The Right Employee for the Job

When I ask retired business owners or entrepreneurs (I wonder in this economy, if there is such a thing) what was the one thing they didn’t miss about their business – one answer sticks out: “dealing with employees”.

I can see the eyes rolling now…. Some of you will say “if they had a poor view of employees in the first place, no wonder they feel this way”. Maybe, but hiring, managing and nurturing a productive team or work force is a far different skill than selling a product, or starting a business because of something you know how to do well.

Ever heard of the term “people eventually rise to their level of incompetence”? This gregarious term has unfairly been used to describe, say, excellent sales people who have been promoted to sales manager – only to fail at the job. Well, there are two different skills. The skill to sell a product is not even in the same ballpark as the skill to manage egos, individual behaviors, scheduling, communications, etc. to achieve a common goal.

Look at sports managers. The percentage of former stars who have transformed themselves into great managers is VERY tiny. Michael Jordon has struggled for years, the great Detroit Piston guard Isiah Thomas has been a party to failure after failure with him at the helm; there are literally hundreds of examples like these.

Many entrepreneurs fall in this camp: They are very good at what they do, or know, but creating a business team to grow their dream can be very debilitating and exasperating

This is a list of issues that I have consistently heard over the years from business owners:

• “I Can’t find the right person”
• “I can’t get them to do what I need”
• “I am constantly having to babysit them”
• “I don’t understand them”
• “I don’t have time to train”
• “When they get here they are thrust in from day one”
• “I can handle discipline – I just need to have a heart to heart talk with them”
• “I am tired of the turnover”
• “Yes, we have SOP – see those three ring binders up there” (of course they have dust on them)
• “If an employee misses a day, it throws us all out of kilter”
• “it is my way or the highway”
• And the number one problem I hear: “why can’t they be like me?”

I remember a conversation I had with a successful owner – that is not unlike many I have had over the years – where he lamented the following fact: “I figured that if I hired somebody to handle some of my selling duties, that my sales increase would be somewhere between 50 and 100%; but after hiring 8 employees, why am I still generating 80% of the revenue?”

Another similar complaint I hear is: “I need to ‘clone myself’, so I hired somebody to do some of the things that I do; but I spend more time cleaning up after them – and I wonder if it is worth it? They don’t follow-through, the business owner calls me because she is unhappy, etc. etc. Why don’t they think like me?” Of course, my first response is to say: “well if they were like you, they would have their own business.” It is an unfair expectation.

There are still other business owners with whom I have counseled, who wake up suddenly and say “I am working 80 hours a week, just so everybody else can get paid”. Want to know the reason I understand this one? Because many years ago, I was in those shoes – and I was too stubborn to admit it. And it wasn’t even a business person who pointed that out to me – it was a casual comment from a friend.

Back in the late 70’s I ventured down the human resources path at the same time I was involved in my controller duties – and earned an accreditation in that field. What I learned in the personnel field of endeavor did more to affect the bottom line, than any of the “paper to computer” projects I was involved in.

We did four things that reduced turnover at the route salesperson level from 135% to 35% in one year:

1. Job Analysis
2. Training Managers how to ask better questions
3. Orientation
4. Teaching Managers to ask employees to repeat back what they heard

Orientation was the biggest piece to this puzzle – because we found that 85% of that turnover was within the first 60 days. Within a year of implementing orientation – that was 10%. The outcome? Clients got to know the route salespeople, and learned to trust them – and that generated more sales.

Here is my recipe for helping owners to hire better people. Keeping them there once they do, well that is for another day.

Job Analysis

I still have the huge tomes that I created back then, and chuckle to myself – it was all hand typed on an IBM Selectric (some of us will remember those). And while it may have been overkill according to today’s standards it was helpful. Look at the following:

• Routines – daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly
• List of procedures they would engage in
• Equipment used
• Who they would communicate with (owners, vendors, etc. may require different handling)
• % of time at particular types of duties e.g. % on phone, % organizing, % doing, % meetings
• Knowledge Used: composing letters, research, bookkeeping, specific software, crunching numbers; mechanical knowledge, product knowledge. (will you provide on the job training?, or do they need to know these things before they come to work?)
• Services that this person performs – sign up new customers, generate leads, project paperwork, fixing something, etc.
• What are they ultimately responsible for? (which buck, stops with them?) This is helpful for measuring job performance
• Job Context: hours, pay, who they report to, holidays, etc.
• Personnel skills: accuracy? Able to work independently? Level of communication skills? Math acumen?
• Education requirements – much has changed in this area, thus you have to be VERY careful before saying this job requires a particular education – if somebody WITHOUT it can perform the job.
• Other skill requirements: words per minute, ten-key, QuickBooks, Peachtree, etc.
• Work Experience: Can you train somebody from scratch? Or would you desire somebody with 3 to 5 years, or 5 to 10 years in a particular field?

From a Job Analysis you can generate a one page Job Description, and then use that for job ads, postings, etc. You will find it much easier to do once you do a proper analysis.

Training Managers how to interview and ask better questions

Before I implemented this training, the typical questions were: ‘This job may require you to work late occasionally, can you do that?’ Instead of “What was your work schedule like at your previous job(s)?” or “What was the thing you liked best about your previous job?” or “What was the thing you least liked about your previous job?”.

The real key, is to extract information from the applicant. Ask them about what types of people they like to work with – or don’t. Ask them how they would handle a situation if they didn’t know the answer – would they immediately ask you? Or would they look for an answer.

Create the following interview structure:

• Give Uninterrupted time
• Tell them how the interview will be structured: e.g. you will ask questions, then they will have time to ask questions
• Have a possible list of questions you might ask – this takes a little training before becoming proficient at it.
• If you are talking more than 5% of the time, you are talking too much
• Make notes at the end of the interview
• Be aware that the first interview can create bias for your other interviews – remain objective

Orientation

I personally advocate a minimum of one day for orientation – sometimes up to three days. The employee is not “on their job”, rather they are learning about the company, the products and services, customers, vendors, fellow employees.

Employees are not going to remember everything they see on the first several days, but getting them acclimated has proven to be a successful tactic for inculcating new employees in the workplace. There is nothing worse than calling a business up only to hear “Well I am new here, I don’t know”.

I am a firm believer in setting the proper boundaries at the outset – that is, have a system in place whereby employees can find their own answers. There is a fine line between letting the employee making a mistake that can cost business, and enabling them to continually ask you to get involved. My employees over the years will tell you my favorite line: “If I am paying you to do the job, why am I getting involved?”

Aspects to a successful orientation program:

• About the company – vision, history, target markets, customer profiles and demographics
• Introduction to product and services
• Competitive profile
• Their job; expectations, accountability.
• Employee policies and beginning paperwork
• Initial ‘training’. Examples of work performed, reading and research
• Pepper your orientation with small quizzes – not to grade them, but to find out what they remembered – as opposed to what you expected them to remember.

Teaching Managers to ask employees to repeat back their answers

This is one of my favorite exercises when working with small business owners. I ask them the following question:

“How do you know if somebody understood your answer?”

I get all sorts of responses:

• “They did the job properly”
• “They told me that they did”
• “They nodded and replied yes when I asked them if they understood”
• “How the heck should I know?; that’s their problem”

A fine teach taught me years ago, that there is only one answer:

“When they repeat back what I said to them”

I actually have a small caveat to this. I add “when they repeat back to me in their own words”. What this ultimately does is put the responsibility back upon the person who repeats back the words – and creates a clearer congruence of expectations between employee and manager. The result? Less mistakes – and less finger pointing. Better harmony.