Hiring to WIN
All too often leaders hire to fill open spots rather than
hire to win. I always say hire hard manage easy rather than hire easy manage
hard. The decision is up to you; just don’t complain about your team to me if
you hire easy. It’s all about getting the
right people in the right spots. You can never have too many all stars on your
team if they are the right people for the position. If you are filling open positions
with the person that has the best skills rather than the person with the right personality
and the ability to learn you will always have high turnover. Focus on how
someone handles a situation rather than how many sales achievements they have. A
superstar that is a cancer in the organization can bring the team down.
How do you find that great fit for your team? Always take
the time to interview. Don’t miss the chance to hire a superstar because you
are too busy to give them some time. Block out a certain time of each day to
interview every week. You have to make this a priority; if you don’t have any candidates
use the time to observe and coach your current team. We all can admit when don’t
observe and coach enough.
Don’t get caught up in experience and skills; they can be
all that but if they don’t have the right personality to create a great customer
experience then those skills loose you more customers than they can gain you.
You can’t train personality but you can train hard skills.
Insure you have a two interview system so that a candidate has
to be able to impress two people rather than just one. Get your front line
managers involved in the process; these people are going to work for and with
them every day.
This should get you started on the right path; after you get
this in place get back with me and I will give you some more steps to Hiring to
WIN.