5 Tips to Help You Find the Best Employees
Their resume isn’t one of them
Between businesses I’ve owned or helped operate, I’ve hired over 500 people.
I know those numbers are small compared to others, but out of those 500 people, well over 90% were incredible hires.
I’ve always loved my staff and have been quite proud of how great they’ve been.
Not only have they been overall great people, but they’ve also been awesome for business.
That’s why today, I want to give you 5 tips to help you find the best employees.
1. Be genuinely interested in what they have to say
People love to talk about themselves. That’s not a bad thing either. Especially when you’re trying to learn about them.
Let the potential employee tell you about themselves and continuously ask follow-up questions. If you aren’t genuinely interested though, it’ll be apparent.
To be clear, you should be interested to learn about this person.
A lot will be revealed through this process. You can discover more about their attitude, work ethic and strengths and weaknesses.
Plus, you’ll quickly discover if you would like to be in the same workplace as them (which is quite important too).
One of my favourite things is to dig deeper into the initial question. Ask for reasoning or a further explanation.
A lot of people aren’t expecting anything more aside from basic surface questions. Digging deeper will catch them off guard and allow you to learn more about them.
2. Their past doesn’t reflect their future (but, it can be telling)
People can change. Just because they made mistakes in the past, doesn’t mean they will make them again.
But, do you want to be the person to take that chance?
The majority of the time… I don’t.
It’s kind of like starting a new relationship. Do you want to date the person who has never cheated before or the person who cheated a few times, but it was years ago?
If someone is going to work for or with you, you need to be able to trust them to do a good job and not waste your time or resources.
You should very rarely take unnecessary risks when hiring.
3. Talk to them in multiple settings
A formal interview process often becomes a copy-and-paste scenario. You ask the same questions and you get very similar answers.
The interviewee is used to sitting down and talking to you. It gets quite boring, and they repeat the same information you don’t care to hear.
So, switch it up!
Do the interview while walking and see what happens.
Call the person 30 minutes later with follow-up questions and see what happens.
You can even have an interview at a restaurant to help make the person more comfortable. You’ll get much better answers.
At the least, they’ll be more open and honest.
4. Put them in the right positions
It often happens that you will hire someone and it turns out they applied for the wrong position.
I’ll use a hospitality industry example because that is what I have the most experience with.
Let’s say you hire someone as a server, but it turns out they are a way better bartender.
Not everyone has the foresight to see that. Even fewer people have the guts to let the person know they’re doing the wrong thing.
After all, they applied to be a server.
You need to get used to spotting certain skills and qualities in a person because oftentimes that person has no idea that they’re doing the wrong thing.
Move people around to best suit the business and in turn help the person fulfill their potential.
Everyone will end up happier and better off.
5. Make sure you know what you’re looking for
Don’t go hiring unless you have a good idea of exactly the type of employee you’re looking for.
Sometimes, it’s true, you’ll be surprised and find out that you were looking for the wrong thing.
But, if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you won’t find what you need.
Write down everything you would like to see in your new employee.
That could mean the specific availability they have, some outlier skills they’ve built up or simply experience that is necessary.
If you go in blind, you’ll likely hire the wrong person, if you hire anyone at all. And, you run the risk of hiring too soon instead of waiting for the right person.
Conclusion
Hiring staff is a tough process, but I find it to be quite fun.
It’s like expanding your family.
I know that sounds a little nerve-wracking. But, if you’re going to be spending a lot of time with this person, and putting the livelihood of your business, self and staff at risk, you gotta do it right.
By using these 5 tips, you’ll have a way better shot at finding someone great!
Thanks for reading