The $5,840.00 Hiring Mistake

All business owners know that it’s tough to find good people. Many settle for second-rate employees with average performance because they don't know how to find and hire good people. But the problem lies not in the shortage of good employees but in the reluctance of employers to properly implement strategies to attract competent staff.

For any person to work well in a job they need to know specifically what the job entails, how the job is to be done and the level of performance they are expected to achieve. Without this information the employee is left to guess and the results are often mediocre to unsatisfactory.

Another cause of undesirable recruitment is business owners hiring for work experience only rather than overall personality fit for the job. The practice of hiring for experience is so prevalent because business owners don’t want to or haven’t got the time to train people on the job. They need someone who can do the job now, not in 3 months time. So they hire someone who has spent time in a similar job so their skills can be instantly transferred. But there are very good reasons for not bringing someone else’s experience into your workplace, as Bill, a printing shop owner, found out.

Bill had an office administration position to fill. He needed someone who could work a computer, type reasonably fast and had good attention to detail and could take direction. He also wanted someone with good writing skills to help create documentation and marketing material.

He didn’t have a big budget so he couldn’t afford to hire someone who was very experienced at office administration. He could only afford a junior and decided that he wanted someone with around two years of experience in an office environment.

Bill had over 62 people apply for the job. He personally saw 8 of them and quickly created a shortlist of just 3. In that shortlist was a woman who was experienced in office administration and telemarketing. He saw she could be good for the job but suspected that he could not afford her. The next candidate impressed on first impressions, she was organized and knew how to write but had never worked in an office environment before. The third candidate had worked in an office for about 2 years and while she didn’t present so well, but she was outgoing and could write.

Because Bill needed someone in a hurry he offered the job to the 3rd candidate. He decided she was the best mix of affordability and experience that he was likely to find. She wouldn’t require much training and had good references.

But after about 6 weeks Bill was less than happy with his hiring decision. His new office assistant was resistant to taking direction and suggestion. She did things quickly without checking for correctness and many mistakes were made that could have been avoided if she just took a little more care. On top of that her presentation became worse, she was soon wearing jeans and t-shirts to work instead of smart casual attire, which was requested of her.

Looking back at his hiring decision he realized that he should have noticed these things about her before. Her presentation was below that of her peers when she attended an interview. If that was the best presentation she could come up with to attend an interview, then it was hardly surprising that she was so poorly presented now. He gave more importance to her experience than to her personality style and habits. This girl was naturally gregarious and not really suited to a job with little people contact and a lot of attention to detail. He realized that he had made a hiring mistake and had to let her go. It cost Bill $5,840 plus the wasted time associated with the hiring process.

Now he was back where he started. He didn’t have anyone to do his admin work and needed to go through the whole hiring process again. Instead of interviewing for the position straight away, his IBS Business Coach suggested Bill properly define the job and write a how to manual for all the tasks the job involved. Bill was stunned and complained that he didn’t have time for all that. But his business coach insisted that he do this before he hired again, as it would help Bill hire the right person next time.

So Bill spent a week writing up a job description and job manual for the office administration position. And in doing so got a clearer idea of the sort of the person this job would suit. This time he was looking for someone with good presentation, who had attention to detail and liked administration type work over people type work. He was also interested in finding someone who was willing to learn to do the job his way, not their own.

He decided to review his earlier candidates to see if any of them fits the position before advertising again. This time he realized that one of the other shortlisted candidates fitted the position very well. So he called in the girl with no previous office experience but good presentation and writing ability. After a brief chat, he offered her the job.

Bill’s IBS coach saved him thousands in advertising costs, training costs and time in filling out forms, organizing pay and superannuation for the wrong candidate.

This girl was a much better fit for the job. Although she had no office experience at all she knew how to dress for the job and act in an office environment. She liked working in a position where she could just get on with it and not have to deal with people all day. She quickly learned the position and became well known for doing a lot in any given day.

In addition, she also proved to have quite good ability for writing marketing material and was soon after given extra responsibilities. She was a perfect fit for the position even though she had no previous experience. In fact Bill saved quite a bit in wages and advertising because he didn’t have to pay for her experience and provided some on the job training.

Bill now hires people based on the minimum skills and experience they need to do a given job well. He relies on internal job systems and on the job training to ensure he has competent staff. Because of this he is able to hire the right personality for the job and saves a bundle in wages.

Bill’s business also benefits because it is not dependant upon key people. Bill knows that no one walks out the door of his business and takes it with them. He knows he can quickly hire another person to do any given job and have them trained and up to speed in a minimum amount of time.

Because Bill took the time to create good job systems he also doesn’t need to spend a lot of time or money in training people to do their jobs. And he knows that each job is being done to a level of satisfaction he has set. He truly has peace of mind as well as a great business.

For more information on how you can systematically and consistently picking winners for your business, call your Instant Business Success Coach today on (02) 9411 1345 or email info@instantbusinesssuccess.com