How To Hire Smart

How To Hire Smart
Four Guidelines to Help Curb Turnover

Let’s face it, great people equals great company. But the reality in our industry is that our hiring processes are poorly designed and even more poorly executed.

What separates the winners from the losers – good hires from bad hires? This has been the topic of numerous research studies and the outcome is always the same – hiring is not about finding people with the right experience, it’s about finding people with the right mind-set. These studies were the premise for our HIRE FOR ATTITUDE. TRAIN FOR SUCCESS. seminar currently making the rounds throughout the country.

The following is an excerpt from the seminar and features the four guidelines for making smart hires.

1. What a person knows changes, who they are doesn’t.

When you focus all of your hiring energy on the experience and the skills of an applicant but pay no attention to the mindset or attitude, you are setting yourself up for failure and turnover. Believing that you can change people’s attitudes to match great experience is often a fatal mistake.

An introvert is an introvert; an extrovert is an extrovert. Basic personality traits never change.

Focus on reality questions “tell me an instance when did you broke the rules; how do you handle conflict; what can you contribute to our company?” There responses to this type of questioning, along with their tone and demeanor should tell the tale.

2. You can’t find what you’re not looking for.

The basic thought here is simple – how can you get to the really good hire without a road map? The tools are right in front of you everyday in the good employees you already have. You need to create a profile of your “perfect” candidate for hiring.

Find employees within your company that have the qualities that make them the best and define your potential candidates and selections based on those qualities. Focus on these key points and develop you interview questioning based on this list of qualities. The following is a list (in no particular order) of some qualities that should be helpful in finding the “right” one:

Ability to learn
Self motivation
Teamwork adaptability
Tolerance to stress
Marketing ability (everyone in your building is responsible for marketing at some level)
Attention to detail
Adaptability/flexibility

3. The best way to evaluate people is to watch them work.

Starting a new job always has the famous 90-day probationary period where you can observe the new employee, train them in deficient areas and get them involved in the team concept of your company.

Know this – the best you will ever see is in the first 90 days. If you have a problem with an employee while they are still on probation, you might as well cut bait quickly. You can presume that the new employee will be doing their best work during a probation period. At best, they may be poor performers, at worst; they have poor judgment (which may be harder to correct than attitude).

Although we don’t do it due to time constraints in our industry, the perfect solution to observing a new employee’s work is simulation. Role playing as a care giver using a resident would be the ultimate platform for checking out a prospect’s experience.

Evaluating new hires based on experience and ethics can be a challenge. There is a lot of truth in the concept “hire slow, fire fast” when it comes to building your work force. Take your time in the hiring process. It will pay off in huge dividends later.

4. You can’t hire people who don’t apply.

If you’re going to recruit – do it seriously. Good companies are seldom at a loss for job candidates. Remember the goal is to prospect for the right candidates – not the most. Companies that hire smart usually start their recruiting efforts close to home.

In a good company (known for hiring great employees), 65% of their new hires begin as referrals from current employees. This makes great sense since, if you’re hiring (and retaining) great staff, these employees tend to spend time (personally and professionally) with people like themselves.

Create a strong referral program for your employees. Reward them for bringing new employees into the company. This will expand your recruitment efforts ten-fold if it’s a good program. In many cases, many companies have policies about blood relatives working in the same company. Another approach to this may be if “who people are” is what matters, who better to hire than people related to your star employees?