I had the pleasure of listening to Arlene Dickinson speak at the Women to Women Symposium organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Vaughan (Ontario, Canada).
When asked about early mistakes she had made while running Venture Communications Inc., she spoke about hiring too quickly. ‘Don’t mess around when you hire people to work for you’ was her advice.
Running your own startup is a challenge that never ends and as the company grows, bringing in employees is one of the inevitable tasks that business owners are faced with. I am very often asked: Aline, how do I find the right person for the job, but also the right fit culturally for my business?
Culture Matters
Let me tell you a story to demonstrate this problem: Amanda was the owner of a Fashion Design accessories business. She was experiencing a high turnover rate. Her employees were leaving her within their first year of employment or she was letting them go because they didn’t fit with the company culture. When she hired me to improve her batting average, I taught her to catch the cues of what was not being said by the candidates during the interviews. I helped her to hire based on fit first. As a result, two of her technicians have been working for her for the last six months. Here is what I did.
Cues
The first time Amanda and I interviewed the candidates, we asked questions that would reveal their personality through the answer. For example, we asked “why did you work for ABC?” By understanding the candidate’s choice of working at a given company, we got a better understanding of their choices while enabling us to better understand what was important to them.
More than one interview
Amanda had her candidates interviewed by other people in her business and debriefed with them. She hired based on the majority’s evaluation. That way, she made sure the candidate was a good fit to work with everybody else.
Know your culture
When we first met, Amanda was unclear about her business culture. By outlining her management and her communication styles, as well as her values and ethics, I helped her to define her company’s culture. As such, Amanda was able to assess the candidates’ fit with far greater success.
If you are a small business and would like to stop losing time and money on future hiring mistakes, join me on LINKED IN, tweet me on TWITTER, like me on FACEBOOK.to find many juicy tips and advice. Check our Human Resources Consulting services . We are Human Resources Specialists.
