Hiring Good People

All of us know that a company is only as good as the people you hire. I have made some serious hiring mistakes in the past and from those mistakes I have learned a few things. I have also hired some great people of integrity and I am still in touch with each one and they are souring in their careers. That is my reward.

So how do you find a good hire when all you have is a sheet of paper, a ten minute conversation and an hour long interview? How can you find out if they are people of integrity, strong work ethic and character? How do you know they can handle a technical position.

I am a big fan of hiring people more for their character then for their skills. Skills can be learned if you find good people. It is like a coach who knows if he can find someone who has a strong work ethic he can teach them the basics. There have been a ton of Pro Football Stars who were not even included in the draft because they were not yet skilled but good coaches picked them up and made them stars.

Your job as a business owner or hiring manager is to find good people and make them stars.

So back to the original question, how do you find a good hire? There are several things you can do during the interview that will show you character. I always like to ask the question "What would you do if you were in a hole and the weight of the world was on your shoulders, you can't move forward, you can't move back where do you find the strength to go on?". Then sit and listen, you can tell if they are giving you an answer you want to hear or if they are answering with their heart. I would rather someone answer me truthfully and by being a good reader of people you can pick up on how they answer that question. I also like to ask "what drives you? what makes you want to get out of bed in the morning?" or simply ask "why are you here?" The key is get them to talking and listen to what they are saying. If a person has no real reason to be successful and work hard then they probably won't.

Also, there are several things you can do with their resume. I once had an individual that had a double E on his resume. He said he was an Electrical Engineer with a degree from a top University. Not only that he had a Masters Degree. To look at him on paper he was awesome. For some reason during the interview I questioned his integrity, I can not pin point what gave me the gut feel because he really did interview well. I called the university where he graduated. They had never heard of him. I thought may be I some how had made a mistake. I hired a background company to run his resume and they came back with the same results. Yes he had worked in an engineering company but he was not an engineer.

I have heard horror stories from businesses around the country that hired someone based off of their resume only to find out they had not earned degrees or held positions stated on their resume. You have to check the resume and not just the references they give you. Everyone should run Google search on anyone they are looking to hire. You may find that their picture is posted on some site that promotes illegal drugs or even worse.

The total process is so much more detailed and I would love to help you put some processes in place that will insure you have and continue to hire good people.