So many of our clients businesses are growing. Now growth could be a couple different things. Some businesses are growing in revenue and shear size. Others are growing by virtue of seeing massive improvements in their internal operations and company culture.
Regardless, when a business is growing, it is invariably going to have an increased demand for new people.
But here is the challenge. A Level 7 Business gets very clear on the standards and expectations it has of it’s people. Let’s just say the bar gets raised.
The truth is the bar didn’t really get raised. It got defined. In other words, businesses have a much better idea about what they are looking for in their people.
So as businesses are recruiting and screening candidates they are often having a difficult time finding people that meet their requirements and standards. What often happens is organizations go from hiring people simply because they are breathing and with a pulse to wondering if there is anyone on the planet who is a good fit for the company.
Shoot, depending on the sources and who you want to believe, unemployment is around 8-9%. There must be some good people out there who will be a fit for your business.
With this all in mind we obviously need to change our thought process and approach to hiring. Here are a couple of key points straight from the Level 7 Implementation Program.
1- Our first goal is to find people who have the minimum requisite skills to operate the systems they will be accountable for. Remember, within the Level 7 model, the key to the success of your business is dependent on the quality of your systems. People operate systems. So our goal is to find people who can operate the systems in their area.
Example: If your company uses Quickbooks for it’s accounting, then your bookkeeper should have some skill or experience with Quickbooks. The bookkeeper systems are written with idea that your bookkeeper will have the minimum requisite skill of using Quickbooks.
We are not necessarily looking for people with vast amounts of experience, education or training specific to your business. We are looking for people who can operate your extraordinary systems.
2- Once you’ve found someone (frankly there should be plenty if you have good systems) who has the minimum skills, then you want to screen for people who will fit your culture. This obviously suggests that you must know what your culture is and how to screen for that. (If you don’t perhaps we should talk. I’ll get you straightened out quickly. With love and a smile of course)
3- Hire for position specific personality characteritics. Now sometimes you have specific personality qualities for a position. For example, you might want to make sure your bookkeeper candidates are detail oriented or your sales rep candidates can effectively interact with people. Again, you ought to know what you are looking for and how to screen for it. I’ve got some good systems for all that by the way too.
Let me be really candid with you. Even if these elements are in place, you will still not likely find the most perfect candidate. If you do, hire them. If not, and here is the really good part, ask yourself if they are trainable, leadable and coachable.
Obviously, we want to do the best we can to find the ideal candidates for our organizations. But where the candidate pool of ideal candidates is slim, we have to make it up in training and mentoring. We have to take decent, trainable, motivated candidates and engage and train them in a consistent, robust and intentional manner.
Getting good people is key to continuing the growth of your business. The key to it all comes down to having these things in place.
Quality Systems + A good candidate screening process that identifies decent, moldable people + ongoing employee mentoring and training process.