I talked yesterday about the need to teach and not to punish. I did get some feedback that is a challenge.
Well of course it is. Sometimes it feels like your employees “just don’t get it”. Without getting into a deeper conversation about the question “who is not getting what”, I will give you a brief tip that can solve some of these challenges altogether.
Ready… here it is…
BE MUCH TOUGHER ON YOURSELF DURING THE HIRING PROCESS.
I can’t tell you how many businesses I know that seem to take more time figuring out what they want for dinner than they do interviewing and testing potential employees.
How about these ideas:
Keep interviewing people even when you are not actively seeking someone to fill a position: This might seem unfair but if you are upfront with the candidate you will find that many will take the interview to learn about your and your business. Build a file of those candidates you like and reach out when your need arises.
Build an internship program with one of the schools you attended. Many schools love to send you candidates and this gives you the chance to actually work with people for a prolonged period of time to see if they might fit.
Get very clear on those aspects that you would like to see in a candidate. Doing this will allow you to consider people that might be outside your industry. Some people give me a hard time on this but unless you are training assistants for brain surgery you have to be kidding me that you can’t effectively teach someone your business. If you can’t then your business is probably more complicated than it should be or you suck as a teacher. If have found some great people this way. I didn’t come to finance myself by majoring in economics.
These are just some ideas (and believe me I could go on), but the point is that hiring correctly and building those disciplines to hire correctly can solve a ton of your challenges down the road.