Are You Ready to be Perky?

It’s the big day, you have made the decision to either hire another person for your organization, or to let that lousy, pain in the neck person go who has been driving you nuts for over six months! Either way interviewing is not on the top of the list for most people. It seems like it gets in the way of all the other things we have to do on a daily basis. Wait a minute!!! Isn’t this one of our most important duties? We should be able to find that perfect person who will represent our company with the right attitude and degree of professionalism that we so strongly desire. Finding that model employee should be no problem, we will just run a few ads and we will pick the best candidate.

Now back to the real world and time to get off the planet “Oh Yeah Sure!”

First we all must realize this ever so important line (and I am dead serious): "you (your company) are only as good as your worst employee." That's right - one bad or temperamental person can ruin it for your whole company. That is how you are judged, one employee at one time. Ever go into a restaurant and have bad service? Do you say “Don’t go there or do you blame Bob the waiter?”

So where do we start? Well for one thing the traditional methods of hiring just do not seem to work these days. It is a problem that is getting worse and worse. I cannot think of one company or employer who says “Yep, all our people are top notch and we do not need to hire anybody”. This situation requires a proactive approach. It takes creativity and a dedicated effort to go out of your own arena. Trust me if you can train your dog to go to the bathroom outdoors as a pup who is about six weeks old, you can train anybody to do anything. That is if they want to, have the desire, or the right attitude! So step one. Go shopping! Yes shop but not for stuff...for people. It is simple and can be fun. Pretend to shop and see how people greet you, ring you up, wait on you in a restaurant, check you out in a hotel or just give you directions to the bathrooms. If they have a good attitude, a friendly smile, great eye contact and seem to be real nice, you probably found a winner!

Now you need to set up the interview. This can be fun also if YOU have the right attitude. This is done by most people, most of the time WRONG, backwards and if you think about it makes no sense. Don’t tell applicants or interviewee about YOU, instead you ask them questions, that’s right you listen and let them talk!

Think about it, how are you going to find out about someone if you do all the talking.

Forget about your ego or how great your company is or whatever and pretend that this person is going to date your daughter. Do you want to know all about this person who will take your kid on a date? Like where they are from, what they do for a living and how long. Maybe you can even ask what the plans are for the evening and what time they expect to come home.

Well now transfer this incredible thinking machine and this thirst for knowledge to your interview. Trust me the more questions you ask the more you will find out. The less you talk the better the interview. Simple but very effective!

Remember it is not what you say in the interview but what you ask and then what their answer is. This is the period when the applicant is trying to impress you the most and in many cases might be the highlight of their career and it all starts to go downhill after their first day on the job. If you take your time on the interview and ask tons of questions about the person and more about their life, you will get less stock answers and a more realistic picture of the person who WILL represent your company. Good luck and good shopping!

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