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 »

Opinions may vary, but there is little doubt that Bill Gates has built, and continues to build, a very successful company. I find his secrets and his business strategies to be interesting and helpful:

1. Think and do. The bottom line is results. Thinking is a means to an end – and that end is action. You must take action to get results.
2. Only hire very, very smart people. The biggest problem with mediocre people is that they take up space that could be occupied by brilliant people.
Read the rest of this entry »

Variables that affect a successful hire:

1) Ability to offer dynamic career opportunities through a company’s growth strategy and leadership.
2) Ability to compensate great talent. Read the rest of this entry »

Making a good hire is difficult. Ask any business owner and they will confirm this. Why is this so?

#1 reason is that you are dealing with people. And, people live in a world that constantly changes.

A few years ago, ADP revealed in a study that if you doing everything right in the hiring process Read the rest of this entry »

Guest Blogger: Jerry Joyce

Harvey MacKay has written a book entitled “We Got Fired … And It’s the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Us!”

In it, he offers, for people who have been fired, Seven Strategies that have stood the test of time in maintaining a positive attitude and in really improving the odds of finding a job.

I noticed how each of these Seven Strategies also applied to the building of a business, whether a “start-up,” an emerging business or one that is long established.

1 Understand exactly what went wrong in your last job and have a clear explanation of what happened. Read the rest of this entry »