The business doesn’t improve if the people don’t …

Business success depends upon having a variety of skills and attributes and shared ownership of a vision, which, combined enable you to form a team capable of delivering results together.  A concept which is easy to agree with but a reality that many businesses find difficult to create.

When you make a decision to recruit you look at the business need, current and future and your budget.  Having made a decision to go out to market, you focus on getting the right person for the job, the best your money can buy.  So … why is it that once you have successfully hooked your desired candidate, you don’t then want to do your level best to continue to develop them?  ‘Well of course I do’, I hear you say to yourself and I come across many business owners who do WANT to develop their people.  The challenge lies in knowing how and valuing the time spent in doing so.

Why then are so many recruitment processes designed to identify and measure technical ability?  A certain level of technical ability is a given in any role but you can teach these skills.   You can’t teach attitude and attributes which means you have to ensure your recruitment process exposes who someone is rather than simply what.  Learning about other’s strengths is a must in business as this is where your people bring additional value.  If, of course they are empowered as discussed in my blog last month.

What is even more perplexing is that those very same recruitment processes sometimes have application forms with equal opportunities questions at the back which invariably make no difference to anything.  Its data collection which has very little, if any real influence on recruitment outcomes.

What does make a difference to the team of people you bring around you is real understanding of the value of difference and valuing it sufficiently that it enables you to recruit, nurture and develop the right attributes rather than just skills.  People usually develop their attributes naturally when in the right environment as these are strengths which allow them to do what they enjoy doing.

Here are some interview questions you can’t afford to miss out, all of which enable you to gain insight into a prospective employee’s outlook, emotional intelligence, aspirations, attitude to risk and understanding of self:

  • What’s the most scary thing you’ve ever been faced with and why?
  • What have been your biggest challenges in life and why?
  • What makes the day a great day?
  • What value do you bring?

The way in which others answer these questions tells you all you need to know about their attitude and attributes and whether these fit with your business culture.  For example, there’s no point being wowed by someone who has overcome admirable challenges in life if the aspirations of those in your business are much lower.  The chances are, this individual is not going to be fulfilled working in an environment where the aspirations of success are very different from their own.  Unless of course, it is a senior role in the business with responsibility for leading change.  In which case, you have to ask yourself the question, why am I not doing this?  We’ll leave that question for another blog!

If you want some help to put a simple structure around an engaging, meaningful and effective recruitment process, don’t hesitate to get in touch.  It’s not going to cost you the earth and it is going to make a real difference to your business outcomes.

1). You will spend far less time recruiting

2). You will spend far less money

3). You will waste far less time and money training someone who may have the technical ability but is ultimately the wrong fit.

4). You will have a stronger base on which to build a team because you will have recruited people with the right attitude, attributes, aspirations for your business and the energy to succeed.