Aug31
This was a three-part blog post I wrote over a year ago when we were in the middle of the worst recession in three decades. With unemployment stuck at 9.5%, what I had to say then is completely relevant now. Yes, I know this article is a bit long, but I thought it would be helpful to have all three posts together in one place.
Unemployment is on the rise again. That’s bad news for the economy and good news for you. I have small business clients who are making the most of the downturn by hiring good people NOW. And they’re getting the best of the bunch.
With thousands of big companies cutting to the bare bone and millions of workers under-employed, the marketplace is awash with talent: people who will be eternally grateful for your providing them a job. That’s what many of my clients are discovering, and they’re hiring the very best for their small business.
There’s a warning, however, with this: only one-in-four new hires actually work out, and you can’t afford to be on the wrong side of those odds. A critical business building skill, then, is hiring well. Here are three steps to mastering this skill:
STEP ONE: Know exactly what you want this person to do.
Any new hire is doomed from the start with a lack of clarity around the job. Most small business owners hire out of desperation when they’re overwhelmed with work.
“We need to get some help around here!” they cry. So they do, and it only produces more work for them not less.
Knowing what you want this person to do is critical for hiring success. This means having a job description for this position. Not any old job description, but a detailed job description that explains in full exactly what it takes to do this job.
Along with a job description, you‘ll need a list of one-year accountabilities: the measurable outcomes this person will be responsible for delivering in their first year on the job. Without these two things, again, a new hire is doomed to fail. As with anything in business, you get what you measure.
Yes, writing a detailed job description and one-year accountabilities will take some effort, but the up-front investment will save hours and hours of wasted time and thousands of hard-earned dollars that comes from one bad hire.
STEP TWO: Gather a pool of candidates. The bigger the pool the better.
The most common small business hiring mistake I encounter in my practice is the failure to gather an adequate pool of candidates. Busy business owners, desperate to fill an opening, often give a job to the first person that’s available or an unemployed family member.
Other small business owners, a bit more savvy than that, at least interview a few people before hiring someone, but this doesn’t qualify either as an adequate pool of candidates.
The idea is this, the bigger the pool of candidates, the more likely that top talent will be present. More milk, more cream. Right?
How do you do this?
Fortunately, technology has made it easy. My clients have used Craigslist and other free—or very low cost—job posting sites. They’ve announced the job on their own web site and contacted their email list. They’ve also used existing employees, offering a $50 bonus to anyone who recommends a candidate who ends up being a top four finalist (Beats the cost of a newspaper ad, doesn’t it?).
Here’s what’s essential: a pool of people from which to pick 3-4 finalists. A pool is at least a dozen, preferably 20. With technology tools available today, however, you can easily get 20, 30, and even 40 applicants for any decent job opening.
STEP THREE: Interview rigorously.
The very best interviewing methodology for new hires has been designed by Brad Smart. His book TOPGRADING: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching, and Keeping the Best People is THE gold standard on this subject.
In TOPGRADING Brad describes a methodology called the tandem CIDS interview. Tandem means that two people interview the candidate at the same time. Two sets of eyes, two sets of ears, and two perspectives, not just one. A slick candidate may fool you—a busy business owner—but usually can’t fool your battle-hardened assistant. Or both of you at the same time. Am I right?
CIDS stand for Chronological In-Depth Structured interview, which takes the following six questions and asks every one of them about every job the candidate has been employed at.
- What were your expectations in taking the job?
- What were your responsibilities and accountabilities?
- What were your successes? How did you achieve them?
- What were your failures? (Get specifics)
- Who was your boss and what were his/her strengths and weaker points?
- What’s your best guess as to what your boss will tell me were your strengths, weaker points, and overall performance?
A tandem CIDS interview will take 60-90 minutes per candidate, but is worth every second. Patterns will emerge from asking the same questions for each job, and habits will be revealed that will tell you how this person will perform at the job they are applying for.
Clients of mine who use this format are amazed at how much information they get and wonder how they ever hired successfully without it. Best of all, these six questions meet legal interviewing requirements.
For more information about CIDS interviewing and other hiring best practices, check out this free eBook by Brad Smart, How to Avoid Costly Hiring Mistakes. Here’s a link to Brad’s latest TOPGRADING YouTube video.
Jul27
The stretch of highway from my college town to the freeway is strewn with billboards. Officially designated as outdoor advertising, this very traditional marketing medium is enjoyed by some and reviled by others. But there’s much that can be learned from billboard advertising.
Consider this billboard that greets everyone who’s driving into our fair city. It’s a perfect use of the medium. In just 11 words the advertiser—a local fair trade retail store—accomplishes these three critical marketing objectives:
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May25
Last spring I took a trip to one of my favorite Oregon cities, Ashland. Ashland is home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and all kinds of delightful—and sometimes odd—cultural activities. I caught a couple of plays with my kids, enjoyed colorful street performers, and ate (too much) at the array of wonderful restaurants the city has to offer.
On the way home, however, a huge semi-truck sped past me, spraying gravel on my windshield. A star-shaped chip appeared in my line of sight, and, by the time I got home, a crack stretched across the entire windshield.
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Apr20
Kim Taylor at The Retreat Day Spa and Salon is one of my small business consulting clients. Over the last year Kim has gone from not having a Facebook Fan page at all to—at this writing—more than 1,100 fans. With robust daily activity and a passionate fan base, Facebook has become Kim’s number one marketing medium.
Kim, what do you do each week on your Facebook Fans page?
Our fans page is about interaction, not selling stuff. So I post three conversation starters each week and interact with the responses.
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Apr13
There are 27 million business owners in the United States. Over 50% of these owners want out of their business, according to a recent survey quoted in this week’s TIME magazine. Only 1% of them will.
The TIME article goes on to explain how this happens,
“Take, for example, the avid photographer who starts her own business. She shoots weddings, expectant moms, family portraits, ball teams, and prom queens. Her passion for photography is contagious, and her customers love her work and tell their friends about the wonderful photographer who shot their wedding pictures.
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Bill, what kind of results have you seen your clients get from Craigslist? Can you get mostly qualified applicants or do you have to weed through a lot of irrelevant applications?
— Jennifer Gardner · Aug 31, 11:22 AM
Great question, Jennifer. Craigslist is good for generating lots of respondents, and I’ve found some really good people with it. Using a rigorous application like the Career History Form from the TOPGRADING people with every inquiry, lets you screen for the very best applicants. Only serious candidates will even fill the thing out.
WARNING: Shameless promotion … When a client works with me, I give them access to the Career History Form for free.
— Bill Zipp · Aug 31, 11:41 AM