Hiring the Right People

What to do before you interview your next employee.

Let me ask you a question. Do you have anybody working for you that you wished you’d never hired? Now a quick disclaimer, I recognize that there are two sides to every story, but this episode is intended for business owners and hiring managers. You see, one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch, so if you have one person on your team who’s not performing up to par, they can contaminate everybody. And it all starts with the hiring process. Many employers get hung up on the interview itself. But preparation is really the key. So before you even interview, you need to prepare properly. So how do you prepare to hire the right people?

  1. Define a Clear Position Description

What does success look like? Make sure you know exactly what results you’re expecting from the position. Next, use your M, T, and Os to define it deeper.

  • Minimum: the basic requirements for this position
  • Target: what you would like this employee to accomplish
  • Optimal: the ideal employee
  1. Create the perfect candidate profile.

What attitudes, traits, and skill sets do you want from the person that you’re interviewing? Here are some examples:

Attitudes: strong work ethic, positive attitude, flexible, humble, respectful

Traits: dependable, self-motivated, team-oriented, organized, character-driven

Skillsets: ability to listen, creative thinking, problem-solving, effective communicator

  1. Use Assessments

I use the DISC profile and I’ve used MyersBriggs Type Indicator (MBTI) , but whatever assessment you use, they’re great pre-hiring tools to help make sure that you weed out the bad apples before you even get a chance to interview.

DISC covers four different behavioral traits: dominance, inducement, submission, and compliance.

MyersBriggs Type Indicator (MBTI) identifies and describes 16 distinctive personality types.

  1. Perform a Background Check (Formally and Informally)

Now you can use formal websites online where you can do background checks and legal checks. Of course, you want to call references, and don’t forget to check out their social media profiles, too. Now to help make this point, let me share a quick story.

A few years ago I put an ad on CareerBuilder to interview for a graphic designer. I invited a candidate in and before the interview, I did a little research on her.

So I Googled her name to see what would come up and nothing really came up. Basic social media profiles. But then I Googled her email address. Oh boy, what a shocker this was. First thing that came up was a blog post and let me tell you verbatim what the blog post said. It said, and I quote, “I’m going for a job interview today. I’m trying to find a job where I can do the least amount of work and get paid the most amount of money. I got fired from my last job for calling in sick too much.”

Now right as I get done reading, she’s getting ready to walk into my conference room. I close my laptop and we conduct the interview, and she interviews amazingly. She’s got a great portfolio. She asks all the right questions, and she has great answers to all of my interview questions.

Then I said, “Kim, is this you?” And I flipped on my LCD projector of the blog post. She took a look at that, took a look at me, and she started to cry. I started to laugh.

And I said, “What were you thinking? Did you think I wasn’t gonna find that? You’re not applying for an accounting position. I’m a top marketer. You don’t think I’m gonna find this?”

And she said, “Look, I really don’t even want a job. My husband wants me to go out and get a job. I want to stay home with my two young kids.”

I said, “Kim, stay home, be a great mom. Kids only grow up once. That’s a great job. And when you’re ready, come back and see me for a job.”

The moral of the story is that you need to make sure that you look at what people are putting online before you ever interview them because it might just give you some insights into who they are.

Action Step

Here’s a great tip for this week’s episode: I want you to select a position that you’re hiring for and I want you to go through the steps that I just listed before your next interview. It’s gonna save you so much time and so much frustration.

Now remember, hire slow and fire fast. That’s it for this week’s episode of Fordify. Now I want you to get in the comments below and let me know the most unique question that you can think of, that you’ve ever been asked in an interview or that you’ve given in the interview process. And I want you to share this video with anybody who hires staff. If you like what you see, subscribe to be notified of upcoming episodes. Thanks for watching, I’ll see you next time on Fordify, where we help you Fordify your business.

Jul 7, 2017

Author: Ford Saeks, Business Growth Specialist, Keynote Speaker, Author and Consultant. Helping you find, attract, and keep your customers. Find out more about Ford

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