Herman School of Business
"Let them hire themselves"
The most recent business I owned and operated was a Bed & Breakfast and Fine Dining Restaurant in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. In fairness, the business was carried not just by me, but also by the efforts of my wife Maggie, who handled the physical plant needs as well as office duties, my son Chef Sonny Sweetman who was the reason for our being there, and the major drawing card due to his wonderful cuisine, his wife Melanie who worked the front of the restaurant duties and even our daughter Joolz who served many capacities but most effectively as the pastry Chef.
It took many people to run the 5 story, historic residence of Colonel Biddle, sitting across from the Meyerhoff Symphony Center and in close proximity to an opera house, major hospitals and two colleges. If you have read more about my history you know I have owned more than 20 companies and have been responsible for hiring and training hundreds of employees over the years.
People come to an interview for the job primarily because they want to make money. They aren’t there to care for your life or business, mostly they want to put in a certain amount of time, an unkown amount of energy, and take out as much money in return as they can get. The need for money drives people to look for work. Now, in truth, they have at least narrowed the field of jobs down to something they may also have a lot of personal interest in pursuing. But which ones who apply do you hire?
Instead of guessing who was going to be good. Or judging who is going to give you more effort than someone else, or who might be a future star, there is a concept you should consider as an interview technique I will call, “Let them hire themselves.” The person applying for the job knows everything about themselves and almost nothing about your business. You are a genius about your company and could never learn enough in five interviews to really predict who will cut it and who will kill you.
In so many companies I saw workers hired, go through extensive training, become familiar with worker manuals, and learn corporate mandates and mission statements, and finally they start the job. And hate it. Or don’t do what you expect them to do. Because they accepted the job based on you liking them, not them liking the job. Because you didn’t really tell them about the job, you were so busy trying to find out what motivates them and how much character they have.
The most effective job interviews I did were about ten minutes of them telling me about themselves and then actually letting them observe the job they were expected to do. Servers had to stand and watch one of our dinner services, and even the most experienced were shocked at how much work was expected of them. Hell, they showed up for the interview because they heard how much our servers were taking home at night in tips. They hadn’t heard how much work those people did to earn it. The B & B applicants saw we had only twelve rooms and thought they could “get some studying done” during a slow day of booking a few guests. It was shocking to see how eight or ten hours were stuffed with computer work, breakfast issues, endless telephone calls, and guests needing to be pampered.
Don’t just let applicants hear about the job. Make them spend a few hours observing it. Then they will either walk away, saving you endless hours and frustration of trying to put a square peg into a round hole, or, they will see a perfect fit for themselves and say, “I’m hired.” Because they want to do that job.
- Posted: 11 October 2007
- Comments: 0
- Category: Business success
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