WHY HIRING THE RIGHT PEOPLE IS CRUCIAL
If you want to have a great company, you can’t do so without great people. Unfortunately, most small businesses don’t have a hiring protocol, which can be dangerous, when, only 1 out of 10 applicants will be a great hire.
“People might forgive bad service, but not bad attitude.” Case in point for why you need to have great employees – they are the face of your business. You can’t always account for things going smoothly in the world, but when you have great people in place to deal gracefully with occasional mishaps, your business will be all the better for it.
HOW TO HIRE GREAT EMPLOYEES
Create a compelling ad.
Great job ads include things like, “You’ll love our culture,” “Our people are valued,” and “our environment is open and challenging with plenty of freedom.” Talk to your current employees to see what they love about working at your company and include that “You want to inspire people to apply to your company.”
Conduct great interviews – or find someone who can.
Ironically, the very qualities that make people great entrepreneurs – a love of talking, the desire to see the best in people – make them terrible interviewers. They often do not dig deep enough to see why someone might not be a good employee. Fortunately, there’s likely someone at your organization who has a talent for the craft and can dig deep to find great employees. A key to conducting great interviews is to ask better questions. Below are some of questions that the answers to which offer insights into a candidate’s personality and work ethic:
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Why did you leave your last job?
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How did you handle a difficult situation at your last job?
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If you were in charge of your last company, what would you change?
Check references always.
Not only is reference-checking one of most important things you can do as part of the hiring process, but it’s also one of most unused resources out there. Hiring someone without checking references is “like playing with fire.” When checking references, listen for the red flags. Great candidates’ references are often forthcoming with information and compliments; not-so-great candidates, however, have references who are less willing to talk (whether because they don’t want to be unkind or perhaps fear legal ramifications, etc.). Whatever you do, however, do NOT skip this step. It’s better to make 20 reference calls to guarantee right employee than deal with nightmare of dealing with a bad employee.
ON THE CRUCIAL FIRST DAY
Make sure employees walk away from their first day knowing they made the right decision. Few things are as important to keeping new employees around as giving them a great first day on the job. To ensure this, to the following three things: Introduce them to everyone they’ll work with; Have their work area prepared for them ahead of time; and have someone take them out to lunch (or take them yourself!)
If you don’t love them, don’t hire them. If you put a little more time into the front end of hiring, your life will change dramatically. You’ll have less grief in the long run if you hire people you love during the interview process and get great references. Don’t lower your standards.