We are starting up a new series at this website called the weekly question. We submitted the new series synopsis in early 2012, and received many questions relevant to your lives, and we are sorry but can only answer one per week, given the high volume and great amount of thinking we have to put into answering as thoroughly as possible. We will get to another of your questions next week, and thanks for all of your participation! HMC would like to help as much as possible, so email all of your questions to herdmycattle@yahoo.com!
Question of the week:
Dear Herd My Cattle,
I am looking to hire some people to work for my insurance business in Georgia. What recommendations do you have to someone in my position who needs to hire employees, what is the best way to hire people for my business, and how do I make sure their resumes are not fabricated? What about references, are these necessary?
Thanks very much!
Leon,
Georgia
Dear Leon,
Thanks for contacting Herd My Cattle, and we will assist you with that!
Here is a list of what to do before advertising/offering an interview:
- Make a list of tasks describing what a candidate will need to do on the job
- Make a list of social qualities a candidate will need in order to successfully work in your work environment
- Make a list of interview questions you can ask potential candidates which may give you a better idea of whether he or she can fulfill the two points above
The biggest mistake you can make in employee searches, is ask for a resume. Never, ever, ask for someone’s resume! This is a terrible idea. Why? Because a resume is useless! If you are looking to hire, the best thing you can do is prepare for your own interview. Ask questions that directly correspond with qualities a candidate needs to have on the job. If these are satisfied, then offer a tryout period on the job, which is really the only way of actually understanding employee potential.
Allow me to discuss resumes used in the hiring process further, because this is a mistake executives will make 9 times out of ten, and it pulls down business potential.
The single most important decision an executive, and company as a whole can make, is who to hire. Without workers, companies go nowhere. If you are looking at a piece of paper with accomplishments written on it in computer typed ink, you are looking in the wrong place! Your employee’s potential to succeed at your business cannot be derived from past accomplishments, real or fabricated, believe it or not. Most people lie and beef up their resumes with fake accomplishments. Resumes are in essence a written up list of white lies, which you can never detach from actual fact and ambiguity, since they are always half true and 90 percent fabricated, and yes those numbers do not add up. Suppose someone is 100 percent honest on their resume, if you are that gracious. You have to understand that a potential employee wants to get hired, and will say everything they can to make that happen. If only you could derive simple assumptions about human nature, any human looking for a job, with a brain, is going to try to make their resume as hire-able as possible. This very fact implies the resume is not the exact truth as it occurred in their past, but a list of white and grey lies which do not entirely add up, in any other descriptive sense than one which describes a hire-able list of accomplishments. A resume is a piece of paper, which gives no accurate description or reflection on a workers potential to successfully contribute to your business. The only thing it may do is mislead you as an executive in the hiring process, and detract your attention from what is actually relevant to look for in a potential employee.
Now you ask, then what is the right way to go about hiring/interviewing a potential worker for your business? Well, that is really obvious, actually, because you should really be concerned with what your business is going to need! Make a list of everything you need an employee to have, in terms of expertise. What does your employee need to be able to do? Test out what they know, and ask them interview questions that they will need to be able to answer themselves while on the job. If the candidate seems like he or she is a serious worker that could give you what you need, ask them to come on the job for a week off contract to see how they do. That is really all!
What about references? If you are asking for references, you are asking for a way to cheat through the hiring process! You should get to know the candidate on your own terms, not through the use of third parties! This is an awful way to form judgement about potential employees. As we mentioned above, the best, safest and most successful way of hiring employees, is to make a list of everything you will need your employee to do, and to prepare interview questions which when answered can give you a better idea of whether the candidate will be of value to your business. Second, a trial period is very helpful, and we recommend that you use it to your benefit. After one week you should have a great idea of the future potential of your selected employees to contribute over time.
