HOW TO HIRE THE RIGHT PEOPLE Copyright April, 2006 by Bob Losyk As more and more baby boomers retire and there are less people entering the workforce,it will become increasingly difficult to find good employees. Competition will increase for the best workers. Preventing costly turnover will become one of your highest priorities. Consequently, you will have to get better interviewing and hiring employees.
Here are some tips to help you make better hiring decisions:
CHECK APPLICATIONS Applications give us information we need to know. Check the application for lack of information, inconsistencies, or phony companies. CHECK REFERENCES Personnel or human resource departments often do not give you any useful information on a former worker because they try to avoid lawsuits. Ask your candidate for the name of the managers or owners they worked for directly. Get written authorization from the applicant to call that person. Have the candidate call the references and ask them to talk with you. CREATE A WARM INQUIRY SYSTEM Talk with employees who will be answering the phone or greeting walk-in candidates about how you want inquiries to be handled in case a supervisor is not available. You don t want to lose a candidate due to lack of knowledge or rudeness.
PRE-SCREEN BY PHONE Use the phone as a method to pre-screen, and eliminate unqualified people. Delegate this responsibility to one of your staff. You want to spend your valuable time interviewing only the best candidates. Be sure to have them ask certain "knockout questions" early on that may automatically eliminate applicants.
CREATE THE ATMOSPHERE Create a warm, favorable interview climate. The room should be comfortable, quiet, and free from interruptions. Have your telephone calls held until you are finished. This plays an important role in the success of the interview.
EXPLAIN THE INTERVIEW PROCESS Give the candidate an explanation of the entire interview process. Tell them that you are going to ask the questions for the majority of the interview. Explain to them that they will have an opportunity to ask questions at the end.
CREATING GOOD QUESTIONS Create a written list of good questions. The candidate must be very clear about what you want to know. The questions should be easy for the candidate to answer, and questions should progress in a logical order. Concentrate on the areas of education, past job experiences, past on the job skills and behaviors. By having candidates discuss past situations and behaviors on previous jobs, you can better predict what their behaviors will be on the new job. The answers that candidates give you about what they have done before are a good indicator of what they will do in that situation again. When finished questioning the candidate, discuss all the aspects of the job that are necessary. Create a clear picture of what the job is like. Answer all their questions and be friendly to the end. Explain the next step in the process. If they are definitely not a candidate, you still want to maintain good will for your company. In all cases, thank them, and walk them out. Make your decision based on: can they do what you must have them do, will they perform up to the standards you have set, and do they fit into your organization? With proper preparation beforehand, and some analysis afterwards, you will greatly increase your success ratio of hiring the right people. Bob Losyk, M.Ed., M.B.A., Certified Speaking Professional, is a Greensboro, NC. based professional speaker, author, and consultant to many businesses of all sizes. This article is excerpted, from his book, "Managing a Changing Workforce: Achieving Outstanding Service With Today s Employees." For information on ordering the book, or on Bob s keynotes and seminars, call 1-800-995-0344 or visit his website at: speaker on recruiting and hiring employees
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