Hiring the Perfect Retail Employee Part II: All the Right Pieces
YOUR HELP-WANTED AD IS A KEY DISCOVERY TOOL
When potential employees read your ads, make sure that the ones who have the best chance of matching your needs, are the ones that feel compelled to interview with you. This will only happen if these checkpoints are met in the job description you advertise:
- Targets the person you need for a particular job
- States what responsibilities the vacant position entails.
- Accurately describes the day to day requirements. A couple of notes here. If you aim too high your candidates could be over-qualified for the position you have and, likewise, may have salary expectations that are too high. On the other hand, if your description is too general and you will have a flood of candidates to weed out
Before that Ad is placed make sure you’ve done these simple steps:
- Ask employees to identify their most important tasks and what qualities they feel are necessary to do the job well
- Get input from anyone who will be working for or with the new employee
- Decide what personality complements the position and the people on the team
Take all the information gathered and make sure that your Ad is designed to get the right person. Okay.
Invite those with the stated qualifications to call and those who don’t to keep looking.
DON`T SKIP PRE-SCREENING:
The more care you take in deciding who will make it through your screening process, the more likely you will find the best available candidate. There is much information available to help you customize this step. Develop at least 10 questions that will narrow the field roughly relating to these areas:
- What are your career goals?
- Why are you currently unemployed?
- What is your ideal job?
- What do you excel at?
- What failures have you had?
- How would co-workers describe you?
- What environment do you prefer to work in?
- What management style do you perform best for?
- What motivates you?
- What are your salary expectations?
DON`T IGNORE THE RED FLAGS:
Remember that this step saves costly mistakes. Pre-screening was your early warning system. There are red flags to watch out for. You may have some of your own gathered from experience. To save time and money down the line, here is a list to get you started:
- unexplained time gaps between jobs
- inconsistent or vague information
- job-hopping or major career jumps
- Typos and spelling errors
- Several jobs in a short space of time
- Has held all entry level positions without earning a promotion
The more care you take establishing your customized pre-screening system, the more success you will have hiring staff.
SEVEN WAYS TO BOTCH AN INTERVIEW?
You may be right on target right up until the moment a potential employee meets you face-to-face. This is where the big mistakes happen. Don`t be guilty of any of these
- Failure to verify, verify, verify. Although the final steps in the pre-screening process are the most crucial, they’re often botched.
- Not being properly prepared for the interview. Assuming your experience allows you to wing it.
- Not having a set list of questions that you ask each applicant for the job,
- First reading of the resume while walking in to the conference room,
- Talking too much and listening too little with no real plan for either course of action
- Not writing down any of the interviewee’s responses. If you feel uncomfortable writing while the applicant is speaking, use a tape recorder and transcribe the responses later.
- Not prepared to do your own job which is to sell. It`s important that candidates get a clear picture of what is great about you, your store, your staff. That`s your interview challenge.
We have looked at what NOT to do. Here are three final suggestions that will bring you to success.
USE THE REFERENCE CHECK. THAT`S WHAT THEY`RE FOR!
Reference checks are very commonly misused or underused. When we think we`re coming to the end of the difficult road of hiring new staff, it`s easy to rush this next step. If you have taken detailed notes during the initial interview, you can verify any of the applicant’s numbers or claims. Although you`re hoping for a fairy tale ending, it would be very upsetting and costly to find out too late that a resume was largely fiction.
CONSIDER SKILL TESTING
The applicant may claim to have years of relevant experience, but you still can benefit from seeing the skill put into action. Consider inviting an applicant to work for a day at your business, paid, to perform the responsibilities of the job. You won`t regret the investment.
ANOTHER GREAT TIP!
It’s a good idea to have final candidates meet with their potential co-workers before the final contract is signed. Even if the tests indicate that the applicant is a perfect fit, ultimately it is the working environment that will determine the permanency of your new hire’s stay.
SUCCESS
When your new hire quickly adapts to your business, is welcomed by both staff and customers and enthusiastically wants to stay – you have found your perfect fit!!
