Last 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?
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.
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.
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.
The 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!
Every client that I begin to work with wants a certain level of experience for the position that they want filled. They say, “Beth, they have to have 5 years experience. Not negotiable.” The problem with experience is that it is a mixed bag. According to the book Talent is Overrated, “…people with lots of experience were no better at their jobs than those with very little experience.” Are you shocked? The book goes on to say, “Researchers from the INSEAD business school in France and the US Naval Postgraduate School call the phenomenon ‘the experience trap’”. Their key finding is that while companies typically value experienced managers, rigorous study shows that, on average, ‘managers with experience did not produce high caliber results’”.
So, if experience does not make for a good hire, what does? Basically, you are looking for 3 traits in good people:
Can they handle conflict resolution? Whether there is conflict with the boss or conflict with a team member, how does this person resolve it? Basically, if your employee needs to you to solve their problems for them, then that is what you will spend your time doing. It is called management.
Can they do the job? This sounds like experience, right? It is not. It is more about basic communication and team work. Do they want to help the customer? Do they take ownership of their work? Do they ask for help when they need it? These are the qualities of the employee who is self sufficient and motivated to get the job done.
Do they want the job? Are they passionate about the work they do? If so, then they do not mind the occasional drudgery of the job. They love to solve the problems of the position and motivates them to innovate.
If you want to hire good people, do not get caught in the experience trap. Find the person who can solve conflict, has basic customer service skills and the passion for the job, then train, train, train. In the end you will then have to manage less. You will be so glad that you did!
For the past few blogs I have been telling you about my swimming experience. Recently, I had a setback. One day, I began to experience hip pain. The diagnosis is a herniated disc in my back. Much to my dismay, I have had to quit swimming and go into rehabilitation mode to become healthy again. I was at a crossroads and needed to make a decision about my swim lessons. I really did not want to quit working with my coach but swimming was no longer an option with my back issues. So, I decided to meet him for coffee one morning to deliver the bad news. He immediately suggested that a treatment option could be trigger point massage work, and lo and behold, he is a certified myotherapist. He was right. The trigger point along with chiropractic is doing the trick. Our relationship has changed dramatically from when we started working together, and I could never have predicted this amazing outcome.
The job that I originally hired my swim coach for has changed. As a business grows, the positions that you will have within the company will also grow and change. The right hire will grow and change with you and your business. If you can remain flexible, you might be surprised at what other skills your great employee can bring to the table.
The lesson here is that none of us can predict the future. We do not know how our businesses will change, but when you hire the right person, you can travel that journey together.
I am fairly certain that none of you know my full name is Margaret Elizabeth Smith. When I was a little baby about 5 months old, my parents called me “the baby” until Mom got pregnant with my brother. My folks figured out that calling me “the baby” was short lived, for obvious reasons and they had better come up with something to call me. Mom tried, “Maggie, Margaret and Meg”. Dad didn’t like any of those. Dad tried “Liza, Liz and Lizzie”. Mom said “Over my dead body”. Dad came home with Beth, and it stuck…sort of. Dad calls me “Bethy- Boo”, Mom calls me “Bethie”, my husband calls me “B”, my nieces and nephews call me “Aunt B” and my beloved grandfather called me “Becky”. Swear.
Last year, my daughter Katy entered the 6th grade at the ripe old age of 12 and she decided that calling me “Mom” was for babies, so she began calling me “Bethly”. Her friends even now call me “Befly”.
I must be a total whack job, because I answer to all of it.
I have seen lots of ads lately with crazy job titles on them. For an admin position “Chief Administrative Officer” and my immediate reaction was “Here is a C-level position that I have never heard of before!” Until I read the complete job ad that included answering the phones and opening the mail, I was under the impression that this person was higher than entry level. It was confusing. If I am confused, and I read job ads all the time, imagine what the candidates must be experiencing. Call the job what it is, so that people recognize themselves in that job and they apply.
Just because I am crazy and answer to 10 different derivatives of my name, doesn’t mean your candidates will. Happy Name Calling!
Last 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. 
