“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”, Richard Branson

You cannot solve all your company’s problems but you can hire all the right people to solve them and then your company will be successful.

ACCURIZE YOUR HIRING

1. Understand your expectations and communicate them in the hiring process.Build organizational key performance indicators (KPIs) for roles, teams, managers, and the company. Don’t hire someone unless you understand how their past teams have understood ‘success’, how they do, and how your team understands ‘success’. It’s different in each company.

DO NOT HIRE THEM UNLESS YOU CAN COMMUNICATE WHAT THEY NEED TO DO TO BE SUCCESSFUL. Otherwise, it’s your fault when you fire them or they quit.

2. Remove muddy interview subjectivity with a disciplined process. If four people interview a candidate, you should not get four different answers on hiring them. Each interviewer should understand the criteria candidates are being evaluated against.

A conversation about KPIs past and future are helpful here. Personality assessments can also provide useful insight to develop specific and nuanced interview questions to understand this person relative to the responsibilities and team you may give them.

3. Develop real relationships through the interview process. This means interviewing them in different places, for different durations, with different people, all while asking different questions driven by assessments, company culture, KPIs, and understanding what the candidate believes ‘success’ is.

Some hiring authorities have an immense advantage because their relationship-building skills attract the candidate while providing useful insight on the candidate. Caring about the candidate as a unique and valuable person, regardless of if they get the job, is practically cheating. So cheat away.

4. Hire candidates whose natural inclinations, values, and ambition align with those of your company. If you are sure you can provide a work ecosystem where the candidate can feel accomplished, it is time to make a competitive offer.

It may not matter that they were successful before if you do not share values.

5. Do not haggle on compensation. You will reap what you sow. Ask the candidate about their expectations early and decide if you can give them what they are asking through the interview process. Do not negotiate before developing their respect and trust.

There are many variables in hiring situations and the most important constant is transparency and fairness. Do not ruin a good process with a cheap offer as if you are bartering at a garage sale. Good offers well delivered create loyalty. Loyalty starts with demonstrating your care for their success.

Good hiring is relationship building, engenders mutual respect, objective, disciplined, transparent and fair.

“The secret of my success is that we have gone to exceptional lengths to hire the best people in the world.”, Steve Jobs

WE CAN ALL GROW

If you want to hire an experienced recruiter who cares about the proper process for better results, we should talk about how Ambassador Search Group may serve you. We look for thoughtful companies who care about people.

Questions, answered

The short version.

Why is hiring the most important thing a manager or owner does?
Because you cannot solve all your company's problems yourself, but you can hire the right people to solve them, and then the company succeeds. That leverage makes hiring skill worth deliberate practice: clear expectations, a disciplined process, real relationships, values alignment, and fair offers.
What should I communicate to a candidate before hiring them?
Exactly what they need to do to be successful. Build KPIs for the role, the team, and the company, and understand how the candidate's past teams defined success versus how yours does, because it differs in every company. If you cannot communicate what success looks like, the failure is yours when you fire them or they quit.
How do I stop four interviewers from reaching four different conclusions?
Give every interviewer the same evaluation criteria before the interviews start. Conversations about past and future KPIs help, and personality assessments can generate specific, nuanced questions about the person relative to the responsibilities and team they would take on. Discipline removes the muddy subjectivity that produces split verdicts.
Should I negotiate hard on compensation with a candidate I want?
No, do not haggle. Ask about their expectations early and use the interview process to decide whether you can meet them, and do not negotiate before developing respect and trust. A cheap offer delivered like garage-sale bartering ruins a good process, while good offers well delivered create loyalty.
How do I build a real relationship with a candidate during interviews?
Interview them in different settings, for different durations, with different people, asking different questions driven by assessments, company culture, KPIs, and the candidate's own definition of success. Caring about the candidate as a unique and valuable person, whether or not they get the job, attracts them while revealing who they are. It is practically cheating, so cheat away.