Employees: Assets or Liabilities? – The Right People

Posted on November 15, 2015 by Mark R Steinke, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.

In last month’s article we discussed how to create the environment so your employees can be all you want them to be. Remember every article will have actionable, valuable information on how to ensure your employee(s) are the right ones for you, are engaged, are performing and you can develop them so they operate your Business so you can Work ON your business vs. IN it.
Interested?
Read on.

According to Verne Harnish, Author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits “there are three basic decisions an executive team must make:

1. Do we have the Right People?
2. Are we doing the Right Things?
3. Are we doing those Things Right?”

Last month we outlined how to set up your company so your people can do “Things Right”. Today we will address question 1 above. Here we go.

The Right People
The first question you need to answer is: “Do I have the Right People?”
The simplest and quickest way to answer that question for you is ask yourself if you would enthusiastically rehire each person on your team if given the opportunity. If yes, are they doing the Right Things? You see you can have the Right People in the wrong role. If the latter is the case you need to change that immediately. We will address this in later articles.
For now look inside yourself and honestly answer the question about enthusiastically rehiring your present team. If the answer is no. You need to take a look at your Hiring and Selection process, skills and results.

Hiring – Selling the Vision

There are a few basics that any Business owner can do which will go a long way to making sure you are getting the RIGHT PEOPLE.

After you set up your Business with the People Game (Environment) employees want to be in and do what you want them to, next is to accept the fact hiring is a numbers game.
The business that has the best people tend to get a lot of people applying for each position and the general quality of these applicants are high. This just does not happen. Business owners need to actually implement specific strategies and actions. You see “A” people want to be, hang out, work with “A” people. “B” people want “C” people around them to make themselves look better. So to ensure you have only “A” people apply, become interested in so you can speak to them about employment consider the following actions when sourcing / finding “A” people.

1. Create your unique selling proposition (USP). Basically be prepared to answer the question that all potential employees are asking themselves: “Why should I work for you?”
2. Market you USP / Vision to potential employees with all the same vigor you use to attract potential customers.
3. Create a strong Job profile listing Role, Responsibilities, Skills, Decision making authority and who it reports too (Job level – CEO, COO, CFO, etc.)
4. Develop a killer job posting selling the role.
5. Develop a simple, easy sourcing strategy where these types of people are:
a. Make a simple list
i. Take a piece of paper and write down 10 people who are “A” people you know that you can E-mail right now who would have contact with the type of person you want to hire.
ii. Write a two paragraph email describing your firm (selling the vision) and kind of person you want to hire.
iii. After a day or so, call these 10 people to see if they know anyone or can point you in any direction
b. Create a compelling ad outlining your Company vision, Role, Responsibilities, Why would one want to work for your company, etc.
c. Place the Ad you created at places the type of people you want visit (Monster, Craig list, Industry websites, etc.)
6. As the responses come in ensure you respond to EVERYONE with and let’s talk or No thank you message. This is critical.
7. Establish your interview process / Selection
a. Phone conversation seeking specific information
b. Face to Face interview (I recommend learning Behavioral interviewing such as DDI STAR (for more on this send me an email)
c. Consider testing your final two or three candidates for:
i. Communication Skills
ii. Emotional Maturity
iii. Attitude
d. Conduct Background & References (not the ones they give you but their previous contacts, employers, etc.)
e. Make your decision on whom to offer
f. Offer & Close
g. Close out all other candidates after acceptance

Now if you need training, help or assistance setting up this process, implementing it and accountability following it I recommend you work with a Business Coach.

Remember a Bad Hire or Wrong Hire is very costly to your Business. Getting this right, taking the correct time and quality process will provide dividends to your business.

When this happens you know you have…
“EMPLOYEES who are ASSETS and not Liabilities.”
- By: Mark R Steinke – Elite Business Coach / Area Representative
Focal Point Business Coaching of Pennsylvania
www.coachmarksteinke.com