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.
Aug17
When asked about the secrets to his success, the ever-quotable Ted Turner replied, “Early to bed, early to rise. Work like hell and advertise.” With due respect to the media mogul—and with a nod to healthy habits and hard work—small businesses who follow this advice today with fail.
Why?
Because advertising today is not what it was a few decades ago when Ted Turner launched his empire.
Read More »
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:
Read More »
Jun23
Two weeks ago I reviewed the now best-selling business book, Delivering Happiness by Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh. In that review I referred to Zappos’ company culture and together we had a robust discussion on my Facebook fans page about about their ten core values listed here again:
- Deliver WOW Through Service
- Embrace and Drive Change
- Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
- Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
- Pursue Growth and Learning
- Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
- Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
- Do More With Less
- Be Passionate and Determined
- Be Humble
Read More »
Jun15
In a client consulting session a few weeks ago, we were discussing how this couple’s business had grown past their personal capacity to get everything done. They were putting in long hours with lots of late nights, working weekends and starting to get burned out.
It became obvious, it was time to hire.
The conversation then turned toward whether or not this couple should hire an independent contractor or an employee. Knowing the difference between the two is critically important. If you get it wrong, IRS penalties can be painful. Here’s some help distinguishing between the two and how to stay away from IRS trouble:
Read More »
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