When you think about hiring someone, do you really know what your needs are? Take some time to think about it.
I remember working with a client who told me, “It’s easy. I just need a cashier for the front of my store. All the person needs to do is to be able to count cash and be pleasant to the customers.”
So I asked him if I could spend a few hours with the person he had doing the job and he agreed.
I spent 2 ½ hours with the cashier, and I found out there was much more to the job than cash handling and customer service.
While I was observing, the cashier had several deliveries and had to open the box, check the inventory against the receipt and also get the merchandise on the shelf while handling the customers.
There was also a spill that had to be cleaned up, and the cashier managed to smile while cleaning up and made the customer feel comfortable (adding to additional sales I might add).
The cashier also was required to answer the same question over and over again in a pleasant way. In the 2 ½ hours I was there, she was asked 13 times where to buy postage. Each time, she answered very pleasantly, as if it were the first time someone had asked the question.
When I went back to the store owner and talked about my findings, he was a little surprised by what I reported. I asked him: “Do you know that you need someone who can also handle accurate reconciliation of inventory, provide merchandising services, and act as a janitor?”
“Well, I never thought of it like that,” he said.
Just goes to show that it pays to take a little while to investigate the details of the job you are hiring for.
When we created the interview questions for the cashier position, we asked candidates how they felt about answering the same question over and over every day. Many of the applicants said they had been in similar situations before and it drove them crazy. One candidate even said, “Yeah, I like to make up stupid answers and be ready for that next person to ask me.”
I sure would not have wanted him in the store representing my company!
So think about it: besides the hard skills that are needed, what type of person do you need for the position?
How about the environment that the person works in?
A friend of mine recently got a new job that she really wanted at a resort. She was very excited when she was offered the position, and I thought it was great that she had finally found and gotten a job she loved.
I ran into her a week later, and she told me she was going to quit. “Quit?” I said – I could hardly believe it!
“The job is great,” she said, “but I am working in a basement all day! The only time I see that lovely resort is on the way in to work and on the way out. It is not for me.”
Be sure to tell applicants about unusual circumstances in the work environment. It might take you a little longer to fill the position, but you will keep the employee a lot longer than if you do not tell him or her about circumstances that might not be obvious.
Another area that should not be overlooked is the issue of working independently or on a team. Some people are meant to work alone, and some people are meant to work with others. Get one of either group in the wrong situation, and you’ll find you have a miserable person on your hands!
Creativity is an important area to consider as well. If the expectation is for your employee to provide new ideas or creative solutions and you hire someone who is looking for repetitive work (such as data entry or detailed administration), the match is likely to fail. On the flip side, if the job requires repetition and you hire someone who is creative, you will probably not hang on to them in that repetitive role.
In the next edition, I will discuss the best interview tactics. Aloha!
