Archive for the ‘Becoming an Employer’ Category:
I was watching some re-broadcasts of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares this weekend and was struck by the frequency that an inability or unwillingness to make a decision (any decision, not just a good decision) was cited by the staff of the restaurants as evidence of the lack of leadership among the owners.
When you are starting a business, there are hundreds of decisions to be made. Some big, some small, but they all rush at you demanding you pick a direction, choose an answer, and then move on. Don’t let that discipline of decision-making fade once your business has opened its doors for business. Your staff and your customers deserve leadership, and that includes making timely, clear decisions.
Having trouble getting into the decision-making habit? Read more about a five-step decision-making process that will enable you to make decisions and keep your business startup moving!
Starting a Business? Start Here. Go Far. LaunchX.com
Read this article recently that points out that many employers (perhaps you) are using the results of credit checks on job applicants to deny employment. It also reports that many states are considering putting severe restrictions on or eliminating this practice altogether. What does this mean for you?
If you have bad credit and are looking for a job…you may find it far easier to use your existing funds and credit lines to start a business rather than trying to find a job working for someone else. You have the added bonus of liking your new boss and staying in control of your work life.
If you are an employer…you should evaluate whether the results of a credit check actually tell you anything about an employee and reconsider your use of these checks at all. Logically, if the potential employee has the experience you require, seems to be a culture fit with your organization, and is eager to work for you, perhaps that is all you need to know. If they haven’t paid some debts in some time, it is actually unlikely that they will steal from you to pay them now.
Starting a Business? Start Here. Go Far. LaunchX.com
The U.S. Senate recently passed a bill that would provide tax credits and incentives for businesses to add new hires, especially those who have been unemployed for some time. Specifically, if the bill becomes law:
- Employers that hire a worker who has been unemployed for at last 60 days would be exempt from paying the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax this year.
- The employer would get a $1,000 tax credit for 2011 if new employees remain employed for a full year.
Effectively, this cuts your hiring cost by the 6.2% of the tax — money you can use to pay a higher wage, pay benefits, or to help add staff within your current budget. So many startups put off initial hiring until it is too late — hopefully these tax incentives will get your business moving in the direction of hiring when you need help rather than when your business is already suffering!
Starting a Business? Start Here. Go Far. LaunchX.com
An article in the June issue of Fast Company highlights the problem with relying on the classic interview process – it doesn’t work. Someone who interviews well is just that…someone who interviews well. A study reported in the article tells of a 1979 admissions process at the University of Texas Medical School. After the school had admitted their top choices based on the interview scores and GPAs, the state opened up 50 more seats. Because it was so late in the game, the Medical School was forced to make offers to the lowest scoring interview candidates. Guess what? Thirty years later there is no difference in the relative outcomes of those students who interviewed well or crash and burned. In fact, there was no difference in class ranking between the groups, no difference in career outcomes, except that those 50 students got an opportunity that should have been lost because they didn’t interview well.
What this means for your startup is that you can throw away the creative interview questions and checklist of standard responses you are looking for. Instead, figure out ways to find out what you really need to know. Definitely ask your candidates to perform a sample of the type of work they will be doing. If you are concerned about the new hire fitting in, expose them to the environment and encourage your current employees to chat with them. Rather than holding a question and answer session, try just carrying on a conversation about the job, the responsibilities, their work experiences, and the like. At the end of the day, a good hire will be able to turn out the quality of work equivalent to, or better than, what you produce yourself. Find creative ways of identifying their actual abilities as far as the position is concerned.
Ultimately, every hire is risky. The best you can do is to make sure they can do the work and hope they can fit in with and enhance your company culture. Don’t fret too much…just know that you are going to have hits and misses in your quest for the perfect staff.
Having recently watched a mini-marathon of the chef contest Hell’s Kitchen, I have to say that the show is the best job interview ever. Professional kitchens are rough, loud, sometimes frightening places to work and those who succeed really must have a very thick skin. Not only does Chef Ramsay get to see how they conduct the basic operations (cooking), he gets to see how they handle unbelievable pressure, working with other difficult people (including Ramsay himself), and how they deal with both successes and failures.
The great lesson for entrepreneurs in these competition reality shows is the importance of finding out what a job candidate can do and how they will fit in before you commit to hiring them. Many small business owners struggle with embracing their role as employer. They fret about hiring the right people, where to find them, how to effectively interview them. In frustration, they often just hire whoever comes in the door and hope it works out. Bad idea. It is very expensive to hire the wrong employee…far beyond the mere expense of their paychecks.
Interviewing is the best opportunity you have to find out about the candidates. The basic list of interview questions really doesn’t tell you much. People looking for jobs often give standard answers to standard questions…the answers they think will get them the job. Instead, look for ways to find out what you actually need to know. If the job description includes specific tasks that can be easily tested, include that in the interviewing process. For example, if the job requires handling customer emails, contact your candidates by email and evaluate their responses. If the job requires personal sales, ask them to sell you an item on your desk. If the job requires accounting skills, create a messed up set of financial reports and see how many problems they identify and how they would go about solving them.
Of course, at the other end of the interviewing spectrum are the bizarre questions used by many of the hi-tech startups like “How do you think they get the peanut inside M&Ms?” or “What three items would you want to have if you were stranded on a deserted island?” or “Why is a manhole cover round?” Unless you are looking for very creative types to fill your staff, these questions, while fun, are a waste of everyone’s time. Before you begin recruiting your staff, think through what you are really looking for in an employee and brainstorm creative but sensible ways of seeing how they actually work.
Start here. Go far. LaunchX.com
