We've all encountered them -- rude, backstabbing, belittling -- those aggravating, two-faced, lying, cheating colleagues known as jerks. Nobody likes 'em, so whey do we keep hiring them? Jerks come through the front door just like everybody else. A natural place to fortify your company's defenses against jerk-kind is through the hiring process. Recruitment is the first place your company makes contact with bullies and should also be the last.

First let's review what it means to be a jerk. According to Robert Sutton, a professor at Stanford University, and author of the "The No A - Rule," a jerk is someone who leaves a trail of people feeling demeaned and de-energized." Jerks often feed off power dynamics. They suck up to those above them and actively work to sabotage those below them. Worse, their behavior is often contagious. A jerk, if left unchecked, can take a fun, cooperative work environment and turn it into a box of pain. Ever wonder if you are a workplace jerk? Take the official quiz: http://electricpulp.com/guykawasaki/arse/

The first place to shore up your defenses against jerk-kind is through the interviewing process. According to David James, an Executive Recruiter with Audit Search Consultants, a telltale sign that you're dealing with a jerk is the candidate's complete lack of humility. While interviewing, Mr. James listens carefully to the way the candidate describes his or her accomplishments. Does the candidate credit others for his or her success? Or does he or she frame things solely in terms of "I and me?" If you hear a lot of first-person pronouns, be on guard. Same goes for the "describe a failure" question. If the candidate passes the buck or is unable to take responsibility for their role in a failed endeavor, you know something's off.

Additional defensive blocks should be employed through reference checking. "Never stop at the candidate's list of given references," advises David James. "When speaking to a reference, I always ask for names of other people I can talk to." If you follow the squirrel far enough up the tree, you will inevitably find someone who will give you a solid opinion. Hunting down additional references can be tedious, but at the end of the day, it's the only way you're going to get unrehearsed information.

Behavioral testing can also be a useful screening tool. There are numerous tests you can administer to help you get a read on a candidate's true character: from personality and honesty tests, to full blow psychological profiles. When used in combination with interviewing and reference checking, behavioral testing can provide information to help you confirm or disconfirm a decision to hire. Is the interview team split on whether a candidate is a jerk? The results of a behavioral test can help break the tie.

Jerks aren't terribly difficult to spot -- just do a sniff test. To keep jerks out of the workplace, recruiters need to use the screening process to actively identify them and weed them out. Using reference checking to its full extent and watching for verbal and behavioral clues are a recruiter's best allies. "Humility is the sexiest quality a candidate can have," according to David James. Candidates who are considerate, respectful, and express modesty during the hiring process often behave the same way after they're hired.
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