Tips For Hiring Your Next Employee

 

The importance of defining who the hiring manager really wants

Be sure all involved with hiring are on the same page as you prepare for hiring your next employee, the superstar

Hiring your next employee and champion is important to the team's and company's future successes. Be sure to define who that person is so that he/she can make a positive impact immediately or as quickly as possible. To keep the recruiting process efficient, below are a few tips for hiring your next employee and superstar.

1. Define the role. Creating a well defined, well thought out job specification certainly helps with recruiting the ideal candidate. Be sure the hiring manager is involved with this step.

2. Define the type of individual the hiring manager is ideally looking for. Include such things as educational background, number of years experience, should the person be analytical, strategic, and/or big picture focused? Be sure the definition is not just limited to qualifications, but personal qualities and traits as well.

3. Define the individual's role on the team, beyond what is written. Be sure it is discovered the type of individual the hiring manager is really looking for. Be sure to define the role that this new team member will be tasked with. For instance, is the hiring manager looking for someone to clean house or build? Is the hiring manager interested in someone who can take over his/her role in a few years, or just someone who can simply join the team and add "value" to an all ready super team? Try to understand why someone succeeds and fails under this hiring manager. This too will help define and lead to a successful hire.

Hiring the next supestar is not always easy. It needs to be defined as to who best fits the definition of the hiring manager's next superstar. Hiring a professional goes beyond qualifications and qualities. Be sure to understand the type of individual the hiring manager really wants and why this type of individual will prove to be an immediate positive impact player. Before the search gets underway, be sure to be real with expectations, be ready to go out and search for the ideal candidate as defined, be patient yet understand that time is always of the essence when seeking out the company's next successful hire.

What tips do you have to share with us as you prepare for hiring your next employee?

Happy hunting.

Sheila Greco

sgreco@sgatalent.com

Sheila Greco Shares Wisdom and Experiences of the past 25 Years 2/25 Hiring Your First Employee

 

Hiring Your First Employee

Theme for Today is Hiring Your First Employee!

Hiring my first employee was exciting and scary at the same time. Prior to making this decision I looked at the possibility of hiring a freelancer,  but due to the business and my philosophy of wanting everyone under one roof, I decided to hire a full-time employee who would work alongside me at the office.

Significant growth warranted this move as did the number of future hires shortly thereafter. My hiring strategy was such as to hire an "athlete"; a solid citizen with a strong career background and track record of success. Ideally I looked for professionals coming from a relatively small company who were not afraid to roll up their sleeves and be utility players. Qualities of these professionals needed to be; must have a strong work ethic, the desire to work hard, the ability to set his/her own goals versus what the company sets and to be engaged with who we were and what we did. Additionally, I preferred to hire those with great personalities, were athletes in high school and/or college or involved with extracurricular activities that required these folks to go the extra mile for themselves and others. Ok, don't crucify me with this one, but I really found great success with recent college graduates who had come from a family where females worked as opposed to being at home. Truthfully, in the beginning I was just looking for professionals who had thick skin, were not afraid to ask questions and were okay with rejection. Remember research 25 years ago required the use of the telephone and our successes were dependent upon obtaining accurate information for our clients to use. A researcher's job is not an easy one as many of us know, so hiring for this role was not that easy either. However I must say we did make many successful hires many of whom today continue to be employed with us.

How did I go about the hiring process? I networked. I believe if people knew me, my personality and what I expected from an employee this route would be the best way to go. Honestly, it worked and still does. I would also like to mention the value of internal referrals. Many of my first 15 employees were the result of employee referrals.  So my advice to entrepreneurs is do not neglect employee referrals, be sure to investigate them. Make it a habit to ask your employees who they know and of course no family members please. However this resource dried up as time went on, so the need to look beyond this resource became a must. It became necessary to look outside our networks and rely on others for future candidates. However to this day, I still ask the team who they know when we are looking to hire.

