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The Hiring Hangover

Nuevo Arraiján by | Jan 6, 2014 | Employee Hiring, Employee Retention, Firing Employees, Interview Process, Selecting Good Candidates, Uncategorized

St Austell tumblr_inline_mrkpyfH8o11qz4rgpLast week, I met with a new client who suffers from what I call “the Hiring Hangover”. He had just fired a long time employee and had to hire someone else quickly. The whole experience left a really bad taste in his mouth and he was having a hard time getting over it. He kept trying to change his policies and procedures to make sure that he did not get into the same position with a new employee that he had experienced in the past. In other words, he wanted to punish the new employee for the sins of the old employee. While it is completely understandable, it will not work. When you hire a person while “hungover”, you will make a bad hiring decision. You have to feel good about bringing a new person onboard. You have to be excited. 

So, how do you recover from a bad hire? 

  1. You take a deep breath. Do not hire too quickly. If you need immediate help, hire a temp. Jumping in to a situation with a new hire when you are not ready sets you both up for failure. 
  2. Create your ideal candidate list. Put your head in the clouds and dream BIG. And I mean really big, like roses and rainbows and unicorns. You cannot have what you want unless you know what it is and how to identify it. So until you are ready to write a list of what you want, then you are not ready for a new hire. 
  3. Be patient. Do not start the interview process until you feel excited again. 

Every manager has had a bad hire. It feels awful and firing someone should never feel good. So give yourself time to recover and breathe. Things will look better tomorrow. And your next amazing employee is right around the corner. I promise.

$300,000

handshakeThe end of the year is always a time of reflection for me. I like to look back and see the difference I have made in the lives of others and plan for how I will continue to bring value in the coming year. 2014 should be an exciting year, as my plan to publish a book about interviewing in a new era has taken shape and well on its way to being realized. During this process of publishing a book, I was given the rare opportunity to interview my clients to learn more about how I have assisted them with better hiring practices. Below is one such testimonial I received that brought tears of joy to my eyes. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I….

One of my clients, The Doss Heritage and Culture Center, hired me 2 years ago to find them an Executive Director. “Our Board had a very poor hiring record,” said James May, the Board President at the time of the hire. ”We floundered for a number of years. We would hire folks because they were local, and we’d sit down with them for a chat. This is not the best way to do business.”

“The whole experience with A-list Interviews was so different for us, in that we sat back and observed, and let the expert keep us on track. We made decisions very quickly. We now have a successful operation that runs seamlessly, and we are reaching goals that we never dreamed possible. “ 

Heather Castagna, the Executive Director, said “How has A-list changed our organization? I now have a cohesive team of people, and our budget has increased by $300,000 in the two years since I got here. Our attendance has doubled, our events have doubled. I now understand the importance of looking past experience and skills- I need to find the right fit and develop them. It has worked out fabulously!” 

What a great way to end 2013! 

Happy Holidays to all of our clients and here’s to a prosperous 2014! 

Yours in success, 

Beth

I met Jimmy Buffett!

backtothebeach_1024Sand on the stage, beach balls in the air and Parrot Heads! This was the scene at the Pepsi Center several years ago for a Jimmy Buffett concert I attended. The back-up singers and dancers began rousing the crowd to get into the groove, which reached a feverish frenzy until finally, the man himself stepped out onto the stage to a packed house of screaming fans. If you have never been to a Jimmy Buffett concert, it is hard to describe how the music started, the colors of the lights flashing and just how enamored I was with the entire scene, especially because right before the concert, I was the lucky holder of a backstage pass to meet a legend himself!

Meeting Mr. Buffett was indeed a lifetime experience, and one that I keep living over and over. I relay the story often to my friends, colleagues and now you. However, because you were not there, you probably do not have the same attachment to the story as I do. Shaking his hand, listening to the crowd in the background, and having my photo taken with him was truly amazing. But since you were not there with me, it is not possible for you to have the same relationship with Jimmy that I now have. After all, listening to Margaritaville on your iPod is just not the same.

Now you may be asking how this relates to interviewing for employees. Imagine that you send your very capable team to an interview with a candidate. Then imagine them trying to describe the interaction to you in a manner that encompasses all facets of the interview. It is simply not the same thing as meeting with the candidate face to face. Even when your team takes great notes and really listens to the candidate, they will not be able to fully describe the interview in its entirety. No one can, anymore that you could possibly grasp the full experience of meeting Jimmy Buffett. In order to fully experience a candidate’s interview, you have to be in the room with them. You have to shake their hand and see how they interact with you in order to know if this candidate will be a good fit for your open position. With approximately 2/3 of all hires being mistakes, and the money that those mistakes cost, can you really afford to short change an interview process by not being present?  

Mr. Potato Head


mr-potato-head

When Katy was a little girl, she loved to play with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. Some of her creations were hilarious; an arm being in the ear hole, lips in the eye hole, or Mrs. Potato Head walking around on a hat instead of shoes. Part of the brilliance of that game is taking all of the parts and making a whole, no matter how it looks to someone else. Once, Katy dressed up Mrs. Potato Head with shoes, lips, 2 arms, 2 eyes, and… a mustache on her head. She looked up at me with those big blue eyes and said “Mommy, doesn’t Mrs. Potato Head look beautiful???”

Last week, I had a client who was getting really frustrated with the search we were  conducting. He looked at me and said “If I could just take attributes from one candidate and put it with the skill set from the other candidate, I would be hiring someone today!”  Although a frustrating feeling, this is good news. When you start to see what you want from an employee, even though it is in 2 people, your ideal candidate is right around the corner. All you need to do is piece together what is important to you, and that person will show up. It is indeed a beautiful thing. 

Interviewing Soup

After an interview with a really great candidate, my clients usually want to hire that person on the spot. They do not want to wait. They feel very strongly that they have waited long enough, and they want to get this person on board ASAP. While I completely understand their desires, I ask them to think about the interview for at least 24-48 hours. The reason for the waiting period is that your thoughts are really different outside of the interview, especially if you give your thoughts a chance to simmer. Think about it like you think about soup in a crock pot.

Similar to making a soup where you initially collect and prep all of your ingredients, a company preps by putting together an ideal list for the best candidate, writing a job description, writing a job ad, and posting the job. The job then simmers on the job boards as applicants begin to submit resumes, compared to the soup simmering in the crockpot. Then, the employers get the resumes and begin interviewing, like adding spices to the soup, continuing to let it simmer.

Throw in some vision and dreaming, your crock pot will make some pretty great soup. Eat the soup too early and the spices may have not soaked in yet.  If you wait too long, the vegetables turn to mush, and the soup is not as good.