Often, you hire someone thinking they’re an excellent candidate. They have all the traits you
want: smart, experienced, and capable. But after hiring them, you realize that they’re not the right fit for your company. You end up spending a great deal of time and effort fixing your mistake. Ultimately, this clean up process can reveal a lot about your small business and wreak internal damage to your company culture and external damage to your brand.
Several months ago, Akia Garnett (CEO, Brandbuilder) invited me to a Tweetchat on the importance of effective hiring to your brand. During our conversation, we touched on a variety of HR topics related to effective hiring including key questions to ask candidates to assess their awareness of your products, services, culture, and brand. Here are some suggested questions to ask:
– What do you know about our company?
– How do you see the role this position plays in promoting our brand and services and/or products?
– How would you promote our brand?
– What type work environment do you enjoy?
– What is your preferred management style?
– What do you value in a company?
– How would your skills and experience contribute to our company?
– What gives you joy in your work?
– Questions related to their contributions and accomplishments.
– Questions related to any job hopping and long breaks in job history.
We also discussed the importance of conducting several interviews and involving several interviewers in the process. All too often, employers take the one and done approach – 1 interview, and you are hired! Of course, it is impossible to determine if someone is a good
fit for your position after just one interview.
Ultimately, poor hires can occur. If you do end up with a poor hire:
– Determine if training will help.
– If the employee is a good fit with your culture and organization but in the wrong position, move them.
– If the employee is a poor fit, exit them out with respect and kindness.
Poor hires are costly in terms of lost productivity, time, morale, and wasted costs of recruitment. So take your time and slow down. A hire can quickly make or break your brand and company’s success.
Jennifer Brown is the founder of PeopleTactics LLC, she is devoted to helping small business owners implement solutions to prevent Human Resources problems that drain them of their time, money, and energy. Jennifer works with small businesses in order to help them build stronger employee relationships, understand and comply with employment laws, establish policies, and set up easy-to-use HR systems to consistently avoid problems.
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