Choosing and Training the Right Employee for Your Business
You’ve finally done it. The constant begging, cajoling, and promise-making of your six year old has finally run its course. You’ve agreed to get a dog. While not fully appreciated by the child, you are painfully aware of the long-term commitment you’re about to make. Training, vet bills, frequent walks, lawn maintenance, kenneling costs, dog food, treats, toys, carpet cleaning…
Don’t misunderstand, despite the commitment, owning a canine is rewarding if you choose the right one for your specific home. Ironically, the same can be said of finding and acquiring new employees. The challenge is how to determine the balance between a candidate’s existing skills and his/her fit for your business culture. Which is more important: past experience and training, or the nature, disposition, and potential of a candidate to thrive in your environment?
It’s interesting that people will agonize over the puppy decision for months, while the choice to hire an employee is often made without so much as a serious second thought. Busy business leaders often choose a candidate after placing undue emphasis on résumé language and certifications. Careful consideration of a candidate’s intangibles and potential is frequently skipped all together.
Potty Training and Choosing a “Breed”
Training is expensive and takes time. For small business leaders those two issues are at the forefront of everything we do. If something is costly and distracts us from working on the business, it needs to be carefully considered. When filling a position, it’s tempting to seek a fully trained candidate that can hit the ground running. What could be better than finding that mature house-broken dog that has already mastered sitting, fetching, and making pancakes? While it seems obvious, this just might be the wrong decision.
Leaders should pay very close attention to the underlying traits, capabilities, and interpersonal tendencies of candidates. It’s often the intangibles (those things not readily observable from a résumé) that determine a successful hire. When considering applicants, a significant emphasis should be placed on cultural fit, character, work ethic, references, humility, flexibility, and raw talent. Sometimes, it’s better to employ a “great athlete” with the right personal attributes than an industry veteran that lacks willingness to change, grow, and get along.
While it is certainly more of a training and time commitment to bring home a puppy that fits your family’s lifestyle, it is often a decision that pays dividends in the long run. The fully trained dog that eats only Filet and hates children would be a disaster. All the AKC certifications and doggy tricks in the world won’t make up for the damage done to your household. The impact on your business of a bad match between employee and culture can be just as disastrous.
Remember too, that much of what is included on résumés falls somewhere between embellishment and outright fabrication. Hiring decisions should be made only after developing a clear picture of the candidate as a member of your team. In this case, a picture truly is worth a thousand words of self-promoting résu-babble.
Proverbs, Clichés and Teaching to Sit
The old saying tells us that ‘you can’t teach an old dog, new tricks.’ When it comes to employees nothing could be further from the truth. The ability for employees to learn new things has far more to do with another old proverb that tells us that ‘a tiger can’t change its stripes.’ In other words, it’s far more difficult to change an employee’s nature, than it is to teach them new skills. Finding an employee with the right nature to fit within your culture is more important than finding the employee with all the right training and certifications needed for the position. Teaching the right employee the nuances of your industry and product set is possible. Persuading the wrong type of employee to fit the dynamics of your team is unlikely.
While training new employees does take an investment in time and money, it is far from time and money wasted if the new employee is right for your business. When it comes to wasting time, try teaching a Yorkie to catch a Frisbee®.
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