When assessing candidates for a position, consider a two dimensional scoring system, demonstrated by this graph.

Along the X-Axis you have a person’s Aptitude & Skill Set (the productivity axis). This is where you score a candidate as to whether they can DO the job or not. Do they have the right experience, education, designations, skills, smarts, etc. This is where most interviewing processes focus most, if not all their attention. However by doing so, as a hiring manager, you miss out on the most important criteria for successful hiring, Cultural Fit.

In order to hire successfully, ALL candidates must also be scored against the Y-Axis. How do they fit into the organization’s culture? Are they a good Cultural Fit, meaning do they live the core values of the company? This is not something that you can assess from a resume.

Another point to consider is that people can most often be coached to improve their productivity (move up the X-Axis). But they most often cannot be coached along cultural fit (moving up the Y-Axis). When it comes to cultural fit, my approach is that the candidate either has it, or they don’t. Period.

So when scoring a candidate, if they score high in cultural fit, then the challenge becomes is what position will play to their strengths? What are they qualified to do? That is how you bring on A-Performers. On the flip side, if they score low on cultural fit, I really don’t care how well they score on productivity, I don’t want them in my organization. In these cases, at best, you’ll have a B-Performer, and maybe not even.

So how do you address this? With a systemized approach to recruiting that flushes out the cultural fit of new applicants. The Hiring Right Recruiting System, for example, uses cultural fit screening techniques to do this. The system enables organizations to first attract the right kind of applicants and detract the wrong kind, then it puts them through a short series of screening processes that enable managers to score candidates against a predetermined cultural fit scoring criteria.

By having a systemized approach to recruiting, organizations can bring their 25-50% batting average up to 90% or better within a short period of time. The best part about it is that the process is organized in a manner that is very efficient, effective and will ensure success in recruiting top performers, with very little added time invested on the part of the hiring manager.

The Hiring Right Recruiting System is the best process for hiring people with great attitudes, strong skill set and cultural fit. With a hiring success rate reaching 90%+, a program like this saves an enormous amount of time, frustration and the obvious costs associated with employee turnover. When an organization considers the direct and indirect costs associated with a bad hire, the average overall cost to the organization can reach five times the annual salary or wages for the position. This is too costly of an expense for organizations not to control!

The best teams are made up of the best people. A systemized recruiting process like the Hiring Right Recruiting System will help you achieve much greater hiring success, lower costs and a more successful and productive organization.

The marketing guru and author talks about the new year, the ‘forever recession’, and how you can join the race to the top, instead of settling for the bottom.

Thank you Greg Hemmings for sharing this with me…

Enjoy.

Hiring Right Recruiting System
- Create a “Shackleton-Type” job ad to attract the right people and deter the wrong ones.
- Resume Screening Process for her to use.
- Group Interview Process, incredibly efficient and effective way to screen for cultural fit.
- Quick CIDS Interview Process to help assess skill set and aptitude.
- Profiles XT Assessment Process to confirm assumptions.
- Reference Check Process in order to conduct effective reference checks.

Human Resource Toolkit
- Application Form that streamlines into the interview process.
- Employee Policy Handbook encompassing all policies and processes for the business.
- Orientation Checklist for new recruits.
- Job Descriptions for Early Childhood Educator.

We developed the program for her and worked with her to implement the new process within the company.

Very successful engagement with very successful results. But don’t take my word for it, here from Sachelle herself…

1. Research shows that potential clients that you are trying to sell to will say NO on average 8.2 times before they say YES! The best sales people will never quit. They keep approaching the sale (with new angles, new offers, new focuses and with empathy) until they get a YES. So never give up until you hear NO 12 times… then it’s okay to pack it in and move on.
2. Identify and focus on your “Dream-100″. Your Dream-100 list are the 100 companies who spend 90% of the money in your field. Focus your time, energy and resources on your identified Dream-100 and you will become successful beyond your wildest dreams!
3. Education based marketing, makes the need for hard sales a thing of the past. You will attract way more customers if you are offering to teach them something of value, than you ever will attract by simply trying to sell them your product or service.
4. Video endorsements work! Nothing seals the deal better than video endorsements from past (satisfied) clients. Visit my website for a promotional page on my Hiring Right Recruiting System. These three videos are not professionally made. They are simple, honest, straight forward, and have sealed a number of consulting contracts in their very short life since I posted them.
5. Finally, when starting out, new company owners and/or sales people should dedicate 2.5-4 hours each day prospecting for new customers. Once a good customer base is established, prospecting may decrease to 1 hour per day. However it should always remain a daily routine.

Good luck! And keep selling!

Andy

I recently saw a short video that drives home the need for vision, both organizationally as well as personally for you and your employees. My favourite soundbite in Matthew Kelly’s message is:

People don’t come to work for you because they necessarily love your company.
People don’t come to work for you because they necessarily love you as a manager.
People don’t come to work for you because they necessarily love their work.
They come to work because their human beings, they have dreams, and in some way they beleive that if they add value to your organization, you will help them in the fulfillment of their dreams. That’s the social contract.
So if you want people to help you live your organizational dreams, you need to help them live their personal dreams.
Most effective managers know the dreams of the people they’re managing.”

Do you know the dreams of your people?
Watch the video. You’ll like it…

Thanks Billy for sending this to me…

Enthusiasm Sells

There is so much written on this and so many things you can, and “should do” according to the experts. But we’re small business people, we have an operation to run and we want the one golden nugget that will make the biggest difference. We’ll here it is:

“People come to work because of the company. They decide to stay or leave because of their supervisor.”

If you only do one thing as a result of this blog posting, do this. Look at your company and really study the interactions between your best staff and their supervisor. Is it healthy? Is it a prosperous relationship? Maybe that supervisor is a department supervisor on your management team. Maybe it’s your operation manager. Maybe it’s you!

So stop looking at your best employees wondering if they’re going to stay or go. Instead, really look at your supervisors and managers. That is where you will find out if you’re going to retain or lose your best staff. If there’s a problem with what you find, then fix the management issue, and fix it good. Then and only then you will see the improvement you’re looking for with your employee retention.

Good luck!