Last week in my Top 5 Tips column we talked about becoming a better boss. This week I want to discuss some ideas for how to choose the right people to fill the roles in your business. Recruiting someone to fill a role in your business can be difficult, so here are our Top 5 Tips for adding team members:
1. Examine the track record of every potential applicant. Look at the projects they have previously worked on and ask them how successful those projects actually were in terms of achieving their stated goals. If they are full of excuses about why things didn’t work out, they might have an attitude problem.
2. You should ask the applicant how they might plausibly solve a problem that could occur if they were employed in your business. Use a real-life problem that actually happened if possible, then discuss their answer and compare and contrast with what was actually done. Perhaps you will both learn something – they might even have a better solution than you did!
3. Sometimes a person is very talented, but you just have to accept that they are not a good fit for the role. Don’t just hire them anyway and force them into a position that they won’t find challenging, consider if there is a role that they are more suited for in your organisation instead.
4. Try to get them to be honest about their motivation. Even if they are only motivated by money and don’t seem particularly passionate about your business, money can still be a great motivator for them to perform well (especially if they have a family to support).
5. Use your judgment to decide whether the new hire would be a good fit with the rest of the culture of your business. If they come from a corporate background, they might not fit into the way that the rest of your team likes to do things.
