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Brian's
Introduction
By
Brian Walsh (Founder & CEO of
Entrepreneur.co.za)
I have come across so many experienced
entrepreneurs who still find hiring the right
people to be a difficult challenge, despite
their ongoing success. I have mentioned before
that what I believe to be a major contributor to
the problem is that we, as entrepreneurs, tend
to expect a lot from our employees. The general
employment market on the whole is governed by
larger companies who seem to accept lesser
performance for what they pay.
An even bigger challenge in hiring the right
people, is probably more to do with the dynamics
of communication and knowing how to spot what
people are good at or not so good at. It is not
easy to make a judgment from an interview and a
CV, so let me suggest five keys to effectively
hiring staff:
1) Make
sure you decide beforehand what questions you
want to ask your potential employees before you
do an interview. These should be largely the
same for all interviews for a particular
position. Create an interview sheet and work
with it. Also, make sure you have gone through
the applicants’ CV in detail well before
interviewing them.
2) Either
prior to, or after an interview, send the
applicants a short questionnaire. Ask some
personal questions like where they want to be in
three years’ time and what they feel about your
industry or products. How quickly and thoroughly
they respond should help with your decision.
3) For
skills oriented tasks, do assessments where
applicants’ skills are tested. Prepare these in
advance and separate the assessment from the
interview. It can be either before or after.
4) Do
thorough checks on the potential employee. Phone
all the references and especially their previous
employers.
5) Tell
potential employees that they will be on a
probation contract initially whereby either
party can terminate in a short agreed period,
and that their performance will be reviewed
through practice. This not only protects you,
but also puts pressure on them to perform from
day one. Probation contracts can be as long as
three months.
6) Offer
complete effective training for new employees
and allow for enough time for them to adjust and
learn the ropes. Don’t expect miracles from day
one. Let them grow within your probation period
and offer as much assistance as possible.
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