Taking Care of Business: Here’s how to end the hire-and-hope cycle

Ruth Schwartz is the author of Taking Care of Business, a regular feature of the Nevada City Advocate.

Don’t waste your time meeting people who aren’t the people you want to hire. And certainly don’t waste your time hiring someone you are not absolutely sure will work out for your company.

The same week the news of Nevada County’s 12 percent unemployment rate hit the front page, I was busy working with dozens of business owners creating hiring systems in their businesses. Employers I know are ALL planning to hire this year. But there is a lot of fear about how to proceed.
 
The conundrum for employers is that:

·                            You laid off people last year.

·                            You are working shorthanded.

·                            You are tired.

·                            You can’t afford to experiment with a single penny.

·                            You are terrified of the possible avalanche of applicants.

What will you do?
Answer:  Stop hiring from your gut and create a hiring a system.
 
Attract the right person

Just like your customer, you have to understand who and where your employee is.
 
Not only what skills do they have but what values do they have? How do they fit in with the culture of your company? How do they complement each other and fill in your shortcomings?

 
Do they hang out on Facebook, Craig’s List, the classifieds, Sierra College, with your current employees or at your church? Don’t look in the wrong places.
 
Create a hiring sequence

Don’t waste your time meeting people who are not the people you want to hire. Wasting time interviewing from a pile of applications is not fun nor is it effective.
 
Create a 3 step program to allow the wrong people to eliminate themselves.
 
            Kelly Lapham Bookkeeping Services was looking for new bookkeepers. She followed this system and was in love with the person she hired before she even met her.
 
Here is what she did:
 

·                            Step one: Send a resume to an e-mail address

·                            Step two:  An auto reply sends the applicant to a Survey Monkey (google that…) with four essay interview questions.

·                            Step Three: When the Survey Monkey was completed it sent an auto reply with an attached skills test to send to a third e-mail address.

25 people sent resumes. 14 people made it to the Survey Monkey. 3 people made it through the skills test. Two were eliminated by Kelly. Her only interview was a hire. Bingo.
 
Don’t waste your time meeting people who aren’t the people you want to hire. And certainly don’t waste your time hiring someone you are not absolutely sure will work out for your company. The days of hiring and hoping are officially over.

Ruth Schwartz is the author of Taking Care of Business. She can be reached by calling 530-288-0180 or visiting www.TABGoldCountyNorth.com.