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Hiring Great People 

Tough question when you’ve got a small business. Do you hire someone who already knows the job, or do you train someone to do the job?

Part of it depends on the job. Can you get someone hired in who can do the job with very little training? Part of it depends on the business. Can you afford someone who can produce from "go?" Do you have the time to train someone?

And all of it depends on getting the right person for the job. They’ve got to have the right attitude. No matter how smart they are, no matter what they’ve done, it doesn’t pay to hire someone who can technically do the job but will make life difficult for customers, co-workers and YOU.

So what can you do to hire the right person?

The first thing is to determine what a person has to bring to the job. Start with the job. Is it going to have a lot of customer contact? If so, you need someone who deals well with people. That doesn’t necessarily mean someone that people really like. Someone whose duties include repossessing cars, for example, has to have people skills, some courage and must behave professionally or they won’t be effective in the job.

Another consideration is whether they fit into "company culture." That means, do they share the values that you use when running your company? Will they treat customers, suppliers and co-workers the way that the rest of the team does? There’s a lot that your leadership can do but you’ll get the best results if your new hire has a great attitude.

Southwest Airlines, for example, looks for a blend of energy, humor, team spirit and self-confidence. This airline pleases more customers than any other major, and their people are a big part of their success. According to Fast Company magazine, in 1998 the company needed to hire 4,500 employees – and had 150,000 applications. What do they look for? "A sense of what it takes to be one of us."

Here’s a place where a small business can actually do a better job than most big companies. Pick the right employees, the ones who will delight your customers. It’ll make you more successful and, if you want to grow, it’ll give you a leg up on the competition.

How can you tell what kind of person you’re interviewing? The best place to get good information is the interview. The key is not just the answers to the questions that you’re asking, it’s how those questions get answered. Can they loosen up while you’re interviewing them? Do they show creativity and a willingness to get the job done? If you give them a tough question, how do they respond to it? Taking too long to answer may mean that they’re trying to figure out what answer you want to hear. If they answer relatively quickly, you get a good look at who they are and what they’ll do if they’re working for you.

A good way of finding good new ones is to compare them to your best employees. If they’re similar in attitude and their approach to solving problems, chances are you’ll get a great employee who will fit right into your business. If they’re a lot different from your existing employees, you (and they) might be in for a bit of culture shock.

Ask them about how they’ve solved problems in the past, how they’ve already handled situations. Not how they’re going to handle a potential situation. Then ask them if they’d do anything different next time, and why?

The best way to tell how people will work is to watch them work! If you’re running a store, for example, it might not be a bad idea to continue a promising interview out on the selling floor. What do they do if you have to leave a display you’re straightening up to talk with a customer? What happens if a second customer comes up to them and asks for help? (And yes, you can set this up to see what’ll happen!) This is one reason why companies often hire temporary help during busy times, then hire the best people for more permanent positions.

A good source of potential employees is the people who already work with you. I’ve seen estimates in the past ten years that only 1 in six jobs is ever openly advertised. That could be because your employees already know a good candidate. If you’re having a tough time finding good people, you can even go a step better and offer a bounty for finding someone who gets hired into a job. It could be a gift certificate, comp time or even cold, hard cash. Recruiting good employees can be expensive, and the bounty may cut your advertising and hiring costs significantly.