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July 2008
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PRACTICAL LEADERSHIP: 5 ways to hire good, long-term employees
Hiring is a tricky process. Finding the right person for the job can be a complicated gamble.
Many job candidates go to “interview school.” They have the answers to all of the common questions, such as “What are your weaknesses?” and “Why did you leave your previous job?” You have to look deeper than these typical questions.
The next time you hire an employee, take the time to find the right person. To do this, ask the right questions, listen carefully, and hire for attitude instead of for skills.
Here are five practical tips to help you.
• Pay attention to the past. Experience can be good. But, it can also be a barrier to doing work as you would like it done.
Consider, for example, a candidate who has worked for a competitor for 10 years and received formal recognition for her work. Will she challenge you when you want her to do something different from what she has done in the past?
An applicant who has no applicable experience, but has a good work ethic, wants to learn, and loves customers, might require less training and meet your expectations better than someone who has worked in the same type of job for years.
• Ask applicants to tell you a story. Asking closed questions in an interview limits creativity and gives candidates a 50 percent chance of getting the right answer. Do you only want a 50 percent chance the person you hire will stay and be productive?
Open up your questioning. Ask candidates to tell you a story. In your interview, for example, direct them, “Tell me about a time when you and a co-worker successfully completed a project from scratch in which you were given limited direction and no organized resources.”
Listen to the story for hints on how they prefer recognition, get along with others, share credit with co-workers, or bad-mouth their bosses. Also, “listen” to their body language and for creative storytelling.
• Assign a task in the interview. Don’t ask routine interview questions; ask candidates to
For example: If you are looking for a front-desk clerk, set up a role-play situation in which each candidate has to field two ringing telephones while dealing with a “patient” who loves to talk and can’t find his insurance card.
Give the candidate instructions on the type of information he or she should get. See how well the role play goes.
• Hire for attitude instead of skill. You can teach skills, but you can’t fix an attitude.
If you are hiring a customer-service person, hire a go-getter with a love of people and high self-esteem, not necessarily someone who has worked a front desk or phone bank for years.
• Look for passion. Passion makes the difference between someone who does a job and someone who does a job extraordinarily.
After you have asked your standard questions and tested for the skills you need, check out the passion of the person you are considering.
Sometimes passion is apparent; the person lights up when he talks about his former jobs and his accomplishments. Other times you may have to dig deeper to find out if the candidate has a passion for the job. Ask a simple question, “What is it that lights your fire? What is it that you love to do?”
For example: Dr. Smith was hiring a front-desk person. A candidate she was seriously considering answered her questions with ease, and the candidate’s background suggested she had the attitude to make a great front-desk clerk.
Yet, when Dr. Smith casually said, “What is it that you absolutely love to do?” the candidate looked her straight in the eye and said “I love to work with figures. Numbers turn me on.”
Dr. Smith hired her — but not as a front-desk clerk. She now has a great bookkeeper.
Monica Wofford is a nationally known trainer, author, and coach. The author of Contagious Leadership and Contagious Customer Service, she inspires audiences to produce results. She can be reached by phone at 866-382-0121 or through www.monicawofford.com.
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