Hiring the Right People

Finding and hiring the right people is easier said than done, but it’s an important part of owning a small business. Training and processing new employees is expensive, so managing turnover and improving employee retention is an excellent way to keep tabs on your bottom line. That starts with getting the right people in the right positions in the first place.

Here are some ideas for finding and hiring the right people the first time.

Write better job descriptions. Less is better: try to describe on the core essence of your open position – job duties, qualifications and requirements. Focus on the biggest priority tasks for a position and save the details for the interview. Remove the obvious, focus on the unique – everyone wants salespeople with killer instincts, but focus on the unique skills you want them to demonstrate.

Hire for your culture. When hiring new employees, you need to find individuals that fit your culture and will be passionate about building a loyal client base. Culture’s all that invisible stuff that glues organizations together. It includes things like everyone agreeing on the purpose, values, and approach to serving the customer. This is hard to explain, hard to measure, and hard to manage.

Ask for employee referrals. One of the best ways to find people who fit your culture is to ask your current staff for referrals. If you already have a few high performers on staff, they might have friends or acquaintances that would be a good fit for your company. This has worked out the best for us.

Get input from your team and take your time with the interview process. When you do identify a candidate who looks promising, have them meet a lot of people within your company. To hire somebody on one interview is crazy. Vet people and gauge their interest by bringing them in to meet several staff – and not just the people they’ll be working with and for. You’ll get different opinions to help you make the best decision.

Go with your intuition. This might sound like a no-brainer but when you’re faced with the opportunity to hire some a person with a great resume and experience, it can be easy to dismiss the little voice inside your head that says you just don’t like him. You’ll be spending a lot of time with the people on your team. If something about their personality drives you crazy, think twice about hiring them.

Look for flexible applicants. Hiring an employee that’s committed to working hard doesn’t just mean finding someone that will stay late, come early or send emails on the weekend just to impress you. It means finding someone that is able to focus on the building blocks, getting simple but often boring fundamentals of business right. And someone who will pitch in no matter the situation – even when it’s not technically in their job description.

Will they learn? Paying more attention to candidates’ ability to learn than previous experience demonstrates more than their resume. Can a potential employee tell you how they dealt with difficult customers at their waitressing job? What about the one who grew from laborer to foreman because he paid attention to what the customer wanted and delivered? When a candidate can tell you what she got out of the job rather than just listing her responsibilities, she’s more qualified that someone who has done the job before.

Finding the best employees for your company takes some time. To build the team that you want, take a step back from resumes and candidates’ pre-determined interview responses to look for individuals that will fit your company culture and are eager to learn new tasks. Just sayin.