A client called today saying that he wanted to hire a key person to help him grow his company into the future. “That’s smart,” I thought. He’s planning ahead.

“How do I create a job description for this role?” he asked.

“You don’t,” I replied, “the last thing a new person, especially a manager, needs is a six page job description like the one I used to have when I worked for a big firm that kept time in six minute increments.”

“There are three main steps in hiring,” I told him. Here they are.

First, identify the business results that this position needs to generate. Results include attracting new customers, increasing staff skills, operational production,  revenues, profits and repeat business (usually in that order, too). In other words, results are what the best entrepreneurs-and their management teams-chase every day. Results are what your customers want.

This is where job descriptions are seriously lacking-because they focus on internal activities or inputs and they don’t focus on the economic value provided to the customer or outputs.

Second, identify the behaviours and actions that you want this person to take. Do they need to be calm under pressure, perform detailed calculations, perform repetitive work, trouble shoot in chaotic situations, tell people what to do, influence people? What does their typical day look like?

Third, it’s all about fit. Potential hires need to fit your organization’s culture, work group or peers, and the tasks required to generate the results. A working interview where you give them real situations to assess or things to do can be a powerful interview process. Asking them questions to provide examples of how they would meet your performance requirements and how they have met them in the past using their personal examples are ways for a prospect to demonstrate these behaviours.

Reference checks are becoming increasingly more difficult to do as employers or former employers are reluctant to say anything negative about a former employee due to litigation risks.

Overall, the most important criteria is attitude. You can train skills but you can’t train attitude, in my experience. A person who grumbles about life and is negative about everything isn’t going to put on a happy, cheery face with your customers for eight hours a day, 40 hours a week. And, they will bring everyone else down, too.

Take your time hiring. When someone good comes along, hire them, even if you don’t have a perfect spot for them. Don’t hire the most qualified candidate as they may be over-qualified and leave you quickly for a better position. Do hire the candidate with the best attitude and the best potential to be a long-term employee.

In summary, hiring is best done carefully and not when you are in a rush to fill a position. In that case, hire a temporary worker to take the pressure off and then seek your best candidate. Often, people work for temporary agencies to try different positions and find great employers, just like you! When you find a good person, act quickly. However, if things aren’t working out…

On Firing

Remember, as entrepreneurs, we have a tendency to hire too fast and fire too slow. I once had a receptionist who made me tea every morning. I kept her a month longer than I planned to because of the tea. It cost me an extra couple of grand, back then. I could have flown to London and had tea with the Queen for that kind of money!

Copyright 2011 Phil Symchych. All rights reserved.

You’re hired!

Despite economic ups and downs, good people are always hard to find. In fact, some industries like food services spends more effort recruiting staff than customers.

Here are tips, based on the best practices of my most successful clients, to attract and retain great people.

1. Promote your company values such as family atmosphere, flexibility, safety, training, learning and growth.
2. Don’t promote the tasks or job description like so many (lousy) job ads do. These advertisements should be written by the marketing folks, not the human resources department.
3. Provide careers, not just jobs, for everyone.
4. Show people the organizational chart and have a plan for them to advance
5. Provide formal and informal training to enhance skills.
6. Provide formal mentoring so people have a strong relationship with a superior, preferably one who isn’t also their boss.
7. Communicate how people help you to serve customers so they understand that their contributions are important and valued.
8. Give people feedback on their performance-in real time. A football coach doesn’t wait until the end of the game to give players feedback and adjust the plays.
9. Lead by example. Since actions speak louder than words, exemplifying the behaviour that you want is the best way to teach and to lead.
10. Pay at competitive levels and then do everything in your power to provide an awesome work environment so the employee’s aren’t focused purely on their paycheques.
11. Hire for attitude and train for skill.
12. Avoid the desperation of hiring anyone when you are in a crunch. Always ensure people will fit your culture.
13. To enhance recruiting: always ask your best people to refer their friends and associates, use social media to promote your company, have your employees promote your company, and let your network know (customers, suppliers, banker, accountant, lawyer, consultant) that you are hiring.
14. Treat your people like real people and use your unique culture to attract and retain people.

There are lots of talented people who would love to work for you but don’t know about you. That’s a marketing challenge, not a human resources challenge.

Copyright 2011 Phil Symchych. All rights reserved.