Business Recruitment Fundamentals to Improve the People Who Work for Your Home Business
By Lee Froschheiser

"All Aboard!" — Don't you just wish that hiring new employees was that easy?

Unfortunately, it's such a challenge today that in a recent national survey,
over 30 percent of CEOs said up to half of their employees are a poor fit
for the job. The good news is that a home business can improve the quality of the people they hire by adopting a proactive mindset and consistently using the right hiring procedures. A multi-layered, robust, recruiting process must be rooted in proactive versus reactive recruiting.
Plan Ahead With Good Job Descriptions
            Avoid such dire measures by establishing a very structured and systemized selection process well ahead of when your company actually needs it. This begins with writing a job description before the actual recruiting process.
A good job description includes: the job's purpose, a detailed breakdown of
responsibilities, the supervisor to whom the new person will report, ways to measure the person's effectiveness, the job's vital factors, how the person will spend his or her time, the person’s authority within the company, and the required competencies, background and experience.

The job description also drives your interviewing process and questions, as well as the employee's training plan. What's more, writing a job description before recruiting forces you to think through the position and the competencies of the person you need, and it becomes the blueprint for the success of the job and that person.

Determine the Interview Game Plan
            Once you've attracted the top candidates, you need an interview game plan. Considering what's required and wanted in the new hire, what are you truly looking for in an ideal employee, and how do these attributes relate to
what's needed for the position? Also, if given the opportunity, what
competencies would your internal or external customers look for from your
employee to serve their needs? Whatever these competencies are, the
candidate you choose must have them.
Your interview game plan must also include a robust selection process. This enables you to evaluate the potential hire in different ways. For example,
you may need to conduct several interviews, and you will want to do background
check(s) at the very least.

Focus on Professional Development
            After successfully hiring an employee, the next step in the recruitment
process is to develop this person via ongoing coaching, training, and
planning that will enable his or her professional growth. Unfortunately,
most companies have no structured on-boarding plan for new personnel. By
solely focusing on bringing someone "aboard the bus," they forget to follow
through with important ongoing training and development. If this is
happening at your company, you're significantly reducing your retention
odds. And if that new recruit is one of those rare "A" players, the loss is
even greater.
The first 90 days of employment are critical to the long-term success of the new employee. Therefore, you should develop and implement a 90-day training plan to secure the employee's place within the organization and facilitate
his or her improvement. You can vary this training based upon the new
employee's level of experience with your existing systems. But it's
important to train this new hire on business practices, how your company
functions, and how these fit into the organization, too.
Key to the success of this 90-day training plan is using a mentoring team.
The mentoring team should meet at least monthly with the new hire, ensure he or she has someone they can go to with questions, and enable the new hire’s success at adhering to the 90-day training plan.

Establish Expectations Now
          Also during this time, it's critical to set clear, result-oriented goals.
Why? Because setting these requirements will communicate company
expectations and accountability for results, ensure that the new employee
understands the company's priorities, and, most importantly, measure whether
he or she is the right person for the job. Once the employee successfully
completes the first 90 days, you'll need a six-months-to-one-year,
personal-development plan to facilitate his or her advancement and growth.
Focus on consistent improvement and job-performance strengthening.

Incorporate the Current Business Plan
Finally, do you have a well-developed, current business plan? From day one, such a plan helps new employees understand the company's direction and the roles they play in it. Based upon the business plan, your recent hire should
also grasp the company's vital factors — the unique set of critical elements
that can either hold a company back or propel it to success. Each employee
should be assigned personal vital factors that support the company vital
factors — an exercise that creates that crucial strategic alignment within
your organization.
Following these fundamental strategies is a sure way to bring onboard those "A" players and, more importantly, keep them aboard the company bus. With the right team in place, you'll find it's easier to retain those good workers,
maintain strong company morale, and meet your home business's goals. HBM

Lee is also co-author of the best-selling book, "Vital Factors, The Secret to Transforming Your Business - And Your Life" and president and CEO of Management Action Programs, Inc. (MAP). MAP accelerates the performance of individuals, teams, and entire organizations from large to small through the MAP Management System™ and the Vital Factor process. Clients include WebEx Communications, CORT Furniture, The United Way, CIG Insurance and Hawthorne CAT. For more information call 1-888-834-3040 or visit www.MapConsulting.com

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