Don’t rush to get a new employee on board

I was in too much of a hurry last year and hired the wrong person. It turned into a real headache as we clashed about nearly everything, from how to do the work, to who was responsible for what. Finally I let her go. It cost me a lot of time, energy and lost opportunity. What can I do different next time?

Thoughts of the day: Assessing pre-hire is crucial, if difficult. Understand your company”™s culture. Take the time to build a hiring system. Train new hires on culture as well as skill. Build bench strength and deal with mistakes quickly.

Most interviewers focus on interviewing for job skill. Statistics indicate that hiring managers are doing a good job of figuring out which candidates have the skills needed to do the job and which don”™t. Only 1 in 10 fails for skill.

Spend more time learning how to perfect the attitude/behavior interviews. Recognize that every company is unique. Specific skills are needed to perform tasks specific to the company. There are also attitudes and codes of behavior unique to each company.

Entrepreneurial companies have cultures that tend toward throwing people into the deep end of the pool, asking people to solve problems with imperfect information, encouraging people who continue to learn new things and rewarding people who take initiative well beyond the defined scope of their job. That”™s fine as long as you hire for those attributes. But watch out if that”™s your culture and you hire someone who values a well laid out set of procedures, someone who waits for the boss to give direction, who avoids risk and who values routine, repetitive activities. Right person, wrong company.

Make a list of attributes that do and don”™t work in your company. Look at the strongest and weakest performers in your company today. Put skills aside, list successful and unsuccessful behaviors and attitudes.

Build a set of questions that help you find out where candidates are coming from relative to your company”™s success behaviors. Ask candidates questions about what they prefer. Ask candidates to describe their best and worst bosses. Ask them to relate attributes and behaviors of those bosses to what works and doesn”™t work for them.

Use the same questions on every interview and keep notes on candidate answers on file. Track successful and unsuccessful hires and compare with interview answers. Look for patterns.

While you don”™t want a company of robots, it is important to recognize that culture and values can be the glue that binds employees together. Put new employees through an orientation program to help them understand the company”™s stated and implied rules of behavior. Assign a mentor to each new employee. Encourage diversity of backgrounds, while developing a uniform code of behavior.

As much as possible, hire from the bottom; train and promote. Have every person in the company be responsible for identifying and training their replacement. Four things will result. One, new hires who don”™t make it will be at the entry level, lowest risk, easiest to fill positions. Two, employees in line for promotions will have already proven themselves on culture fit. Three, employees will know they fit and have a future within your company. Four, it will be much easier to fill open positions, focusing on skill training rather than culture and behavior.

Even with a system to hire, a sound on-boarding process and a program to grow talent internally, you”™ll still make hiring mistakes. It”™s impossible to be perfect all the time. When there is a problem address it quickly. Implement skill and behavior training and look for immediate results. Assess the facts of the situation and avoid living in the land of hope. If things don”™t turn around quickly, be prepared to admit there”™s a mistake and encourage the employee to move on.

Looking for a good book? Try “Hiring for Attitude; A Revolutionary Approach to Recruiting Star Performers with Both Tremendous Skill and Superb Attitude” by Mike Murphy.

Andi Gray is president of Strategy Leaders Inc., strategyleaders.com, a business-consulting firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurial firms grow. She can be reached by phone at (877) 238-3535. Do you have a question for Andi? Please send it to her, via email at AskAndi@StrategyLeaders.com.