Finding a qualified employee starts with hiring process

By Iain Macfarlane

It costs approximately six times as much to find and convert a new customer than to get more business from an existing customer.

And it costs many times more to search for and employ a new qualified employee than the cost of investing in an existing employee to keep them in the long term.

However, the reality is that almost every company will have to find new employees because of business growth, retirement age, serious personal issues, death, and moving to create new lifestyles.

The key to success in finding the right employees and then keeping them for the long term is to incorporate a hiring process.

There are three key steps to weed out poor candidates and to find new hires who will provide the foundation to be able to keep employees in the long term:
1. Establish a prehiring process
2. Conduct the interview process
3. Utilize an induction process

The prehiring process

See if there is a way not to hire a new employee. When you lose an employee, don't assume he or she has to be replaced.

Can some of the work of the departing employee be eliminated? Could the work be reassigned to one or more existing employees without overburdening them?
The departure of an employee is an opportunity to step back and review specific skills and workloads.

Start by looking for "new" employees in your own company. Use every opportunity to promote from within as you already know your employees' track records. This is an opportunity to reinforce or improve morale with your current employees and, if needed, bring on another employee to fill the lower level position.

Interview your existing better-performing staff to determine key profile characteristics and common qualities that have led to their success in your organization as the basis for your search in recruiting new employees.

Maintain your standards in signing new employees even if you get frustrated by the time necessary to find the right person. It is easy, when under daily business pressures, to accept a candidate who is "good enough." When you hire sub-par candidates it will lead to firing sub-par workers.

Conducting interviews

Look for candidates who are action oriented, who can demonstrate completing projects with specific results. Focus on asking questions about how process helped them achieve results.

Don't focus on resumes as they can be written by professionals.

Assess skills and attitudes, and weight the right attitude at two thirds and skills at one third of the evaluation. Skills can be developed and trained but attitudes are hard to change.

Skills will be documented on resumes and can be validated; attitude covers the attributes that will tell you whether the candidate has the drive and the passion for the job you are filling.

Ask questions to test the candidate's maturity level. For example:

• "What were the strengths and weaknesses of your last supervisor?"
• "What was your biggest failure in your last job and what did you learn from that failure?"

If the candidate sees a lot of weaknesses in their previous supervisor, he or she may have a problem with authority. If the candidate has trouble accepting responsibility for their actions, he or she may not fit in as a team player.

Use key employees in the interview process for additional feedback. As an example, have a key employee take the candidate to lunch following your interview.

Candidates may use rehearsed answers in the formal interview but often let their guard down over lunch when "the interviewer" is not present. This also shows respect to your own employee(s) by incorporating them in the selection process.

Always document the interview by writing notes, including a scoring chart for key skills. Also, develop a shorthand code for recording personal characteristics and observations as it is very difficult to remember these aspects of an interview when interviewing a number of candidates.

Studies have shown that interviewers who do not take notes only retain one fourth of what they hear, let alone remember in a comparative setting.

The induction process

Provide a warm and welcoming reception as part of a formal induction process for the new employee as a necessary step to complete the hiring for long-term employment.

Provide him or her with policies, procedures and HR manuals and be available to answer any questions.

This will allow the new hire to understand your rules and will help minimize the potential for conflict within the workplace.

As a way of saying "welcome to the team," have their business cards waiting for them. Make sure the employee's workstation is outfitted with a security protected computer loaded with appropriate software.

Have his or her desk stocked with office supplies and a company directory, and have something personal such as a company logo coffee mug.

Use a buddy system with someone who is a good communicator and who knows the ropes, particularly informal aspects of the business such as company hierarchy and corporate culture. The buddy should take the new employee out to lunch occasionally and be available to answer questions.

Invite the new employee to quickly participate in standard employee programs, such as team skill-based sessions and regular team building training programs -- establish individual and team business goals, career planning programs, and be included on the list for educational newsletters and industry magazines.

And critically, the key interviewer must make five to 10 minutes to meet the new hire daily for the first week and then at wider intervals the longer the new employee is with the company. This will allow new hires to know that you are behind them from the beginning and there is an open door to answer questions and to help the new hires with their responsibilities.

People are the most important asset in your business. The longer you keep them in a productive environment, the lower their cost to your business. Apply this hiring process as the foundation to keep your employees longer.

Iain Macfarlane is the president and founder of BizCOACHING & Associates in Madison, a franchise of ActionCOACH Business Coaching. He was named "Coach of the Year 2005."

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