‘When I meet successful people I ask 100 questions as to what they attribute their success to. It is usually the same: persistence, hard work and hiring good people.’
~Kiana Tom
1. Never Hire Under Pressure
Every time I’ve made horrid mistakes in hiring people it’s been while hiring under pressure. You know the story -staff member quits with 1 hour notice you panic you put your feelers out, someone knows someone, you meet them and give them a job. A simple and efficient method to fill a position quickly while avoiding all of your pre-established requisites of an employee.
2. Be clear on the kind of person you would like to represent your establishment
If you can’t imagine the person you would like working for you, how on earth will you know when they’re under your nose? I recently opened a new cafe and decided from the outset that I would only hire people who smile at their interview, and seem happy by nature. With this prerequisite in mind I ended up staffing a cafe full of happy people who smiled almost all the time. There were certainly other criteria in my selection process but I chose to not settle for anything less than what I was looking for. This brings me to one of my most favourite statement…
3. You always get what you accept.
In the case of staff this is absolutely true both in the initial selection process and in their behaviour in your business once employed. In this instance of employing staff, you should try at all costs not to fill a position if you cannot find your ideal employee. If you accept an employee you know does not fully fill your criteria you may under modern IR laws find yourself stuck with an employee who quite simply does not match your business culture or worse still brings down other employees. Sound familiar?
4. “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got.” Mark Twain
Do not be scared to make radical changes in your workforce. Be clear with your staff about the direction your steering your business towards. You’ll find with well communicated clarity, staff either rise to the challenge or jump ship. There is no point in continuing down a path you are not happy with. Choose to make changes and follow through with them. Change staff roles if needed and reallocate responsibilities and duties away from those failing in their roles.
5. Hire qualities in people don’t create them.
It took me a long time to accept this. But training basic qualities in people is like swimming against the tide.
If a person is not happy working by nature, I’ve found making them happy at work is near impossible.
If a person is lazy and de-motivated, you may just find a full time job isn’t going to be the thing that changes this person.
If a person does not enjoy talking to people, they tend not to become social butterflies in the workplace.
For this reason I suggest hiring the qualities you want, and save yourself the training dollars and wasted effort.
There is a place for training, with amazing results too, that is in training people with a passion in what they’re doing.
Hire passionate people.
