Slow Down And Hire Well

Hiring an employee is a serious decision. It’s not just a matter of filling an empty desk with a warm body. The person you bring in has to be able to work with the other members of the team or work group. They have to fit in. They can have all the right credentials, experience and education, but if they don’t have the right personality, attitude and work ethic, they can affect the performance of every other person on the team.

The longer a position is open, the more managers pressure recruiters to find someone to fill the job. Projects fall behind. Sales go down. The rest of the staff is overworked and stressed out. The team can begin to feel that any hiring decision is better than no decision. It’s tempting to cut corners and rush the process. 

Slow down. Recruiters know that in the end, the company and team will suffer if the wrong person gets put in a job they can’t succeed in. If they don’t fit, the rest of the team won’t support their efforts. Energy that should be spent on projects and creativity will be wasted on confusion, contention and poor results. Recruiters have to be assertive and let managers know that the best way to make a good hire is to take the time to avoid a bad one.

In addition to the typical phone and in-person interviews, an article in Inc.com suggests other ways to find the right person for the job. Managers usually do the hiring, but the new employee most likely will spend more time with a work team, customers or clients. You get a better idea of how they will fit in by expanding the interview process to include meetings with team members, peers, other department managers and even some vendors and clients. Each person will have a different perspective, based on her needs. The candidate may click with the work team but clash with your biggest customer. She may have worked before with some of your vendors who found her difficult and unreliable. Exposing a candidate to a wide variety of people involved in your business will give the best overall impression of his or her possibility of success.

Ask for feedback and truly listen. Don’t fall in love with a candidate too early. Like love-at-first-sight, emotions can get ahead of reason. Wait until you get all the feedback and use a team to help make a decision. 

Does the job require making sales calls? Set up an afternoon of cold calling and watch his technique. Writing reports? Creating spreadsheets? Research shows that over 50 percent of people lie on their resumes. A resume can make a lot of claims, but the proof is in the doing. Setting up some situations where candidates have to show their expertise can prevent a bad hire or unpleasant termination of a new employee who can’t deliver.   

Some transgressions should be fatal. A candidate that is late for an interview. Showing up improperly dressed. No copy of her resume. Taking calls during the interview. Spelling or grammar errors on anything. A candidate that doesn’t take the time to proofread a cover letter probably won’t do so for a report or sales proposal. If they can’t dress properly for an interview, how will they show up to client meetings once they’ve got the job? Everyone makes mistakes, but interviews are like playing in the Olympics. You only get one shot to get the gold. Taking a pass on a candidate who doesn’t measure up can save a lot of headaches later on. 

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