PD Strategies Blog

How do you find the right person for your business? It depends. First, make certain you know the core competencies needed in the job. Depending on the role this could be anywhere from accountability for others to attention to detail or from conflict management to futuristic thinking. Many businesses find that selecting and hiring of the right employee is a daunting task. Some people just hire anyone who applies, or, at best, they may ask a few quick questions before making an offer. Hiring the wrong person can be costly but hiring high performing employees will result in helping your organization meet its goals and will promote your brand to your customers. Before accepting an application or advertising you should have a clear description of duties for the prospective new hire. Know exactly what you need. What are the duties required? What behaviors are required such as ability to work well...

Don’t make a hiring decision based on a great resume. First of all, the resume is the applicant’s puff piece and secondly, it tells what was done in the past. You are hiring for the future. This is different than saying that knowledge of the job and the requisite skills and knowledge are not important. They certainly are. Of course, you want the right person for the right job. However, looking primarily for experience will produce disappointing results. Here is what I have observed. Those running the business believe that their industry is different from others, so unique that the primary requirement is experience. Because of that mindset I have seen many bad candidates hired and many qualified candidates screened out. The hiring manager is using the assumption that as long as the candidate has previous experience in the industry or job that the candidate will be a success in the...

Have you found that is hard to avoid making a hiring mistake because the right person can’t be found? If you do, then there are some things you need to know. People who make hiring mistakes don’t necessarily look in the wrong places. They look for the wrong things and ask the wrong questions. Before beginning a search for a staff member, it is important to know the overall culture and critical success factors. Some think they know but only look at superficial misleading things. Finding the right employee begins with a process to define what deliverables or actions lead to success. How do you do that? You need to start at the beginning. What is your vision, values, and mission? You must only select people with these shared values. This is where many organizations fail. They look for specific things that they believe are important, but they fail to see...

Some studies have shown that a positive corporate culture is essential for having an engaged team. Even more important, culture combined with team engagement has proven to improve outcomes including financial performance. Culture influences every area of the organization. It affects the public and customer perception, but it also affects the way people do their jobs and their connection to the mission and values of the organization. In short, an organization’s culture is seen in actions and behaviors which model the values it lives by. Your hiring process must support your culture. One organization states is this way in one of their cultural pillars. “We very carefully guard who gets to be an associate in our organization.” This organization looks at values, attitudes, and behaviors in making staff selections in addition to those skills needed to perform the job. Unfortunately, we find that managers tend to make hiring decisions by looking...

When you don’t really understand critical factors that create employee performance you can make many costly mistakes in hiring and training. The question is really one of skill or will. Many companies spend time and effort on identifying the correct skill sets when hiring. Then, after a candidate is finally hired the company will invest in training the new employee in the skills, processes, and procedures for doing the job. In addition, the new employee will look to increase his or her skills and understanding of the business. The employee attends training on the latest systems or learns the latest sales techniques. The employee gets training on the features and benefits of the products and services. Most of the time is spent on learning the nuts and bolts. Many businesses see this as the most important path to success. But then the employee leaves the company. The hiring manager searches for...

Has your Westchester County NY business has grown and you realize you must hire your first employee? You might be tempted to reach out to someone you know. Hiring someone because of friendship ignores the purpose for hiring someone in the first place—the fact that you need someone with specific qualifications to do a job. Many businesses find that selecting and hiring of the right employee is a daunting task. Some people just hire anyone who applies or, at best, they may ask a few quick questions before making an offer. Hiring the wrong person can be costly but hiring high performing employees will result in helping your organization meet its goals and will promote your brand to your customers. Before accepting an application or advertising you should have a clear description of duties for the prospective new hire. Know exactly what you need. What are the duties required? What behaviors...

A leading indicator of future performance is not past experience. That is not to say that knowledge of the job and the requisite skills are not important. They certainly are but when you hire someone you are looking for future performance. I work with numerous privately held and family held businesses. And I have observed that those running the business believe that their industry is different from others, so unique that the primary requirement is experience. Because of that mindset I have seen many bad candidates hired and many qualified candidates screened out. The hiring manager is using the assumption that as long as the candidate has previous experience in the industry or job that the candidate will be a success in the hiring manager’s job. In my work with organizations I have found that experience in the industry is NOT a predictor of success. In fact, I have seen it...

It is a mistake to hire a candidate based solely on experience. This is not saying that knowledge of the job and the requisite skills and knowledge are not important. They certainly are. Of course, you want the right person for the right job. However, looking primarily for experience will produce disappointing results. I work largely with privately held and family held businesses. But in that arena I have worked with many industries ranging from real estate, construction, retail, service and hospitality, nonprofit, and manufacturing. I have made the same observation in all of these industries. Those running the business believe that their industry is different from others, so unique that the primary requirement is experience. Because of that mindset I have seen many bad candidates hired and many qualified candidates screened out. The hiring manager is using the assumption that as long as the candidate has previous experience in the...

Experience is not the most important factor to consider when hiring for most positions. In fact experience is a trailing indicator when it comes to predicting future success much like profits are a trailing indicator for corporate success. If you stop placing so much emphasis on experience in your hiring decisions you will start seeing less staff turnover and a more profitable company. Consider the fact that most failures and job terminations occur because of attitudes and behaviors. Since that is the case wouldn’t it be more important to look at values, attitudes, and behaviors in assessing a job candidate? If you look only at experience you might have too narrow a focus. I have noticed that those running businesses believe that their industry is different from others, so unique that the primary requirement is experience. Because of that mindset I have seen many bad candidates hired and many qualified candidates...

The Internet has become a major tool being used by company recruiters. However, companies using social media in hiring need to be fully aware of some the legal problems than can arise when using this media improperly. In the process of looking for potential employees that may meet your qualifications you may see things in the profile of an applicant which is totally unrelated to your company job requirements. You may not understand why that would be a problem. After all didn’t they post this information for everyone to see? In addition, you may have heard about a company that requests an applicant’s password to Facebook. Let me advise all business owners large and small against this practice. Sure it is important to check references and background. However, the use of social media opens new challenges in the employment area. A person’s Facebook account could have all types of information including...

Employers and hiring managers make a big mistake when they use experience as the primary criteria for hiring a candidate.  This is different than saying that knowledge of the job and the requisite skills and knowledge are not important. They certainly are. Of course, you want the right person for the right job. However, looking primarily for experience will produce disappointing results. I work largely with privately held and family held businesses. But in that arena I have worked with many industries ranging from real estate, construction, retail, service and hospitality, nonprofit, and manufacturing. I have made the same observation in all of these industries. Those running the business believe that their industry is different from others, so unique that the primary requirement is experience. Because of that mindset I have seen many bad candidates hired and many qualified candidates screened out. The hiring manager is using the assumption that as...