I must say that I am happy how we have grown over the last 25 years and we must have done something right since over 75% of our current employee base were amongst the first few hiring waves. I love my team!!

Happy Hunting and sure hope you enjoyed how I hired my first employee (s)!

Sheila Greco

The Value of Hiring Best-Of-Breed Talent!

Retailers Want Best-Of-Breed Talent!

The Importance of  Best-of-Breed Talent To the Retail Industry!

There is no question about it; there is a difference between good talent and best-of-breed talent.  My focus today is on the retail industry. Why?  Keep reading to find out! 

The retail industry as a whole is in the midst of a talent war.  Faced with high turnover, access to mediocre talent, the cost of training and trying to retain talent continues to rise thus negatively affecting the cost per hire for some retailers.  Similar to other industries, retailers are now finding it necessary to create a cohesive relationship between the talent management and talent acquisition teams. Many retailers now believe that In order to be successful on a long-term basis, recruiters need knowledge, access to best-of-breed talent and a process that allows the recruitment of these individuals to be in place. It has been proven that great companies are made up of great people; therefore it makes it very important to find and recruit best-of-breed talent at every level.

Where do recruiters get this knowledge?  They get it from the competition and companies who have hired previous employees from these firms.  The knowledge comes from knowing who the talent is and having access to that talent. The nice thing about knowledge like this is that it can be shared with  talent management professionals and used in a variety of ways.   Let me tell you that retailers who employ these strategies have very low-cost per hire numbers.   I know because we continue to help them.  This strategy does work.

For years my firm has assisted retail clients with identifying top talent.  As the assignments roll in, I continue to preach that there is talent and there is best-of-breed talent. What is the difference you ask?  Well, for starters qualified talent can do the job and perform its day-to-day tasks. Okay you may say.  Best-of-Breed talent is different! These professionals can excel within the organization and have high potential to grow and advance, as well as positively affect the productivity of their team(s) as a whole.  Hiring this type of talent can also lead to lower turnover if continued internal growth occurs.

Retailers have come to understand the importance of a process driven recruiting strategy and how critical it is to be sure there is a strong candidate pipeline of best-of-breed candidates to choose from.  Beyond contrary belief this is even occurring at a variety of levels to include store managers, buyers, not just manager levels and above.  The result is hiring “the right professionals” while hiring the “right candidates” who want to be part of a winning company.  This in turn can and will reduce employee turnover over time.  Retailers are not any different from other industries. In fact because most retailers do have such heavy turnover that maintaining and hiring the best talent can be at times more difficult. But now understanding the value of hiring best-of-breed talent at every level, will long-term have a positive impact throughout the company in a variety of ways.

Many believe turnover can be reduced by creating a work environment that offers career growth, continuous learning, development, having a career nurturing superior, team support, receiving recognition, respect and having a feeling of autonomy.  All of these things are true, however I continue to believe that none of these things matter if you don’t start with hiring the best-of-breed talent at every level. 

Don't stop now! Each hire needs to be looked upon as a great hire, not just someone filling a role.  Great hiring also starts with having access to great people.  We advise our clients when hiring not to just focus on filling the current role, but to find future leaders, those who can be part of the company for a long time. As we all know, this strategy can positively affect the talent management needs too. It allows great talent to have continued growth within the organization. 

I believe that talent management is no longer a luxury to be focused on senior leaders and managers, but must be viewed as essential and integral part of corporate sustainability and long-term growth.

Why retail? The exciting news for everyone in the retail industry is that SGA Talent, A Sheila Greco Associates Company has created a private retail networking community where best-of-breed vetted out talent (passive candidates) can have access to opportunities as they become available before they even hit job boards. Over the next few months we will begin reaching out to many best-of-breed professionals to join our exclusive community.

If you would like more information on our invitation only retail network, please contact me at (518) 843-4611 ext 282 or via email at sgreco@sheilagreco.com

Happy Head Hunting! 

Sheila Greco