Issue 4 - March 2004

Success File By Bob Levoy
(More) Hard Learned Lessons About Hiring

The number one characteristic of companies that move from good to great, says consultant Jim Collins in his book, Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t (HarperCollins, 2001), is finding and keeping the right people.

But finding the right people for a chiropractic office is no easy task. Use the following hard-learned lessons to avoid making a costly mistake.

• Don’t rely on first impressions. Many chiropractors and office managers make up their minds about an applicant within the first few minutes. It can be a huge mistake as you may miss the best person for the position.

“Staff your company with people who don’t see their jobs as burdens and chores. Look for individuals who get a kick out of serving other people,” says consultant Ron Zemke in his book, Knock Your Socks Off Service (Bottom Line Business, 1998). “Look for employees who find customer contact exciting and rewarding — who don’t find any aspect of serving others demeaning. They’re the ones who will deliver service that will set your business apart.”

• Don’t make assumptions. Look for repeat patterns of behavior before drawing conclusions about the person.

• Be consistent. If you’re interviewing several job applicants, be sure to ask the same questions. For example, ask about their backgrounds, what they would bring to the position, their long-term career objectives and so forth. Their responses to similar questions will put you in a better position to compare them.

“Pay attention to the final five minutes,” says Dr Steven L. Rasner, Cherry Hill, N.J. “Announce casually that ‘We’re just about out of time.’ Many candidates will save their most important comments or questions until the very end, so give them the chance to help you see what’s important. You may hear a question such as, ‘Do we ever have to work weekends or overtime?’ The closing minutes can offer the clearest insights to your candidate’s concerns.”

Pitfalls to Avoid
Even though you may take a structured, methodical approach to interviewing job applicants, the evaluation is still, in the end, a subjective process. You can neutralize some of that subjectivity by avoiding the following:

• Being overly impressed by maturity or experience or (conversely) overly unimpressed by youth and immaturity.

• Mistaking a quiet, reserved or calm demeanor for a lack of motivation.

• Mistaking a person’s ability to play the “interview game” or his or her ability to talk easily for intelligence or competence.

• Allowing a personal bias to influence your evaluation. For example, you may judge someone harshly because he or she reminds you of someone you dislike.

• Succumbing to the “halo effect” — being so dazzled by one quality of a job applicant such as appearance, friendliness or computer skills — that you lose sight of other important job requirements.

• Wishful thinking. This is closely related to the “halo effect.” It arises because of a desperate need to hire someone and, as a result, leads you to overlook traits that under different circumstances would disqualify the job applicant. Remind yourself of the costs and aggravation involved in a bad hire.

• Failing to factor a person’s motivation and eagerness to learn into your overall evaluation.

• Ignoring intuition. As objective as hiring needs to be, one should not ignore that “tug” inside that says “something just doesn’t feel right here.” Often this comes from your past experience and facts you have had to face through the years. Listen to it, and when in doubt, don’t be too quick to hire.

Bob Levoy is a seminar speaker and writer. He can be reached at 516-626-1353.