Why you should hire the best: In almost every category the best is way beyond good. You’ll get 10 times the results from the best people than you will from really good people. It will be more fun to work with a team like that. And they won’t cost you 10 times as much.

About hiring the best sales people, Seth says Good is not almost as good as great.

About hiring the best programmers Joel says It’s not just a matter of “10 times more productive.” It’s that the “average productive” developer never hits the high notes that make great software.

Similar things are true in every job category.

When you should NOT hire the best: Extraordinary people won’t work at an ordinary company. So you have to be extraordinary, not just have it on your mission statement. They need to be managed like adults and this is harder than you think. You have to pay them more (not 10 times more but certainly at the high end of the pay scale). They need the right environment. I’m not talking super-star requests for a certain kind of bottled water (this occurs but is rarer than you fear). I’m talking the right equipment, training, culture, and other support.

So if you’re not in a position to support these people financially, managerially, and culturally so they can do their jobs well, you should just hire ordinary people. Seriously.

How to hire them.
1. Describe what you want in behavioral terms – not vague platitudes. Don’t say “self-starter.” Would anyone look at that and think “I won’t apply to that job, I’m really a bum.” Instead, describe how you’ll recognize a self starter’s behavior. And, it won’t be the same everywhere. For example: At one company a self starter may be someone who comes in early and stays late to get the job done. At another company a self-starter may be someone who invents new ways to get the job done quicker so they can leave at 3 and hit the golf course. Same platitude, different behaviors. More about behavioral interviewing here from Inc Magazine.

Note: I was recently in a meeting with a person who at one point told me he wanted to hire people who would come in early and stay late. At another point in the meeting he said he wanted to hire people who could invent ways to get the job done sooner and leave early. You’ve got to get clear on what you really want.

2. Find them. They aren’t looking for a job. They have a good job. And if they have a good job and they are still looking, you don’t want them working for you because they’ll be looking then too. [Exceptions are the ones who are looking because of a reason you can fix - like they want to move to your part of the country]. Look for them as individuals not as a demographic. Find names, find addresses, find current employers. So you’ve got some sleuthing to do. Get going.

3.Woo them. I’ve always said the best metaphor for business is dating. Here’s the coolest example I’ve seen of how to woo people. Not that you should copy the details – they won’t be relevant to your company or the people you’re wooing. But you should copy the approach. And here are details of the pitch with pictures.

Seth Godin’s comment about this effort is: It’s not particularly difficult or even expensive, yet it’s rare. The reasons are simple: most recruiters don’t really care about hiring the very best people, and/or recruiters haven’t yet realized that they are marketers too.

Takeaway:

• Hiring the best isn’t easy, but it’s worth it.
• When has being hard stopped you?

[tags]hiring, entrepreneur, small business, [/tags]

Guy Kawasaki has a great post on how to fire someone. I was conflicted by one point that he makes: his dismissal of the idea that you should fire someone quickly. He says you should give them a second chance. Reading it, I realized I think both things are true. How can that be?

This got me thinking about what an employee needs to succeed. I came up with 3 things. Thing Number One is entirely out of your control (and not completely, but generally not under the control of the employee either). Thing Number Two is entirely under your control not that of the employee. Thing Number Three is under both your controls. Details in a minute.

But here’s my take on second chances. When you give a second chance, you must explain the problem and then change something and expect an improvement. At the minimum, you change to increased monitoring, but the things you must change are aspects of Thing Two and Thing Three that are under your control. If you see improvement give another second chance and another and another.

However, as soon as you realize the employees failure is due entirely to Thing Number One – get rid of him or her immediately. It won’t get any better, and you’ll just prolong the agony.

An employee needs three things to succeed

1. The right personality traits. This includes what is commonly called “motivation” and “attitude” but it’s more specific (and less judgmental) than that. Some people are good at multi-tasking, others plow through one thing at a time till it’s done. Some people see the big picture and can’t be bothered with details – others can’t see the forest for the trees. Some people are naturally curious, some are not. Some are fast learners, some are not. By “right personality traits” I mean the right ones for the job. Most people’s traits are right for something – but no one’s are right for everything.

Personality traits are hard enough to discover about yourself, let alone another person in a job interview. But the best way I’ve heard of is to work with a team to come up with a list of traits for each position (this goes beyond the job description). Then in the interview, when you ask questions like “Tell me about your first job?” or “What was your favorite vacation?” you can look for those traits. It’s your job as the boss to determine the kinds of traits needed for each position and do your best to match the person’s traits to the job.

In this article Inc Magazine calls this Behavioral Interviews and gives some tips on how to do it.

And personality traits are almost impossible to change. If someone isn’t a good fit in this area a large company may have other areas to move them to where they fit better. If you don’t, you’d best let them go as quickly as you figure it out. This is the basis for the fire rapidly rule that Guy Kawasaki puts down.

2. Skills & Experience. This stuff is mostly trainable – though no amount of training will make someone a super star. And wisdom can not be had without experience, which takes time. This is the area you give the most second chances in. (Is most second chances an oxymoron?) If you don’t see any improvement, then the cause is likely #1 or #3.

3. The right environment. This is the job of management. The ideal “environment” is one where people have the support and systems they need to be successful. By that I mean, if you hire me to paint a wall, it’s your job to give me the equipment and the paint – or the authority to buy them. If I have to buy them, then you need to allow time for that, and if you tell me to pick the color, you better accept my choice. This is the area that is the biggest problem for small companies. Partly because each manager is wearing so many hats and partly because its a skill they don’t get much training in.

So the first thing I do when an employee isn’t working out, is use that as a mirror to see if I’ve been delinquent in setting up the right environment. Obviously you can’t revamp your whole production line for each new hire. But the more effort you put into designing the right environment, the easier it is to find a good employee to work there. Consider McDonalds. Behind the line, they’ve designed equipment and processes specifically for their menu. As a result, they hire teen agers, retirees, people who can’t speak English, lots of part timers and yet every McDonalds on the planet tastes the same. Can you do that in your facility?

Takeaways:

• Make sure you’re providing the right environment for people to succeed
• Make sure you know the job well enough to determine the personality traits needed
• Get good at Behavioral Interviewing
• Give second chances as long as the traits fit the job and you see improvement
• Fire quickly once you’ve determined neither is true

Others say it better than I. Here’s a piece by Craig James (was a top recruiter for Hewlett Packard) about how to build a team that does your interviews. Thanks to Guy Kawasaki for the link.

Hiring is one of the top 3 problems I see in companies. Sales and Data points are the others. This article from JoelonSoftware shows how they do it. For interns, no less.

Key take-aways would be:

• It’s a process you have to learn and devote time to, but it’s worth it.
• The clearer you are on what you want the more likely it is you’ll get what you want.
• Make it a team effort. That will make it easier to integrate the new hire into the team and keep you from make a decision purely on emotion.