by Beth | May 9, 2019 | Employee Hiring
I have been retained to work with a company to hire a Vice President for their organization. We developed an ideal candidate list, reviewed the job description, began recruiting and interviewed until we had narrowed down to a single promising candidate. We have interviewed the woman 3 times and sent her the job description. She successfully completed a skills assignment and wrote a 30/60/90- day plan to ensure success for her potential new position. I have called references of former bosses, peers and direct reports. To date, we have completed the entire interviewing process with this candidate. The only component left is the actual choice to hire or not and my client could not decide either way. We have an interview team of 9 people, who when asked for their insight, all had differing and conflicting thoughts. As another of my clients once described, “This is muddy data.”
So, what happens when you have completed your entire interviewing system with a candidate yet still do not feel confident in a choice? Well, let me make it clear.
If you are truly unable to make a confident hiring decision about an individual, they are not the right person for the position. Simply stated, do not hire them. The cost of training, development and retention of your employees is too large of a risk to take on an uncertain selection. If you are still “not sure” after an intensive and comprehensive interview process, consider the effects of a potential bad hire on your clients, other employees, vendors, and other business partners. The stakes are too high for you to decide on muddy data.
Hiring a new person is a big turning point for you and you company. If you have doubts, return to the beginning of your interviewing process: look at your ideal candidate list again, make sure that the vision for this role is still accurate. Check the job ad and ask yourself, “Did I articulate the vision for this position clearly?” Ultimately, my best advice is to keep looking.
You WILL clear up any questions that you have by holding out for the right fit. When the right person for your company comes along, you will feel as if you have won the lottery. If you do not feel that way, hold out until you do. It will be in everyone’s best interest.
by Beth | May 1, 2019 | Employee Hiring
Forbes – April 30, 2019 “5 Trends Women Business Owners Need To Know Right Now” by Julie Niehoff cites Beth in her article.
“Beth Smith, author of Why Can’t I Hire Good People? Lessons on How to Hire Better, talks about the importance of the interview process, methodology behind sourcing candidates and the shift away from just looking at education and experience.”
by Beth | Apr 25, 2019 | Adventures in Interviewing, Interview Process
I am currently interviewing for a Vice President in an up and coming technology company. We recently flew in a promising candidate in order to discuss the position further. When asked to describe the best job he had ever had, he said, “I was a hot dog vendor in the red-light district, and I got to hang out with the ladies of evening.” Then he laughed.
This candidate checked off all of our other boxes: he had held the position before in another growing tech firm, he had the leadership skills that we wanted, and he was eager to get started, but this comment stopped us in our tracks.
As we discussed the candidate after the interview, one member of the interview team said that the candidate was “just joking” and we shouldn’t hold that comment against him.
But what if he wasn’t joking? There is a really big potential risk to take on when a candidate alludes to sex in an interview.
The bottom line is this: referring to and/or alluding to sex in a professional interview is completely inappropriate, no matter what the company, the product, the experience or the position. Whether this candidate meant to or not, you as the employer can’t under any circumstances take on that risk. It puts all of your other employees in a terrible position should this candidate not limit his inappropriateness to the interview process.
In other words, we can’t assume that he was joking. Next!
by Beth | Apr 11, 2019 | Company Culture, Leadership
I love Mexican food. I mean, I really LOVE Mexican food! The spicier the food, the better I like it! The beans and rice with jalapeños, the cheese with green chilis, the sizzling beef with peppers on my plate of fajitas… yum. It makes my heart sing!
So, whenever there is a new Mexican food restaurant, I am the first to run out and try it. I soak in all the spicy goodness as fast as I can because, like many Mexican food restaurants, the food profile is going to change…dang it!
During the first year in business, most restaurants embark with recipes of authentic Mexican flavor and spiciness. Over the course of time, they begin to make the food less spicy after receiving complaints from people who do not like spicy food. (No complaints from Texans, mind you!) The restaurant appeases this small handful of people rather than to stand firm in their original offerings, and the spice profile becomes less. Sigh…
Don’t get me wrong: adapting to the market is vitally important for a business to succeed. Except when the business changes so much that they have forgotten why the entered the market in the first place. Take care of your clients. Just don’t take care of them so much that you lose your uniqueness as a business. In other words, keep the spice! Please and thank you!
by Beth | Mar 28, 2019 | Employee Hiring, Employee Retention, Firing Employees, Good Management
I received a call from a potential client who had recently fired an under-performing employee. This employee was wreaking havoc on the work culture, missing deadlines, throwing others under the bus in meetings and not taking responsibility for their actions. Firing this employee was exactly the right move to make.
“So, why don’t I feel better?” he asked.
First, if you ever feel good after you have fired someone, you have lost your humanity and must take a long vacation, effective immediately. In other words, I would worry deeply if you DIDN’T feel bad after firing someone. After all, these are people not cogs.
Second, the relationship is over, along with your hopes and dreams for an outstanding performance from the individual. You would not have hired someone that you did not believe could do the job and do it well. When it does not work out as expected, it can feel awful and be perceived as a failure.
Third, you may now be concerned that you have poor judgement and are not skilled at hiring. You begin to think about the time and energy it takes to search for candidates and to wonder if you will ever find the right fit.
There is a way to feel better and restore your confidence.
Ask yourself:
- Did you observe something during the interview process that you knew could have been an issue, but you ignored it?
- Did you give this person an appropriate level of training to be successful in their position?
- Did you give them coaching and council to improve performance with time for course correction?
- Did you let them know, in no uncertain terms, that without improvement they would be fired?
Only through a thorough review process of a poorly performing employee post-employment, from search to departure, can you identify places to improve hiring and retention.
Then after you debrief, I want you to breathe and cut yourself some slack. Everyone has a bad hire occasionally. You did the best you could in that moment. You will do better next time. I believe in you!
