Hi
Reg Gupton here. There is good news on the hiring front. There is a science to hiring.
The other day, a small business owner, let’s call him Kris, mentioned to me that things were going better for him and his company. He said that he was dreading the thought of hiring more employees since his success in the past had been dismal.
Kris told me that high turnover was part and parcel in his industry. It had always been that way and would be that way into the future.
He confessed to me: I have no organized/proven system for hiring. Pretty scattered when it came to hiring he admitted.
I mentioned that I helped some major and not so major companies create a process for hiring that proved successful. In one case, turnover was reduced from 54% to 12% saving the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in out of pocket expenses.
I told him:
Follow these steps and you will make better hires, reduce turnover, reduce expenses, reduce manager stress and increase profit.
1. Determine the problem you want to solve.
Outline the results you want from your new employee. Forget the past. Focus on future expected outcomes and results.
More sales, phones answered by the 3rd ring. Accts payable processed within a day of invoices being rec’d. You fill in the blanks.
2. Write a brief job description focusing on:
Hard skills
Do you need someone; who knows how to create a web page using Dreamweaver? Use MS Office? Use Calyx, Avista Agile™ systems, or Loan Prospector?
Soft skills
There are numerous soft skills that are relevant for many jobs. Here are 10 to consider;
Top 10 Soft Skills
1. Communicate Effectively
To communicate effectively the candidate must possess the ability to express himself clearly, to be a good listener and to show empathy and understanding of others. They also need to be able to use language and grammar correctly.
2. Commitment to the job
The principal qualities employers seek: honesty, dependability and enthusiasm.
3. Learn new tasks willingly
No matter what the job, at times there will be new things to learn and any employer wants someone who will be willing to learn anything required, within reason.
4. Accept responsibility
Many problems in the workplace are caused by people passing the buck, or not taking responsibility for their own actions, or inaction. Employers are on the look out for those who take pride in the quality of their work, evaluate it regularly and use their time wisely.
5. Excellent Interpersonal Skills
These skills show in the ability to work co-operatively with others, maintain a positive attitude and to accept constructive criticism.
6. Make Decisions
Decisions need to be made all jobs. The demonstrated ability to establish priorities and stick to them goes hand in hand with the ability to organize tasks. Also the ability to contribute new ideas is part of this process.
7. Show Flexibility
In this rapidly changing world, the ability and willingness to adapt and be flexible is becoming a core workplace requirement.
8. Leadership Potential
Leadership traits are desirable whether the employee supervisors others or not. These include demonstrated persistence, self motivation and showing an effort to improve personal and group/team performance.
9. Grow in the job
By showing ambition, the job applicant lets the employer know they are willing to train and gain further skills. Of course, the employers also want this ambition to include staying with the company.
10. Ability to handle personal problems
Everyone at some time feels pressures and stresses in their personal life. With the possible exception of major crisis, employers are looking for people who can cope with their personal lives without letting it interfere with their work.
The candidate must have experiences in previous jobs that demonstrate their use, they must be evident in the resume, and evident during the interview.
Behaviors
There are four easily measured behaviors that relate to job performance. They are how a person deals with:
1. Problems
2. People
3. Pace (rate of change on the job)
4. Procedures or details.
Motivations
There are 6 readily measured motivations that will determine what a person will focus on daily and how their reward system needs to be structured. They are:
1. Theoretical
2. Utilitarian
3. Aesthetic
4. Social
5. Individualistic
6. Traditional
3. Find candidates
There are numerous ways to find candidates. First, start out with friends, family, your industry specific database (contacts), existing and past customers. Then Craigslist and your local newspaper are proven sources. You might consider job web sites. If you do, be prepared to be overrun with candidates who may or may not meet your job fit requirements...
4. Review Resumes and cover letters
Be specific in your request for information. Specify where to reply with what and in what form. This is an easy way to eliminate people who can not write nor follow directions.
5. Interview the subset who passed the resume screen using the Interview Questions
About three decades ago, when hired to be the assistant administrator of a 120 bed hospital in Michigan, one of my duties was to act as the Personnel guy, now called HR.
I knew nothing about human resources which included interviewing candidates for many of the jobs in the hospital. After attending a multi day HR training program I developed a set of open ended interview questions that I have used with minor modifications since that time.
They have served me well, kept me legal by treating all candidates the same and forced the candidates to provide revealing information about themselves, their success and failures.
6. Eliminate for job fit
Using the interview, hard and soft skill tests, resumes and cover letters, pick the best 2-4 candidates. Eliminate the rest. See # 10 below.
7. Run assessments on the remaining candidates
Research shows that if jobs could speak there is a profile of behaviors and motivations that leads to more success than other profiles. You should hire to job fit; a set of behaviors and motivations held by your top performers.
After you have eliminated all but two to four of your candidates, run the DISC and Personal Interview Attitude and Values (PIAV) assessments to determine how they fit your hiring profile.
8. Re-interview with assessments
It is relatively easy to mis-state the truth during an interview. For example when a candidate tells you they are motivated by money (when they are not) and they can follow procedures (when they can’t or won’t).
If you are hiring a commission-only sales person, it would be best if your new hires were motivated by money. The PIAV will let you know if they are.
Likewise, the DISC assessment will tell you if they are really hard chargers or would prefer to sit behind a desk and work on files rather than going out and interacting with the public.
These assessments are valid and reliable. They measure what they are supposed to measure and they do it time after time.
9. Make a written job offer
Create/send a letter to your candidate that confirms the offer you most likely made to them in person or on the phone. An audit trail is a good practice.
10. Send reject letters as necessary
Send a written rejection letter to everyone you do not hire. This strategy will be good for business and most likely good legally too. Check with your legal counsel about the contents that might be useful in your letter.
Further, you never know when you might reconsider or want to do business with this person in the future. Watch those burned bridges.
If you follow these simple, practical, proven steps, your hiring decisions will be better, your pain less and your profit higher.
