I met with a potential client last week who is searching for a new Director of Sales. He reports making several “mis-hires” of this particularly key position in his company. He reached out to me to develop a better recruiting and hiring program as his current method did not appear to be working.
He said to me during our discussion, “I just don’t know what I am doing wrong, Beth.”
I said to him, “How much time do you take to prepare before you interview someone?”
He looked at me blankly and then replied, “Prepare? What do you mean?”
“Let me re-phrase the question,” I said. “When you are about to interview a sales person, what preparation do you do before you interview them?”
He said, “Well, I review their resume. Then I interview them.”
“How much time does that typically take you?” I asked.
“A few minutes to review the resume, then the actual interview,” he asserted.
“How much money does a good salesperson make for you in a year?” I asked.
He responded with, “A good salesperson will generate 3-4 million in revenue.”
“So, you spend a few minutes preparing for a multi-million dollar investment?” I observed.
I was met with silence after this last statement, followed by a deep sigh of revelation from this employer.
The lesson in this story? If you want your new employee to be successful in their new position, you must prepare BEFORE you hire them to set them up with great training, realistic expectations and a definition of desired job performance. To prepare, remember to create an ideal candidate list, a solid job description, and an established, consistent interview process before you talk to anyone!
Remember these 5 P’s of business: Prior preparation prevents poor performance. You want the best employee that money can buy. Prepare for them!
I received a call last week from a potential client that said, “I need help recruiting. Do you do that?”
I told him that I did provide recruiting services, and then I asked him, “What makes you think that you need help recruiting?”
He said, “I can’t find the right people.”
I said, “Have you posted a job advertisement online?” Yes, he had.
I asked, “Are you getting applicants?” Yes, he was getting applicants.
“Then you do not need help recruiting,” I told him. “You need help interviewing.”
Most business leaders are confused about what recruiting does for their hiring process and what it does not do. Recruiting is asking people to apply for a job. Interviewing is the screening process to finding someone to work for you. Hiring is the yes or no question that you ask yourself before making a job offer. Recruiting is simply getting the applicants. That’s it. No more. No less.
So let us be clear on what recruiting does NOT do:
Recruiting doesn’t help you select the right candidate. Interviewing does that.
Recruiting doesn’t ensure that you will be successful in your hiring efforts. An effective hiring process does that.
The terminology around hiring employees is jargon-based, confusing and not very helpful. Educate yourself about the entire hiring process before beginning your search.
Beth Smith reveals that reading resumes is actually creating a bias in your hiring process. Tune into to discover a better way of screening candidates.
It may surprise you to discover I have been learning to box. When I am sparring, I am notorious for dropping my left hand, which means my face is left unprotected. My trainer keeps telling me that I am going to get punched in the face if I don’t protect myself with the left hand. Do I listen? Eh… sort of…This did remind me of a quote from Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight professional boxer, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” I realized my current plan was to land a punch, not protect myself. To really protect my face, I would have to learn to punch differently. I would have to change the way I do things.
It is so easy not to change methods when life and work are going okay. You skate along for a while following a plan, then status quo sets in. You think about ways to improve or make things better without much action. Then, WHAM! You get punched in the face. NOW you want to change and change fast.
I have a client who hired a woman who had worked for him for years. She was mean to clients, obstinate with her boss, and a stickler for doing things HER way. When a handful of great employees met with my client and told him that they were all leaving because of this woman, he knew he had to do something fast. He had let his left hand drop by keeping her for so long and he got punched in the face with the threat of losing better performing employees.
He immediately fired the employee who was difficult and workplace morale dramatically improved. What took him so long? Change normally requires an impetus. Significant “pain” must be present for the motivation to kick in to make changes, especially when they are perceived as tough to accomplish or hurtful to others.
I say punch bad hiring and firing techniques in the mouth and change your processes. Hire and retain great employees and replace those who are not a fit. With A-list Interviews training program, you will improve your plan and learn how to protect your assets. Don’t wait.
A few years ago, I was speaking about hiring to a group of CPAs’. We were discussing the differences between hiring and interviewing, when all of the sudden, a gentleman stood up in the back and shouted, “You know, everyone thinks they can make love, interview and drive.” You could have heard a pin drop. Then, someone giggled, and it was all over after that.
Still, the question remained for me unanswered: What is it about interviewing for employees that makes people think they can do it without having been taught?
When I mention that I am an interviewer, someone will invariably say to me, “I am a great interviewer.” “How did you learn to be a good interviewer,” I ask. “Oh, I am a great people person,” is a typical response. I wonder what being a people person has to do with interviewing, which is a skill set that is developed over time. It is not genetic. You aren’t born into the world knowing how to interview. It requires education, a process and practice.
Yet, the hiring interview, the interaction between a candidate and a potential employer, is the one area in the selection process on which we spend the least amount of time, money and preparation. We don’t train our hiring managers or our HR staff on how to conduct an effective interview. It is expected to be inherent knowledge. As Martin Yate said in his book, Hiring the Best, “… [interviewing] is a dirty secret for many, and a sad comment on old-style management practices that managers are not taught [how to interview]. It is something we feel we are expected to know, or that comes with experience. Couple that feeling with the average ego, and you get ‘It’s easy enough to interview; I know a good one when I see one; it’s sort of a gut feel.'”
With 2/3 of all hiring decisions found to be a mistake within one year, are you sure that you want your ego to lead the way?
It is okay not to know. It is okay to ask for help. Call me today. I have a process and the experience needed to arm you with the skills required to interview (and hire) with confidence and results.
