Before You Hire (or Employ Anyone) – Do This!

 

Written September 17, 2018 

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For the past 18 years, we’ve been helping Small Business Owners and Managers hire (& develop) their most productive staff ever.

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We do this through our 7-Step Job Matching Process.  Since 2000, we’ve been involved in the recruitment &/or selection of over 20,000 people.

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Of course, 98% of these people were not hired for it was determined that they didn’t “fit” the job.

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Though our process, our clients can actually see if a candidate fits:
– The level of detail required, critical thinking or ability to follow directions
– Their unique “culture” or the team they are being considered for
– The skill and more importantly, the competency required (to be trained per the timeline, be accurate in their work, improve their current skill level, etc.)
– The occupational interests to assure job satisfaction and INTERNAL motivation
& most importantly…
– The behaviors that their TOP Performers have to become (& remain) productive in the position

Before Job Matching, our clients had to wait weeks or months to find out who the “real person” was once they were hired.  Through Job Matching, our clients know who they really are before they are even hired.

 

But Still – We Only Have an 85% Success Rate…

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Of the 2% of candidates that have been hired, around 85% have become TOP Performers… or reliable, motivated, productive people our clients would rehire.

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So what happened with the other 15%?

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Well, a small percentage of the time it’s because of something neither we or our clients could control… “Personal Problems.”  Things like a death in the family, divorce, family drama, financial issues, etc. that we’ve all had to face from time to time and it understandably became a barrier to the employee producing as expected.

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But the majority of the time…

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It’s because our client has either skipped or just didn’t spend enough time in Step 1 of our Job Matching Process before starting to recruit or hire.

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If you are dealing with:
– Low productivity or sales quotas not being met
– Team conflict and communication problems between staff (or staff and management)
– Apathy, morale issues or lack of employee engagement
– Staff incompetency
– Employees having to be micro-managed

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You’ve probably skipped Step 1 of our Job Matching Process too.  And before you ever hire another employee (or expect to manage effectively), you need…

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Step 1 of Employing Productive People

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This step is not only the first thing that our clients work on once they start Job Matching with us, it’s also Secret #2 of the 3 1/2 Secrets to Hire & Develop TOP Performers from our educational video – if you haven’t seen it, watch it here!

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It’s something that very few small businesses have actually done though.  They think they have but they haven’t.

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Here’s what it is:  Create WRITTEN Goals, Objectives and Expectations (for every position).

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Now hopefully you have goals for yourself and your business.  But in a presentation last month to a group of business owners (I won’t tell the state or industry association), only half of the business owners even had goals for themselves and only a quarter had goals for their company.

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And even less had what is required to get out of micro-managing people…

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Until You Create ________, You’ll Continue Spending Your Time, Energy & $$$ Micro-Managing

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Right now, you constantly tell employees how to do their job… and many times you tell them the same thing week after week (or day after day).  There are two reasons why this is…

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#1 – They are the wrong person for the job and they need to be replaced ASAP (learn how to Job Match Here!)

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#2 – You haven’t created what we call “TOP Performance Blueprints”

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Yes, I know, you may have worked for a company that had Job Descriptions and they didn’t help in productivity.  Or you have them now at your company but they are not effective.

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That may be because they are:  too short (or long), not detailed enough, not organized properly, not used, etc.

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But here’s the real reason why your Job Descriptions haven’t improved productivity:
1.  They are not built on goals & objectives of the position
2.  They do not list all the duties, responsibilities and actions an employee must take to accomplish the specific goals & objectives
3.  They are not always visible to your employees so they don’t know exactly what is expected of them hourly, daily, weekly, etc.

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And because you have not created anything like a TOP Performance Blueprint (for EVERY position), your employees don’t really know what is expected of them, whether or not they are accomplishing your goals for them, how to improve their performance, when they deserve a raise or promotion, etc.

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No, a TOP Performance Blueprint Will NOT Magically Develop a More Productive Staff

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Unfortunate, these documents will not magically improve the performance of your team.  You will still need to manage effectively, but…

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Once you show them…
– in the recruiting process exactly what is required
– assure in the selection process that they can and will do what is required once hired
– train them to perform all the tasks listed during your onboarding process
– and continually develop in areas they need to improve upon,
…you will finally get to work “on” your business instead of “in” your business.

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And once your employees know what their goals are, exactly how to exceed them and start accomplishing them… your business will start accomplishing the goals you have for it too.

 

To learn more about our TOP Performance Center (a website you log in, answer questions and the site creates “TOP Performance Blueprints” and three other HR Documents that are required before ever hiring or managing another employee) go here:  www.TopPerformanceCenter.com.