By: Shraga Jacobowitz
In our last newsletter, we discussed the first two steps of hiring the ideal employee for your company (here’s a quick refresher if you want to review those steps). In this week’s article we get to the meat and potatoes of the hiring process, and explore how to ask the right questions to potential hires and how to ensure the best candidate for the job becomes the best employee for your business. Because as you will soon discover, hiring the dream employee goes beyond the hiring process. Just read on to see how…
Step 3: Ask the right questions & offer the right incentives
This is really two separate parts of the same process: one is making sure your interviewees put their best foot forward, while the second is making sure you put yours forward.
Knowing what to ask potential hires is essential to the interview process.
Rule #1: YOU SHOULD NOT BE ASKING THEM ANYTHING THAT YOU CAN READ OFF THEIR RESUME! The interview is not about learning about their experience, education, etc., but instead it is a way of gauging their personality, work ethic and character and seeing how they will fit in your company’s current workforce and culture. In addition, don’t just ask about their expertise, but provide a hypothetical scenario in which they apply that expertise to a company related problem or situation.
Rule #2 is therefore, GET CREATIVE WITH YOUR QUESTIONS.
Some creative questions can include (but then again, you SHOULD try to come up of some of your own that fit your company needs best):
- Turn the question back on them and ask them, “What question didn’t I ask that I should have?” Their answer will reflect a lot about what they feel is important; what they are more and less confident in and may dig up a nugget of information you never would have dreamed about asking.
- What would you do if you were CEO? Again, this reveals a confidence level and allows you to see if the hire is more comfortable in a leadership or follower role.
- Why wouldn’t you want to work here? They’ve got the “why I want to work here,” answer down pat, so reverse the script and ask them why they wouldn’t want to work here. This is the candidate’s opportunity to show that they have a great understanding for the business, but also that they recognize that no opportunity is perfect – but that they have solutions for coping with those obstacles.
- Have fun with your questions: What super power would you most want? If you can have lunch with one historical figure, who would it be? In general, interviews should be a conversation rather than question and answer, so anything that opens an avenue of discussion is a great question to ask.
As for putting your best foot forward, make sure you are offering an attractive benefit package (a PEO can help you compete with the big dogs for this), a competitive salary and potential for growth. Having top employees requires competing for those employees, so make sure you’re in the game. Like your interview questions, get creative for ways to entice potential employees. A froyo machine in the break room isn’t sealing the deal, but it certainly doesn’t hurt and lets hires know that you’re a company that cares about the happiness of your employees (now that’s a win-win).
Step 4: it’s not always about the hiring process.
Hooray! You finally hired the employee of your dreams! Now what?
Guess what, hiring the right employee is just the first step (or I guess according to this article, the third step) to having the perfect employee. And it’s not even the most important step– this final step is probably the most important step in the process and can make the difference between having an Employee Stud versus an Employee Dud. So what is this all important step?
TRAINING! TRAINING! & MORE TRAINING!
There, it’s so important I said it three times. There are no two-ways about it, good employees no matter their education, background, experience or super powers, need to be trained in working for YOU.
To drop them in the deep-end of office management may very well show you how adaptive, self-sufficient and innovative your new employee is, but it really isn’t the most efficient way to getting the job done. Take the time to properly train your employees and keep them well informed about company changes, policies and what’s happening in the office. Trust us that extra time you take will definitely pay for itself in the end.
Some of the things that you should make the time to tell ANY new employee are:
Your USP (unique selling point) and how you compare to your competition. Every employee is a potential networking and sales person for you. That oh, so innocent question, “Oh, you work at So & So Inc. — are they any good at what they do?” can actually lead to a new customer/client. Not having the correct information to deliver an elevator pitch, may mean the difference of a new client or not.
How to Solve a Customer Problem on their own. You’ve (or your employees have) been there and done that, so you really know most of the clients’ problems, although you must never underestimate the power of clients coming up with unique and crazy problems, but on the most part, you or someone on your team should know how to handle most complaints and issues. Give new employees the resources, the skills and the AUTHORITY to handle these problems instead of having to pass the buck to upper management when problems arise.
It may also be worthwhile to assign a buddy/mentor for every newcomer. In this way, new employees have an address for their myriads of questions and they need not to feel like they are bothering management or feel stupid in asking questions. In addition, building a trustworthy relationship with someone with more experience in that company can help guide the newcomer and allow them to adapt and grow as part of the team.
Through following these (albeit not simple but essential) steps you can ensure that you hire the best employee for your company and needs. Now if you think hiring someone is the hardest part of being a boss, just wait until you have to fire someone. Look out for tips on that in a future newsletter article.
Need help with your HR administration or need more tips about the hiring/firing process, contact ARC Consultants to see how a PEO can help you with all your HR needs.
