Hiring and retaining great employees has always been a challenge, and recently that challenge seems to be turning into a major problem. At first glance there seems to be a very large body of qualified and eager applicants for just about any position we have open, but time after time we end up hiring the wrong person.

We often have to let someone go because they don't live up to expectations, and when we do get someone we think is the right person, they leave us. Oh, there are plenty of seemingly qualified applicants, but they just don't work out the way we expect. We've try personnel agencies and newspaper ads and pre-employment interviews with no improvement. Recruitment is costing us a bundle!

Hiring the wrong employee can be a financial disaster, especially for the small business. There are the costs of advertising, interview time, training, and low start-up productivity. When the new employee doesn’t work out we panic. Low productivity, poor performance of the individual, and the cross-over poor performance of others when morale hits the pits are often results we didn’t expect. All we see at that point are the costs of severance pay, unemployment compensation, and maybe litigation. And, of course, we face the costs of repeating the process.

Our website at www.tulenko has a number of hiring tips and several proven ideas you can use to hire and retain great employees, so check out this source. One of the suggestions just might result in the perfect employee for you. At the same time, consider that the answer to your problem just might be found by reviewing your overall approach to filling jobs. We get so enamored by that bright applicant who seems to be the answer to everything that we bend the description of the position we want to fill, or we just flat-out do a poor job of screening. Let’s look at these two tasks.

POSITION DESCRIPTION
Each position, from CEO to groundskeeper, needs a written description of the goals that are to be accomplished by the person hired into that position, and the applicant needs to know these goal descriptions up front. This goal listing is in addition to the usual listings of duties, responsibilities, and success measurements of the position. Have the manager or supervisor of the potential employee make out this list. Don’t rely on standard formats or the usual Human Relations department generalities or you will be hiring standard applicants with general abilities. Be specific in your wants and needs.

APPLICANT SCREENING
The traditional screening methods of resumes, education, personal interviews, and reference checking are totally and completely ineffective in selecting employees. You’ve probably proven this statement time and again. Employees stretch the truth, references guard their answers to limit litigation, schools have poor records, and unless you hire a firm to actually check these and other facts, you haven’t a clue as to what is true!

What works are tests. Before you say you can't afford the time or money for tests, let me suggest that today's world-wide competition can put you out of business unless you think and work smarter; and hiring the right person for the right job is smarter thinking. Here are four categories for which you may wish to test:

Intellectual Ability:
It has been proven time and again that a standard intelligence test is one of the major predictors of work productivity. This was reported and documented as long ago as 1986 in the December Journal of Vocational Behavior. Look it up. It’s still ranked as one of the most valid method of screening applicants.

Abilities & Skills:
As far back as 1989 we have documented proof (Dr. John Hunter, Michigan State University: Ability and Skill Testing) that clearly indicates ability and skill tests as an excellent predictor of job performance. His study indicated that skill tests ranked far above job tryouts, reference checks, experience ratings, academic achievement, education, interest, and age.

Behavior Profiling:
There are many references to personality tests based on William Marston's work in the early 90’s that can match the applicant to the your firm's environment, culture, and management style to determine a "company fit." Many of these tests are available on the web. Certainly all are available through most human resource agencies.

Other Tests:
Other tests purport to measure honesty, interpersonal relations, emotional makeup, ability to organize and direct, and leadership. Use these tests judiciously, but if the job requires the skill, don’t hesitate to add them to the evaluation.

A CAUTION
Applicant tests must test for characteristics necessary to the job, not characteristics you would like the applicant to have. Because of the many laws and regulations surrounding this field, we suggest you use experts to help you design, implement, and interpret your tests. There are human relations firms that specialize in this, so check the web, then do your due diligence. The results will be a productive, high performing, happy work force for your company. So … What’s keeping you from success? For other tips and ideas contact Paul at paul@tulenko.com.