How to Hire "Smart"

     It's harder than ever to find and keep capable people. Jobs are plentiful and while the national unemployment rate stays low, it is no surprise that small firms feel at a distinct disadvantage. Most larger firms can offer more in terms of benefits than you probably can.
What generally happens is we hire people based on their talent and experience and fire them based on culture. They just somehow don't fit in. It is fairly easy to check people's talent and experience. It's very hard to check their culture. But people who hire "smart" make an effort to do so. Don't try to do all the hiring yourself. Get some of your managers (particularly those for whom the recruit will be working) to join you during the interview process. It is always helpful to get a better second opinion and especially good to have the immediate or second level supervisor of the person being hired in on the hiring decision.
One of the ways to hire is through temporary employment services, with the temp﷓to﷓perm plan which gives you (usually) a 90﷓day period to test out the employee and see if they have the talent and experience they purported to have, and also see how they fit the work culture.

Here are some tips for long term hires.

1.Develop a formal hiring practice. Figure out what you will do after you have put the ad in the paper. This should include such things as a     telephone interview, an application form, a personal interview and probably a second interview. I know you can't do this when you hire a laborer, but once you get above hourly workers, you should be using this process.

2.Write a job description for the open position, including physical requirements. That way you can tell the potential employees what's expected of them and they can see if they fit the position. It also gives you the opportunity to write down what you really want for this position.

3. Always interview more than one candidate. I know we don't have a lot of time, but it costs a lot of money to hire the wrong person.

4.Hire candidates who are not just like you. Everybody shouldn't be just like the boss. Otherwise, how do you get some differences of     opinions. (You DO WANT differences of opinions, DON'T you?)

5.Promise a candidate only what you can deliver. Otherwise, it will come back to haunt you. Make sure others also interview the candidate.

6.Follow through on reference checks. If you don't do that you are missing the one chance you might have to find out something about the potential employee, other than what they tell you.

7.Never ask candidates about their race, religion, marital status, physical or mental disabilities, or whether or not they have ever been arrested. All of these are no﷓no's and could get you in trouble with the EEOC and you don't need that.

8.Don't rely only on classified ads. There are other ways to network, particularly for non﷓technical jobs.

9.Don't throw away the applications of the ones you didn't hire. It may turn out you made a mistake and at least I
you'll have a base from which to start your next search.