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A Strategy for Finding the Right Employees

There is probably nothing fun about hiring employees for a small business owner. It is
nerve-racking and time-consuming, and there are no guarantees that a particular candidate is going
to work out.

By Joyce Rosenberg The Salt Lake Tribune

Business people who have years of experience in hiring say it never gets easy. But by thinking
about the process and getting some help when you need it, you might improve the odds of finding
the right help.

First, you should know that the chances are you won’t find the right person with a want ad or
Internet search site.
"If you’re going to hire the right person, it’s more likely you’re going to hire through networking,
through word of mouth, rather than running an ad in the paper," said Leigh Branum, a vice president
with Right Management Consultants in Overland Park, Kan.

"The people who are doing the referring tend to know something about you and the organization,
so the people they refer then to be good fits," Branum said. "And the people coming in tend to
know what they’re getting into."

Word of mouth brought the right worker to Richard Magid, who runs support groups for
small-business owners in New Jersey as part of New York-based Let’s Talk Business Network. He
needed an employee to help take care of administrative tasks, and found someone by "putting the
word out on the street."

Magid ended up hiring someone who had worked
with his wife, and saved himself the mega-effort of
advertising and culling through a pile of applications
and resumes.
Even if you take a route similar to Magid’s, you
will probably ask applicants for resumes or other
paperwork.

Phil Willman, manager of corporate national
recruiting for Manpower Professional in Milwaukee,
said you should use the applicants’ documents to
prepare the questions you want to ask. He suggested
making an outline, something he said he still does
after 20 years in the business.

Willman also suggested bringing other employees,
if you have them, to sit in on the interview. This is
especially helpful when a current employee is going to supervise the new hire or the employee
knows more details about the duties of the position being filled.
"Whoever is going to be most affected by this person’s performance should spend the most time
with the in-person interview," Willman said.

Branum agreed, saying, "They will pick up on things you won’t."
During the interview, you will want to find out more than what a prospect did at previous jobs.
You want to find out how he or she handled situations that are likely to come up at your company.
Branum suggested asking a candidate: "Tell me about a time when you had to do deal with a tough
customer and how you did with that person." The answer can reveal much about the way prospects
approach their jobs, co-workers and customers.

"Past behavior is a predictor of future behavior. You can’t make up these stories," Branum said.
Willman said a small-business owner might want to find out if a candidate was involved in sports
while in school — the answer might tell you if this prospect is a team player, or perhaps works well
alone.

Lloyd Trufelman, owner of Trylon Communications, a public relations firm in New York,
advocates giving a candidate a skills test. He reported having interviewed job prospects who had
great resumes and presented themselves well, "but put them down in front of a computer and they
couldn’t write a press release."

Trufelman, noting that the hiring process goes beyond the interview, will ask a candidate to
follow up, and waits to see whether they do or not.
If you need help figuring out what to look for in a prospective employee, there are plenty of
resources available.

One option is the federal government’s Small Business Development Centers, found in nearly
1,000 locations around the country. They can be located online at http://www.sba.gov/sbdc.

You can get advice from retired human resources executives and retired small business owners
at SCORE. Its Web site is http://www.score.org.

You might also decide to seek help from an employment agency. But as Willman noted, while
companies such as Manpower can deliver candidates likely to have the skills you are seeking, you
still need to go through the interview process to determine if a particular candidate is well-suited
to your company.

After you tell candidates they have been hired, you need to help them succeed with proper
training, and by encouraging them to ask questions and seek help when they need it. Otherwise you
will be interviewing all over again.

—–

Joyce Rosenberg writes about small business for The Associated Press.

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Apr/04272003/business/51459.asp

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