Hiring a new member of staff is already a bit tricky; almost as tricky as caring for your existing employees as you should be. Credentials and references only go so far. Mostly these only relay the person’s ability to test well and perform under given circumstances. Neither is it guaranteed that the individual in question is in any way the right addition to your team.
This does not mean that every hire has to pivot on your intuition. There are methods of discerning more information about prospective employment than one usually would during the hiring process. Business coaches, for example, have started becoming FIRO certified. Business coaches, for example, have started becoming FIRO certified.
Employers use psychometric tests like the Wonderlic test to measures the cognitive abilities of future employees. There are also personality tests such as the Hogan Inventory and Harrison assessment, which can help entrepreneurs to find out the “dark sides” of the candidate’s personality.
In short, this and other practices like it build on the foundation developed under the famous Myers-Briggs test. These tools are not as inaccessible as the professionals offering the services may have you believe. In truth, anyone can access and receive training in pretty much all the subsidiary disciplines. It is with tools like these, in conjunction with some out of the box analysis, that we have compiled our lateral methodology for assessing a potential employee.
A Different Method Of Assessment
It would be best if you threw out the old doctrine of the employment process. Of course, you must conduct your assessment with absolute consideration for labour laws, but you need not follow the same old methods.
Conduct Interviews In Unconventional Settings
All you are doing is inviting a person to come to recite a well-practised act in your presence. It means very little, and helps the process even less. Conduct your initial interviews off-site, at a restaurant or venue of your choosing. This serves to disarm the candidates without giving them cause for nerves to interfere.
Conversation Rather Than Questions
This initial interview should be conversational, and your main goal should be to get a sense of the person behind the profession. You need to approach this with a great deal of care, in that the answers you get will only be sincere as long as they entail no specific right answer.
Ask About Experiences Rather Than Experience
If you have been in business for a while, you may have already dealt with a specific personality type. A type that can manage to sit around doing as little as possible for as long as possible. It makes sense then that one does not discuss the duration of the experience. Ask about events in their career instead.
It’s Not About Skills And Experience
It sounds a bit odd, suggesting that one not ask too much about the potential employees’ skill sets, but you already have their resumes. They aren’t likely to change their stories mid-interview. It is now the goal to gauge who each candidate is as a person, and there is a fundamental reason for it.
The Serious Matter Of Personality
The initial informal interview will have given you two critical pieces of information. The first is the simple and often overlooked matter of whether or not you like them, as a person. It is by no means a frivolity. If you find the person off-putting, it is somewhat likely they will bring more of this into your business.
Are They An Asset As Far As Personality Goes?
Their skills won’t mean very much if you cannot build a professional relationship with them, and they won’t be motivated to perform if the feeling becomes mutual. We all bring something of our personality into our workplace, and this brings us to the second piece of useful information you now have, namely, will they fit into the culture in your business?
Caution Regarding Office Culture
If you are a very hands-on business owner or general manager, it is incredibly likely that there is a culture, almost an operating zeitgeist within the business. This culture is far more crucial to a business’ success than what many may think it to be.
And On The Other Hand
It is relatively common to find that whilst a new employee does not necessarily impact the office culture; it sometimes has a dire effect on them. This, in part, boils down to being cruel to be kind, as the saying goes. Countless subcultures and age groups often have no common ground, mainly when these subcultures are rather entrenched into a specific field of work, like computer programmers.
The Challenge Of Uniquity
Perhaps the most challenging part of this more unilateral and holistic approach to the employment process is for you, the business owner, to design a process that is right for you and your business. Unfortunately, no one can give you a minute by minute guide, as each business is unique and requires a unique take on this process.
Using New Tools To Solve Old Challenges
One aspect of designing your employment process, which can be made a lot easier is that of tested evaluations. You can use the Myers-Briggs test, or a number of its derivatives, to compile assessments for a good deal of the information you couldn’t possibly gauge from the conversation.
