Using Policies and Procedures in the Hiring Process

Almost every business owner has most likely complained about the difficulty in finding and retaining good employees. Yet, somehow successful companies do locate sufficient competent employees to operate and thrive.

As with all aspects of a thriving company, attracting, training, and retaining skilled workers involves a policies and procedures manual. Consistent actions lead to consistent results, and this applies to hiring workers as well as any other aspect of the company.

The initial step in hiring is to ascertain the type of individual you need to hire. In other words, before you can find a good worker, you must initially identity how you would define a competent worker. You must identify what you demand, for your benefit as well as the employee’s.

A few of the questions that you must consider are:

What abilities, practice, or schooling is required for the position?
Are these optional or required?
Are there particular personality traits that you insist on?

Job descriptions are a crucial component of defining your expectations. The job description identifies the obligations, wages, and necessary skills for each job. The job description offers you a yardstick for measuring potential workers, and provides personnel a clear awareness of the owner’s expectations.

The second step is to attract candidates who will meet your criteria. This is achieved by creating advertisements that emphasize the qualities you desire. By having a job description, you will be able to identify the type of person who will meet the position’s requirements. An advertisement that says “now hiring” will draw nearly everyone looking for a job; an ad that says “now hiring self-motivated individuals” will draw a different kind of individual.

The third step is use a process that will permit you to recognize individuals who satisfy your standards, and those who don’t. Again, a documented job description assists in this practice. At its most basic, the interviewing procedure entails measuring the prospect against the standard-your job description.

An effective approach to accomplish this is to test the applicant. Many small business owners use a written test to determine talents and knowledge, but less formal testing may perhaps be more illuminating. For example, if showing up on time is critical for the job, you might instruct the applicant to show up for a meeting at a exact time.

Interviewing personnel should not be a random activity. If you have identified the talents and traits you are looking for in an individual, your job interview should be directed at identifying whether the applicant has those abilties and characteristics. You should have a system for interviewing prospective workers in place before you place an employment ad.

An helpful process for interviewing is to ask questions that invite a discussion. The purpose of the interview is to find out about the prospect, and this can be accomplished by allowing him to have a discussion about himself, his experience, and his desires. Inquiries such as:

Could you explain the perfect boss?
Could you describe your favorite job?
How would you solve this dilemma?

These types of questions assist you to recognize if the individual is a good fit for your company. A very highly experienced prospect may not be the most effective worker if he has a temperament that will disrupt morale. Discovering this fact before you hire him can make it easier to prevent an expensive error, and having policies and procedures for your employment process makes this an easier process.

Harvey Segal's Ultimate SuperTip

Internet marketing guru Harvey Segal got fed up with Google's ever changing algorithms. His response? He told Google goodnight, goodbye, good riddance. And then he developed a marketing strategy that doesn't depend on Google, Facebook, or anyone else.Harvey's strategy is revolutionary. As he puts it:

It led to me being called 'The Guru who said goodbye to Google' in the marketing forums.

And this new approach?

It uses some of the fundamental pillars of Internet marketing that you already know - techniques which will never become obsolete.

But they are combined together in a new way and with a viral twist that you won't have seen before.

It includes giving out free information in a certain way and I show you how exactly in my book, The Ultimate SuperTip

The best part is, the book is FREE. That's right, he is giving away his revolutionary system. And once you read the book, you will understand why. You can get Harvey Segal's Ultimate SuperTip by clicking here.

Systematize your thinking

Perhaps the most crucial skill that a small business owner can possess is thinking skills. The ability to solve problems--often under stress--will often determine if a business will be successful or a statistic.

I am not speaking of formal logic, though logic is certainly beneficial. I am speaking of the ability to efficiently and accurately think through a problem or issue and reach a conclusion. A small business owner must make countless decisions everyday--what price to charge, what supplies to order, whom to hire or fire, what sale to run, and on and on. While many of these decisions can be made easier by having systems, issues or problems that require creative or fresh thinking can be much more difficult. If we have systems for dealing with these situations, then it can be much easier to find a resolution.

This may strike you as odd--a system for thinking? The fact is, there are correct ways and incorrect ways to approach a problem.

As an example, you have likely experienced "circular thinking". No matter how much time you spend on a problem, you just keep rehashing the same points. Your thinking literally goes in circles. If the solution did not occur the first time, it is doubtful that you will find it the tenth time around. Yet, it can be quite easy to get stuck in that mode of thinking.

This--and similar situations--is where thinking skills are beneficial. They help us identify why we are stuck, and provide tools or exercises to overcome the obstacles. As one example, I sometimes find myself unclear about some point I want to make in an article or blog post. In such situations, "thinking on paper" is very helpful. Rather than try to get every word perfect, I just write out everything that occurs to me. I allow myself to go off onto tangents, consider points that appear completely irrelevant, etc. In the process, I usually discover what particular point isn't clear to me, and I can then address it.

There are many causes--and solutions--for problems in our thinking. If you would like to learn more about thinking skills, click here to listen to an excerpt from an interview I conducted with Jean Moroney, President of Thinking Directions. The full interview is available for members of our web site.