Four Keys To Hiring Right The First Time

“I just don’t understand. I used my best interviewing techniques
and questions. I checked his references and they
were great. My instincts said, “He’s a runner.” I poured my
heart and soul into training him and now, six months later,
he’s failing miserably. I’m going to have to let him go.”
Sound familiar? It has happened to all of us.
One of the most difficult tasks a manager or entrepreneur
faces today is finding the right person for the job. Most follow
a suggested interview guide and trust their instincts. They hire the individual and hope that
with proper training and motivation, the individual will succeed. The difficulty with this approach
is that it is human nature to hire people we like and that have similar personalities to our
own.
If you are an accountant and are hiring accountants, then you probably have a 50% chance of
hiring the right person for the job. But, if you are an entrepreneur or manager, and you are hiring
for a position you have little experience in, chances are you will fail and the position will
become a revolving door. With the average hiring mistake costing a company $17,000 -
$20,000, competitive pressures make hiring right the first time a necessity.
There is a better way. At Employee Selection & Development, Inc., we have many years of
turnaround experience. We have learned that the key to productivity and profits is having the
right people in the right jobs. We call people with the skills, motivation and work ethic to do the
job Power Runners. Put the Power Runner in the job and you will have a top producer; someone
you wish you could clone. Put many Power Runners in the job and you will have a fast
growing and exciting company that is “fun” to work for; a company that your competitors wish
they could clone.
THE FOUR KEYS

• JOB COMPATIBILITY
  The first question to answer is “Is the individual’s personality compatible with what you are
  asking them to do?” Many corporations today have career broadening assignments for their employees.
  The notion is based on the idea that the broader the experience, the better the employee.
  Unfortunately, many employees are miserable in career broadening assignments because
  their personalities are not compatible with what they are being
  asked to do. Their performance lags. They become frustrated
  and what was once a rising star becomes a management problem
  with an attitude. Usually, the employee leaves before the harried
  manager can determine the root of the problem. Doesn’t it make
  sense to determine a person’s compatibility with a new job BEFORE
  they are hired or promoted?
  How is this done? I recommend the use of our Personality Profile. First, test your most successful
  people in the position. The results will uncover their dominant personality type as well as 20
  job related traits. Our program will then model the results through a process called “Profiling”.
  This “Profiling” creates a hiring or promotion personality trait baseline by which you can judge
  whom of your applicants or employees is most compatible with the position. If you do not have
  enough employees to profile, then you can use our industrial database of baselines. We have
  profiled over 35 positions from receptionist to CEO.
• SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE
  The second question to answer is “Does the individual have
  the skill set to do the job?” This can be determined through
  good interviewing questions, checking references, and giving
  the applicant a skills test that is relevant to the position.
  Recent research has shown that many degreed applicants
  lack the basic skills to do the job. I sincerely recommend the
  use of a Basic Skills Aptitude test. My company uses tests
  that were developed by a Doctor of Education to specifically
  measure the applicant’s computer knowledge, math,
  spelling, vocabulary and grammar aptitude. Bottom line,
  what good does it do to hire someone who can’t open Windows, add and subtract, or compose a
  business letter? Make sure they have these basic skills before you hire.
  If you want to know if an applicant knows how to sell, I sincerely recommend the use of our
  Sales Strategy Index. It puts the applicant in typical sales situations and then measures their responses
  against a known group of top producers.
• WORK ETHIC
  The third question we must answer is “Will the individual work?” For salaried positions, I recommend
  you rely upon the in-depth interview questions provided by the software and the questions
  below. The Interview Questions Report provides in-depth interview questions for the applicant’s
  scores that may be a problem on the job. These questions are specific to the applicant’s
  profile and not “one size fits all”. Also, below are additional interview questions to help you
  determine the applicant’s work ethic. They are here to supplement the profile report interview
  questions. Feel free to modify the questions to suit your needs.
  Mission/Sense of Purpose
  Who is the most successful person you know in our industry?
  What is your goal in life?
  Tell me about your 5-year goal? Your 10-year goal?
  For the first year or two, is there any reason why you wouldn’t be willing to commit to working
  9 am to 9 pm, three to five days a week?
  Tenacity/Perseverance
  Tell me about something you have accomplished that required great perseverance?
  Tell me about the jobs you have had that required self-discipline and perseverance?
  Tell me about something that made you decide to give up and why?
  Time Management
  Do you use a Day Timer? May I see it? (Look to see if it is filled out.)
  How do you prioritize your “To Do” list?
  Have you taken any seminars on time management? Which ones?
  Character and Credit History
  When we conduct our character and credit checks, will we find anything questionable?
  Check driving, credit, criminal, and employment history.
  Check personal references.
  For hourly positions, the questions we must answer are different.
  We want to know, “Will the applicant show up for
  work? Will the applicant steal from the company? Will the
  applicant take drugs on the job? Can the applicant accept
  supervision? What is the applicant’s attitude toward customer
  service and communication?” To measure these, I
  recommend a Work Ethic and Core Values tool that was
  originally developed for Sam Walton and his companies. It
  is now in use with over 2,000 companies worldwide. It has
  proven very effective at screening out people with absenteeism, tardiness, drug, theft, supervision,
  communication and customer service problems. It tells you if the applicant is a low, marginal
  or high risk in these areas and if their scores are below average, average or above average
  as compared to other workers.
• RETENTION
  The final question we must answer is “If I hire this applicant,
  who inside of my organization is best to manage the
  new hire and jump start his/her productivity?” How many
  times have you hired the “right” applicant, seen them perform
  excellently during the “honeymoon”, then watched
  their productivity slowly fall into non-existence? Our company
  has been doing retention research and exit interviews
  for over 7 years. We have found that personality conflicts
  now account for 50% of the employee turnover. In a recent research project, we discovered that
  often a new hire had all the “right” ingredients for success. The new hire was then assigned to a
  manager or trainer with whom they were incompatible. The result was after 120-180 days, the
  new hire became de-motivated, disheartened and left. How can this be prevented? By making
  sure that the new hire and initial manager are compatible. You can do this by a simple comparison
  of their Personality Profile results. If the manager and the new hire are opposites in more
  than 3 or more of the 20 job related traits, you may want to assign the new hire to another manager
  or not make the hire. While opposites may attract socially, they usually fight at work. If the
  differences are not as extreme, then have an initial conference and show the new hire and manager
  how they are alike and how their differences can benefit each other. Often, just showing
  two people how they can attack a problem from their different perspectives is enough to promote
  teamwork and jump start productivity.

CONCLUSION
With hiring mistakes costing the average company $17,000-
$20,000, competitive pressures necessitate “hiring right and
promoting right” the first time. In order to do this, you must
have a complete picture of an applicant’s or employee’s
strengths and weaknesses and how they will fit into your organization.
This picture must include an assessment of their
skills, their personality, their work ethic and consideration
of compatibility with the immediate supervisor.
To see why over 900 companies worldwide are using Employee Selection and Development,
Inc.’s services to help them hire right the first time and reduce employee turnover, you are invited
to visit their website at http://www.EmployeeSelect.com. There you will be offered a
complimentary personality profile, so you can experience the power of the results. For more
information, please feel free to call 800-947-5678 or 941-739-0400.