Some business owners refrain from training their employees for fear they will spend money training and then the employees will leave for greener pastures. Yet, the old adage goes . . . the only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave, is NOT training your employees and having them stay.

4 Layers of benefits derived from professional development are:

1) More motivated, skilled employees.
2) Increased productivity and thus greater ROI.
3) Long term positive change stimulated by new insights and ideas.
4) Improves communication and relationships with customers and team members.

So, what holds you back from training your team? Money? Fear of losing your trained employees? Unable to envision the ROI?

Please tell me why would a business owner not want their team to be motivated, productive, and happy? How can your bottom-line not be positively affected if your team is operating at their optimal level?

Small business owners need to be aware of the frustrations and concerns of their employees during this economic downturn.  Owners must think carefully and act quickly.  Keeping a small business “alive” today is a struggle, but what if employees do not want to stay with your company because they are scared of a job cut?  Your business could go from running strong to barely breathing if your employees do not have your trust.

You want your employees to be loyal and to feel safe with you right?

Here are some key points that will keep that knot of trust tight.

•    Communication is vital.  Let your employees know how the business is doing.  Hold meetings in which the owner can answer questions.  Don’t wait until there is a pay cut or layoff; ask the employees ahead of time if they would be willing to take a pay cut to save the job.

•    Give acknowledgement and show appreciation.  Allow employees to take an extra day off or to go home early.  Remember if there have been layoffs, other employees take on the additional responsibilities and can easily get burned out.  Also tell employees that they are doing a great job and ask them if they have any concerns or questions.

Loyalty in a small business goes a long way.  Just as you might be suffering with your business so might your employees’ lives.  Keep their trust and keep your company!

Referred candidates may be a great fit for your position, but how do you know for sure? As an interviewer, it is easy to overlook weaknesses in a referred candidate because the “likeability factor” has set in deeply. Best practice is to evaluate referred candidates just like all other candidates. In fact, best to be even more thorough. If a hiring mistake is made, you certainly won’t enjoy telling your referral source that you fired his friend.
4 Best Practices:

Interview – Conduct formal office interviews and ask the same challenging questions you would of other candidates.
Assessments – Verify behavioral style and skills to ensure job fit.
Objective interview – Engage a professional interviewer to evaluate the candidate and provide an unbiased opinion. (Safari can help! Click here for more info.)
Reference Checks – Talk to at least three professional references, preferably past supervisors.

To receive the best referrals from your network, it is important to be clear about the type of candidate you are looking for.  Also, be sure to keep your referral sources informed.  People love to know their help is valuable! Follow these four tips for best referrals:

1. Create a written position profile that describes the position responsibilities, accountabilities, and necessary qualifications.
2. Distribute the position profile to members in your network.
3. Thank your referral sources and keep them updated throughout the interview process.
4. Contact candidates promptly and communicate frequently about their interview status.

Small Business Hiring Tip: Don’t let Friends hire Friends without proper due diligence.

Statistics reveal that a majority of job seekers find employment through referrals. This is great news for job seekers. And, on the surface, sounds great for employers too.

Yet, a referred candidate does not always mean that the candidate is a good fit for the job or your company’s culture. Referrals are introduced to us like this . . . “He’s a great guy.” “She is a wonderful person.”

Do employers really hire people just because a person is nice? Well, actually they do. People like to hire likable people. Likeable is great. But the real question is, “Can they do the job? And, are they willing to do the job?”

Regardless of the source of the applicant, thorough evaluation is the best way to hire talent. You may think you are getting a deal if you pay nothing to find a new employee. But penny wise and pound foolish may result if you don’t conduct the proper due diligence on each person you hire, regardless of the source. Maybe even more so for referrals as we tend to get soft about the interview process with friends of friends.

Consider using a third-party interviewer to evaluate referred candidates to ensure that you have done your homework (due diligence) before hiring. And, don’t bypass the reference and background checks. Best to know up front if there is an issue that could affect performance, rather than to fire a friend of a friend.

Share your Bad Hire War Stories!
Can you tell us a personal story of when a hire didn’t work out because proper due diligence was not performed? Would love to share war stories!

Had an interesting discussion with a new client about whether it is better to build or buy talent.  I’ve had similar conversations with other clients over the years.  Small businesses face the dilemma frequently.  Do they hire and train newbies, or do they hire experience?  It may appear to be cheaper in the short run to hire and train newbies.  But, you have to spend a lot of management time to train newbies and the ramp up time for them to become effective in their jobs is long.  Yet, if you hire experience, are you able to justify the cost of higher salaries?  And, in the case of experienced sales professionals, are you willing to be patient for results?  Far too many business owners expect immediate results.  Or, believe their “experienced” hires do not need training.

Whether you hire newbies or experience, I’d suggest you provide training and personal development for both.  Don’t expect an employee’s prior employer to train your people.  Take a proactive approach.  Train them your way.  Train them often.  Mentor them frequently. 

Build vs buy depends on three things:  1) Your budget, 2) your willingness to train, and 3) lead time for results. 

The ”build” talent approach is often used with smaller companies, mainly due to budget reasons.   The larger and more mature a business, the more likely they can afford experience.  The pros and cons of each approach should be considered for each new position.

Here are other viewpoints on the subject:

http://arunkottolli.blogspot.com/2006/05/hiring-in-high-tech-firm-build-vs.html

http://www.humanresourcesmagazine.com.au/articles/2F/0C02E52F.asp?Type=60&Category=1223

I had the recent privilege of participating in a “how to hire” workshop conducted by Geoff Smart, author of the NY Times best selling book, WHO. His tagline on his book is, “Knowing what to do is not the major challenge faced by executives — finding who to do it is!”

Geoff Smart is a very smart man. (Pun intended.) Geoff has been helping major corporations for over 15 years increase their hiring success by using a proven interview process. Many business owners and hiring managers cut corners in the interview process or fail to ask the right questions in the right way. Consequently, the results are at best a 50/50 chance you might make a good hire. Using a proven interview process increases your odds of making a great hire! Geoff claims his clients achieve a 90% success rate with his interview methodology.

Over the past 10 years, Safari Solutions has developed a hiring process, Tiger Eye Hiring, that works extremely well for small businesses. I was overjoyed to learn at the workshop that our hiring process utilizes many of the same proven techniques suggested in Geoff’s “A Method.” We always knew Tiger Eye Hiring works, and it is nice to now have our process validated by other experts in our field!

When it comes to talent, do you have a “Who” problem? If so, then perhaps you have a process problem.

Ann Clifford

In today’s competitive market, sales success is vital to an organization’s sustainability.  What new things are you doing to close deals now?  Read the rest of this entry »

I recently read the book, The Energy of Money. During this time of economic turmoil, I thought the book might have a few gemstone tips to keep me energized.  Author, Maria Nemeth, Ph.D., uses the term “Trouble at the Border.”  This term meaning that along our pathway of intention, we will undoubtedly come across struggles that will try to block our way toward meeting our goals.  In business speak this could be translated to mean, our troublesome economy may be the “trouble at the border” that we currently must face and conquer in order to continue on our pathway of business success. Read the rest of this entry »

Safari Solutions helps companies “hire better.” Notice I didn’t say hire the best candidate each and every time. Why? Because there are too many variables to guarantee 100% hiring success. Read the rest of this entry »