<p>So your business is booming, in fact you have more business than you can handle. You've decided it's time to bring on an employee, assistant or business partner so you can continue doing what you love and grow the business. How can you really know what you're getting into when you make an offer after 1, 2 or even 3 interviews?</p> <p>Inviting another person, an unknown entity, into the business you've created, nurtured and poured your passion into is scary. The road to hiring a stellar candidate who has a great work ethic, good professional instincts and who will be passionate about customer service (just like you) can be littered with the Lazy, the Entitled, the Severely Unreliable and the Klepto. The cost of a bad hire to your business and professional reputation can create ripple effects that take too much time, energy and money to recover from.</p> <p>Start by keeping an eye open for candidates who have successfully overcome challenging personal or professional obstacles. They have real life experience that required patience, hard work and perseverance. Often they are more willing and more likely to make a personal investment to create a desired outcome. Usually they have less of a sense of entitlement than their peers. This can also be true of candidates who have experience doing volunteer work that requires compassion and empathy. Generally, people who volunteer are accustomed to giving of themselves without requiring some kind of return. This makes them less likely to desire immediate gratification, which is a hallmark of emotional maturity.</p> <p>To give candidates an opportunity to offer information that gives you insight into their character, frame questions to allow them to use their life and work experience in their answers. The following questions can help you uncover essential info about the person you're thinking about bringing into your business:</p> <p>1. Describe a time in your personal or professional experience when you had to put your goals or desires on hold to allow another person's objective or goal to be realized.</p> <p>2. Tell me about a situation in your personal or professional experience when you overcame obstacles to achieve a long sought after goal.</p> <p>3. What would you change if you could go back?</p> <p>4. What did you learn from the experience that is still benefitting you in your life today?</p> <p>(The answers to 3 and 4 will help you assess the candidates' ability to create positive outcomes from difficult circumstances. It will illustrate whether they have a pessimistic or positive point of view.)</p> <p>5. Describe a situation when you didn't achieve your work or personal objective. What led to the situation and what do you think went wrong?</p> <p>6. What would you do differently if you could go back?</p> <p>7. What did you learn from that experience?</p> <p>(The answers to 6 and 7 will give you insight into the candidates' ability to learn and grow from their experiences. It gives you an indication of their willingness to take responsibility. Listen for red flags such as placing blame on others.)</p> <p>Before making an offer always speak to at least 3 references including supervisors, managers and peers. A great candidate will have generated enough goodwill that their references will be happy to tell you how wonderful they are. If you're having trouble making contact with references, enlist the candidates' help in getting a response. A good candidate will be willing to get in touch with their references to alert them that you'll be calling or to ask the reference to call you directly.</p> <p>When looking for a highly specialized candidate, consider using a professional Recruiter who specializes in the discipline you need. In addition to uncovering well qualified, passive candidates who aren't looking at ads on job boards, a Recruiter can give you insight into best interview practices, questions to ask and how to evaluate candidates to uncover the one who can assist you in taking your business to the next level.</p> 2009-01-20T00:18:54Z 2009-01-20T01:46:55Z -12.5722 392 2872 true 5 16551 proactive-protection-avoid-the-hiring-nightmare 6 2009-01-20T01:46:50Z 2009-01-20T01:46:50Z

The road to hiring a stellar employee can be littered with the Lazy, the Entitled, the Severely Unreliable and the Klepto. Use these tips to avoid the employment nightmare...

0 2009-02-24T09:48:37Z