Thomas Edison had an unusual way of hiring his engineers. He’d hold up a lightbulb and ask the candidate how much water it would hold. Some candidates used gauges, measurements, and scientific calculations to determine the answer. Others filled the bulb with water and poured the contents into a measuring cup. Which candidates got the job? The ones who used the simple approach—filling the bulb with water. Develop an “Edison Test” for your business.

The Hiring Process

Once you have determined the type of individual you want to add to your team, written the job description, and decided on a salary range, you begin the search. Where do you go to find the people to help you realize your business vision?

The best place to start is within your own business network. Reach out to others whom you respect and let them know you are searching for a qualified candidate. Many business owners and managers are finding themselves in the difficult position of laying off good employees, and they would welcome the opportunity to refer those people whenever possible. (However, remember the importance of identifying a candidate with entrepreneurial experience or mindset.)

Additionally, almost all businesspeople have friends and former colleagues who are in the process of a job search. For me, networking has always proven to be the best way to find high-quality individuals.

Staffing agencies, although more expensive, can be well worth the money. Typically, you pay a staffing agency a percentage of the employee’s first-year annual salary. However, just as with a temporary staffing agency, they will help you refine the job description, establish a fair-market salary range, prescreen all candidates, conduct testing, and undertake the necessary background and reference checks. If you’ve never had any experience hiring employees, a staffing agency could be a smart way to go.

Hire the Best Candidate, Not the Best Job Seeker

In the quest to find the most talented employees, many business owners wind up with the most talented job seekers instead. Choosing the wrong applicant can be a costly mistake. While there is no method of hiring that guarantees you’ll get it right every time, there are things you can do to minimize mistakes:

• Brush up on your interviewing skills. An interview requires a considerable amount of preparation. Don’t “wing it,” and don’t ask standard textbook questions. Think about what it is you want to accomplish during the interview. What types of information would be helpful to you in evaluating a candidate’s ability to do the job?
• Use an evaluation sheet. If you’re going to be interviewing multiple candidates, record your impressions on an evaluation sheet. This will help you measure each candidate by the same criteria, and it will also help you keep the individuals straight in your mind. I don’t know about you, but I can get confused about who said what after a few interviews, mainly if they are on the same day.
• Look beyond the résumé. Try not to go through a reiteration of the candidate’s résumé. You already have that on hand and can verify any of the information provided. You need to find out what makes the job applicant tick and whether or not she or he will be the right fit for your business.
• Ask open-ended questions. Ask questions that solicit fuller responses. Take notes. Avoid the temptation to do all the talking. You want to learn about the individual. Ask what he or she liked most and/or least about the previous working environment. Find out about the person’s accomplishments. Present a typical business situation the candidate would encounter with your firm and ask how he or she would handle it.
• Assess character. One of the keys to finding the right employee is to identify who is a good fit for your company culture. The most talented individual in the world will cause serious problems for your business if he or she isn’t the right fit, character-wise. Skills can be taught, but you can’t change someone’s personality and character.

The Situational Interview

Situational interviews can help you move beyond the résumé and better understand the candidate’s true abilities. If left to frame their responses to your questions, people can spin their qualifications in a way that doesn’t accurately portray how they would perform on the job. A situational interview, however, is like a work-related test. Research shows that situational interviews are about 50 percent more effective than traditional interviews and more predictive of future success on the job. However, since they do involve more work for the candidate, don’t use them unless you are serious about him or her.

What’s a situational interview? It’s best understood with an example. Say a public relations firm is looking for a new hire. They might ask the potential employee to role-play a client meeting or write a press release. Or they might create a case study of a typical situation the employee might encounter on the job and ask what steps he or she would take to manage it.

Ensure the framework you use for the situational interview closely matches the job requirements. To the best of your ability, establish objective judging criteria in advance of the interview. If you have other staff members who’ll be working with the new employee, ask them to meet the candidate and provide input for evaluation, too.

The Interview Boundaries

Familiarize yourself with what is deemed inappropriate and/or illegal interview questions. Questions relating to marital status, age, religious or political affiliation, and so on are off-limits. A potential employer cannot discuss these matters, even indirectly. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission offers interview guidelines (www.eeoc.gov). If you are still unsure of the boundaries and know someone who is a human resources professional, he or she would be a good reference, too. Don’t think you are exempt from these federal and state anti-discrimination laws because you are a small company.

References and Background

Never rely on your instincts alone when judging potential employees. “Trust but verify” is my motto. Negligent hiring can lead to a lawsuit if your employee hurts someone while on the job. Failure to check backgrounds has resulted in embezzlement, stolen equipment, stolen customer identification, and, in the worst case—violence.

Final Thoughts

I didn’t listen to my own advice once when it came to hiring a new employee. Not only did I pay the price, but so did my team. My choice had been between two job applicants; one had slightly more digital media experience than the other, but the one with less experience seemed a better personality fit. What did I do? I hired the one with more experience.

He was a bad fit from the very first day. In the end, he slammed the door to our executive producer’s office and marched back to his office. I followed closely on his heels and dismissed him on the spot. Such behavior was not something I tolerated. Fortunately, less than a month had elapsed, and the other candidate was still available. He joined the team, and he was fabulous.