Make the Right Hire
Source: AICPA CPA Insider
The following includes excerpts, reproduced with permission, from an article by Doug Blizzard. It offers tips on how to hire the right employee for a job.
Screen for organizational fit
- Assess your organization's culture – or desired culture. How does work get done at your company? Is it more collaborative or individualistic? Also look at communication styles, meetings, organizational structure, performance management, and even the hours of work.
- Define your specific fit requirements by categories of positions. Identify the personalities and work styles that fit your culture or desired culture. This should result in a list of adjectives and behaviors of successful people.
- For finalists, conduct 360-degree behavioral interviews to help you get a broader picture of the applicant in different settings. Include the person's prospective boss, peers, and direct reports.
Screen for the right job skills
- Determine in advance what success looks like in your open position after six months, one year, and three years. Screen candidates on how they have achieved similar success at other companies.
- Make sure that the candidate has done what he or she says and find out what the results were in that project.
Verify credentials
- A bad hire can set you back from $25,000 to $300,000, according to researchers at the National Business Research Institute. Cost factors include reduced sales, poor morale, turnover, poorer client relations, training, lost productivity, and HR and interviewing costs.
- Despite the potential costs of a bad hire, many companies skimp on in-depth background checks and assessments for myriad reasons, including cost, time, and skepticism. I encourage you to slow down and spend $100 or so to make sure your candidate has been truthful.
For the complete article, read “How to hire the right employee.”
From AICPA CPA Insider, September 2, 2013, http://www.cpa2biz.com.