04/ 26/ 2005
by Jeffrey Moses
Most small companies depend on an efficient, harmonious interaction between employees. In fact, the level of employee cohesiveness and teamwork usually makes the difference between success and failure for a small business. The fewer the employees in the company, the more important this interaction is.
For this reason (and because it's time consuming and expensive to go through the application process), it's important to make sure you're hiring a great employee the first time—one who not only is knowledgeable and experienced, but who fits in well with other staff members.
There are a number of offbeat but effective ways to do this. You won't find these strategies in many small-business manuals, but they certainly provide glimpses into a person's character that usually aren't discovered until well after he or she has been hired.
1. When the potential hire will be working closely with another person, such as a department manager or co-worker, send the two of them on a full-day, out-of-town business trip together. This trip can be by car, plane or train. When two people are together for a long and somewhat tiring day—traveling, making connections, dining, talking business—a person's true nature will come out. The manager will have ample time to see how knowledgeable the applicant is and will probably be able to tell how well the two of them will get along in the workplace.
2. Set up an appointment with an applicant for a final interview, with a department manager or HR person. As the interview begins, the person conducting the interview should say that he or she needs to leave for an unexpected meeting in another office and that the president or CEO of the company will be sitting in to conduct the interview instead. The sudden switch will provide the perfect opportunity to see how the applicant reacts to new situations, especially those that may be somewhat stressful. Of course, this strategy would be appropriate only for upper-level employees who would be expected to react well to unexpected events, which of course can occur at any time in a small business.
3. Invite the applicant to spend a day at the company's table/booth at an industry seminar or trade show. This will give the chance for many of your key people to spend time with the applicant and see how well the applicant fits in with the group. After the applicant has spent most of the day watching your employees present your company's message, ask the applicant to speak with one or two people who come to your booth. You'll quickly see how well the person has assimilated knowledge about what your company does and how this information is presented to the public.
4. Invite the applicant to a board meeting with the top people of the company. When the meeting is underway, request the applicant to say a few words about him or herself. Of course not all good employees need to be at ease while speaking to a group, but you'll learn a lot about the person from his or her manner, comfort level and self-description.
5. Before hiring an applicant, see if there is any real work he or she can do for the company. Give an assignment and treat the person like an outside contractor for the day, working on actual company projects.
6. While dining with a potential new employee, Henry Ford decided not to hire the person after he salted his food without tasting it. Ford's reasoning: How did the person know how salty the food was to begin with? He didn't want to hire someone who would react to situations without thinking.
You may not want to make a hiring decision based on such an instance, but you might consider creating a written or oral exam for applicants, in which they are presented with actual problems or difficult situations your employees have faced in the past. Applicants would be asked to comment on the situations, offering their suggestions for how they could be handled.
Each small business is different, so use your imagination when hiring new employees to make sure the potential hire will be a good fit to your small business.
