidate moved between companies and roles," he says. Is there any evidence they have built relationships they have sustained beyond a single business interaction? Trefler notes that a lot of people don't have those sorts of relationships. He says he finds it to be a really useful predictor of whether they are relationship-oriented, "which I think is important not just for dealing with customers - it's important for dealing with co-workers as well."  

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When email and the Internet were new, HR departments created use policies to prevent misuse. Now that social media has taken the world by storm, companies are busy writing up new policies. But, cautions Heather Bussing, writing for hrexaminer.com, managers need to understand that "the more you control it, the more you are legally responsible for everything that happens."

She offers some key reasons why social media policies backfire:

1. Most Social Media Accounts Belong to the Employee: If it is an account in the employee's name, whether they use it for work or personal or both--it's theirs and they get to say what they want. Trust them, and stay out of it. If it is a blog or company page that belongs to the employer, the company is liable for everything in it anyway.

2. It's Bad For Your Brand: The effectiveness of social media is that it is more spontaneous and authentic than traditional media. If you dictate what can be said or require all posts to be approved, you lose that edge. The more people who have a say in what is and isn't said, the less personal and interesting the posts will be.

3. If You Control It, It's Yours: If you have a comprehensive social media policy that dictates what can and cannot be discussed, you will have to pay someone to monitor what is being said, demand that inappropriate posts come down, and discipline when the edicts are violated. Do you have the time, money, and energy for that?

If you are directing the conduct of employees in social media, the company will be liable for everything that is said. "A comprehensive social media policy is the best way to get the company named in the lawsuit," writes Bussing. If you are not controlling it, then the company generally will not be liable for things said and done in employees' personal accounts. Some employers require employees to post some version of "my opinions are my own and not my employer's." For example, see some of these disclaimers on Twitter.

4. Dictating What Employees Cannot Say Can Violate the NLRA: The National Labor Relations Act protects employees from retaliation by an employer for discussing wages, hours, or working conditions. These NLRA protections apply whether or not your company has a union, because they relate to "organizing" or pre-union actions. A social media policy cannot prohibit an employee from saying bad things about what it is like to work at your company, says Bussing.

5. Enforcing the Policy Can Violate Whistleblower or Anti-retaliation Protections: If employees are saying things in social media that relate to a protected status, and an employer disciplines them, the employer risks liability for retaliation under discrimination laws. 

"So basically, you can't control how employees talk about the company and you can't control how they talk about themselves without risking liability for something," writes Bussing. 

What to Do:

In Bussing's view, the best social media policy is two words long and was written was employment lawyer Jay Shepherd. The policy is:  "Be professional."

If you are concerned about trade secrets and confidentiality, then teach your employees what is secret and what isn't. It is fine to train employees to "be professional," and letting them know what defamation is or what would violate a nondisclosure agreement. Just don't try to direct their conduct or tell them to do or not do something that violates one of the issues above.

"If you are concerned about employees being inappropriate, believe me, you'll know as soon as someone is, because it will be all over the company faster than 'free beer in the conference room,' " writes Bussing.  Figure out the best way to deal with it and handle it using your good sense and judgment.

Bottom Line: Social media policies do not prevent problems or fix them.  They generally only create them.

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