Today, your brand and reputation is built by those who touch your customers — your employees. It is your responsibility to guard the door to your business to allow only those who care about your customers in the way you do, and are committed to the values, beliefs, and mission of the business, to enter — to keep the deadbeats out.
Many organizations view hiring as a necessary evil instead of as the method to build the performance power of the organization. Understanding the impact the wrong employees have on the business (cost of mis-hire including replacement cost, impact on reputation, workplace interruption, etc.) encourages a more focused and determined effort on attracting, sourcing, and hiring the right ones. Here are three things that those who guard their doors to keep average and non-committed employees out of their high-performing organizations do:
- They commit the time to create a performance profile; they clearly define the behaviors, skills, and experience needed from employees on Day 1. They commit to understanding the activities in the role and the behaviors, skills, and experience that an employee will need to have to consistently perform these activities. Clarity about the performance needs creates the ability to source, interview, and hire with great precision.
- They are creative and innovative in building a talent sourcing strategy. They don’t simply rely on headhunters, job postings, or placing ads; they use the defined qualifications to identify and target specific environments that have those who have the required behaviors, skills, and experience. For example, if the core abilities needed to be successful in a job are to be focused, driven, methodical, and tenacious, then placing an ad in the program at a local marathon, triathlon, or 5k road race targets those who have these abilities (those who train and compete in this form of event have the behaviors that fit the organization). This creates a tighter focus and approach for locating specific abilities than simply posting an ad on any of the large Internet job boards.
- They make all interview candidates prove what they know. Savvy interviewers know they must verify, prove, check, and confirm, all critical information. I now regularly coach my clients to add this line to their job postings, “If this is you (after listing the required qualifications) and can prove it, you could be a great fit for our team.” This informs candidates that you are serious about the defined qualifications and that the interview will be used to assess the degree that each attribute, skill, or experience exists. To prove what candidates know, consider giving them actual workplace situations in your questions to assess their thinking and approach in situations they are likely to encounter in your workplace.
Our people are our profits — they have a direct influence on our success. So hire only get the great ones, but also prevent those who don’t have the required qualifications from the organization. They can negatively affect the brand and the customers. We are the guards at the doors of our businesses, ready, trained ,and committed to allowing only the great employees in.