How to Hire Better than George Steinbrenner Without His Bankroll

We all remember the recruiting posters: "Uncle Sam Wants You!" and "The Marines Want A Few Good Men." The first came at a time when Uncle Sam needed every hand he could get, every man available to fight a great war. The second, though, speaks of exclusivity and of special qualities in the recruits.

The big problem I see in hiring by small businesses is that owners and managers talk like the marines but hire like Uncle Sam. They say they want only the best people, but hire practically anyone. How many times have you used the mirror test when you hire to fill a vacancy? You know this test: you hire anyone who can fog up a mirror with his breath.

Of course, we all know the problem with hiring by the mirror test, but what do you do instead? How do you set about hiring like the Marines? For my money, (and we all have a lot less to work with than Steinbrenner) there are three key elements. The first is to create a business that is a desirable place to work. Second, when recruiting and hiring, look for talent rather than experience. Finally, among your candidates, always look for potential leaders. Let's look at these in a bit more detail.

Attract the Best by Being a Great Place to Work

The process of hiring a new employee happens in three steps: attraction, discovery, and selection. First, you have to have a business where people want to work. I'm sure most of us can recall a place from our home towns where the jobs were unpleasant for one reason or another and so few people went there for work unless they were desperate. At the other end of the scale is the place where people fight to get a chance to interview for a job. Which place do you think gets the best candidates? That's right.

So look around and ask yourself what you have to do to become that place where even the best candidates are eager to join up. Even a few small improvements could make a big difference in the quality of the people you get. Remember: the best way to get people to do a great job is to give them a great job to do.

Hire for Talent, not Experience

We all know people who seem to be naturals at their job. These people, chances are, have a talent that makes it easy for them to succeed. To find people like this, people with the right talents, you must answer questions like these: what is the hallmark of your business? What is it that your very best people do that makes them stand out? Is it speed of service? Troubleshooting ability? What is the essence of the job you are hiring for right now?

Qualities like being open to new ideas, quickness of mind, a ready smile for everyone, the ability to empathize, enthusiasm for one's life work are all talents. Southwest Airlines has been famous for years for their policy of hiring for personality rather than experience. Their thinking was always that they could not train someone to have a different personality but could easily train someone in the skills needed to do a job well. This seems like such common sense, and yet when it's time to hire for an opening, what do we do? We get some warm bodies in the door and start looking for people with what we think is the right experience.

I suspect one reason for the popularity of the warm-body syndrome is the hope that we won't have to do the hard work to find that out for ourselves if the candidate is truly qualified. Another reason I find is an unwillingness to do the necessary training. A third reason is simply that habits are hard to break. I suggest you go beyond personality and look for the talents that would enable someone to do an outstanding job because these talents become obvious to your customers and will make them want to come back again and again.

Select for Leadership

One of the secrets of becoming a great place to work is having great leaders working for you. Even in a large metropolitan area, the people who work in a particular industry tend to know each other outside of work. Everybody knows who the best diagnosticians are and who runs the store where the counter people enjoy their jobs the most. Having good leaders working for you does not have to be a matter of accident. All it takes is the courage to look for leadership qualities in every job candidate. And I mean every candidate.

That 16 year old you are interviewing to train as a tire technician may someday own a string of tire stores. And in the meantime, a year or two from now he could be one of your most valuable employees. But only if you make sure that every new hire has some leadership potential.

What do you look for in a potential leader? I would start with the qualities of basic intelligence, curiosity, enthusiasm, honesty, empathy, willingness to take a risk, and a solid work ethic. No one needs all of these, but having a few is an excellent start. To find out about work ethic, willingness to take risks and similar qualities, ask about how they have handled different types of situations in previous jobs. For example, ask about times when the candidate was challenged to go out of his way for a customer. What did he do? How did he handle the challenge? Does it seem as if this person enjoyed meeting the challenge? If so, maybe you have a potential leader across the table from you.

The best chefs in the world work with the best ingredients. The best companies hire the best people. The Marines constantly search for those few good men (and women, these days). There is a reason for this, of course. It works.

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