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A Trip To The Salad Bar!

Blagoveshchensk by | May 11, 2015 | Employee Hiring, Selecting Good Candidates

http://thmiii.com/viewpoints/20/ salad-686468_1280I love the salad bar at Whole Foods! I mean, I LOVE it! It is a luxury that I rarely allow myself, but I will eat vegetables there that I would NEVER eat at home. I love having the ability to choose which high quality ingredients go into my salad, and my mouth just waters. I get excited just by thinking about it, because I know that it will be the BEST salad I have had in a long time.

What would it be like if you could choose your next employee that way? What if you could hand pick the qualities of your potential candidate like you can the vegetables at a salad bar? What if you walked around the bar and were able to choose the qualities in a great employee that got you excited? For example, pick up the tongs over the “Loves Coming to Work” container, or pass over the “Can’t See The Big Picture” container. After all, if you don’t like mushrooms, don’t put them in your salad! It will just ruin your experience.

In essence, it really is that easy if you have a strategic interviewing process in place. You begin with the Ideal Candidate List (step one in the A-list Interview process). Make a list of all the qualities that make up your Ideal Candidate and post that list on your wall. Look at it every day, and continue interviewing until you find that person. Then your new employee experience will be just like going to Whole Foods and walking around the salad bar: exciting, full of anticipation and a wholly satisfying, memorable experience.

How to lose weight while interviewing

tape-403592_1280We all know what we need to do to lose weight. Eat less, work out more. Eat more vegetables and less sugar. Cut out the sodas and too much salt. Cross train in your workouts so that your body is constantly doing different activities. Eat out less and at home more. There are no short cuts. No pills to swallow that lead to long term weight loss, and no quick fixes. No one can do it for you. You have to do it yourself.

The same could be said for hiring. There are no short cuts or quick fixes. You have to run a strategic process which means you will interview a lot of people, not just a few. You have to know what you want, and you can never second guess yourself. And, NO ONE can do it for you… not even me.

While I am considered an expert on the interview process with an average 30-50 people interviewed each week and over 13,000 people in my career, I still cannot interview FOR you. I can only interview with you. I can show you how to prepare, conduct and perform an interview to find the very best people for your team. I can share my expertise with you, but I cannot do it for you. The minute you step away from the process, the effectiveness of your hiring process goes down.

So, how do you lose weight while interviewing? You eat a spinach salad at lunch and take a quick walk around to building on your break. You leave the cookies in the break room for others to eat, and you do not go into the break room until they are all gone. You drink a ton of water, and you keep your eye on the prize… a fantastic new candidate and new dress in a smaller size.

Flip Flops and Hiring

flipsLast summer when we were at the beach, my daughter left our condo and forgot her key. My husband threw on some flip flops, and ran out the door to catch up to her in order to give her the key. He got on the elevator, looked down and realized that he had one black flip flop on and one blue flip flop on… it was so funny!

What isn’t funny is when you rush through the hiring process, and you get a person who just doesn’t match your company’s culture. What is painful is when you know on someone’s first day that they just aren’t going to work out to your satisfaction. What doesn’t sit well is when you need one type of shoe, but you put on another.

There is a saying out there “Hire slow and Fire fast”, but nobody does that. We are in too much of a hurry to put a butt in a seat. We think the world will end if we don’t hire someone by the end week. Really though, what counts is making sure that your flip flops match and that you don’t put someone in a position for which they aren’t trained, aren’t passionate about, or don’t like.

Next time you hire someone, check in the mirror one last time and ensure that your flip flops match. You won’t be sorry that you took your time.

The Nose Knows

snoutAs animal fosters, our job is to bring dogs into our home and get them ready for their new forever home by loving them, feeding them, and playing with them. It is such a fulfilling and satisfying way that our family gives back. Other people view fostering differently. There was one woman who wanted to volunteer. She stated up front that she would “only foster dogs with a certain snout”, and currently she has never fostered a dog.

I have some people that want to discuss their hiring with me, who present similar requests. They will only work with people who attended a certain university. They will only hire people with a certain GPA. They will only have staff members who are members of certain organizations. And to what avail?

The organization that we foster through has a policy that they do not discriminate against people who want a dog. You don’t have to have a white picket fence and a doggy door to adopt a dog; you just have to provide a loving home. At A-list, we also do not discriminate against candidates – you just have to want to hire the best fit possible or you have to BE the best fit for the job.

The ultimate irony is that I have hired people from 16-85 years of age, each different types of people from varying backgrounds, because we focus on 3 things: working well with others, ability to do the job and passion for the job. Nothing else matters.

And the volunteer who wants only dogs with certain snouts? She probably won’t foster. The employers who wanted certain GPA’s? Statistically, they won’t be happy with their hire. And, I don’t work with people who want certain noses. I work with clients who want to have the best person on their staff and are willing to look past noses in order to find them, because it works.

“Eds and Ongs”

When my poor clients have to hire someone, they have what I call the “Eds”:

“The interview I dread

My feet feel like lead

I want to go to bed and

Pull the covers over my head.”

Well, when you bring that type of energy to the interview process, guess what type of person you are going to hire? An “ed”.

My job is to get my clients to the “Ongs”:

“I feel powerful and strong

Even when the process is long

That I will find the one

That truly belongs.”

Are you ready for an “ong”? Then, you are singing my song!