How Do I Know I Am Right?

The simple answer to the question of “How Do I Know I Am Right” when hiring someone that you don’t know. Even if you have the best well-thought out and executed hiring process in the world you still cannot know with 100% certainty that you have chosen to hire the right person.

The question is what should be my expectation, my reasonable expectation of success when hiring? Study upon study and experience should tell you that the better your hiring process the higher your chance of finding and hiring the right person for the job is. Therefore, your first step in moving toward a 100% chance of success is to review and tweak your process. Start with the calculation of what your past experience is in turnover for the job or your workforce as a whole. This number(s) will give you a benchmark to measure your effort in getting closer to the 100% mark. Another word set an expectation based on what your current hiring history is.

 

I once ran a business unit where our annual turnover rate for an entry level position was more than 100%. This number had been acceptable for years and other than trying to keep up with the local pay rate little effort had been made to reduce this exceptionally high number. My attendance at a national industry roundtable meeting taught me that the 100% number was about average for the industry. However, some of the attendees saw the great advantages in reducing the number, and a lot of ideas were exchanged on how to do this. I went back to my business unit and implemented some of these ideas and within less than 2 years our turnover ratio dropped into the 60-percentile range.

The point is that you first need to set your hiring expectations and if possible benchmark a critical number or two like turnover ratio. If your hiring process is leading to improvement in these benchmark numbers then I would say you are hiring the right people.

There are of course other ways to measure your success in hiring that in some cases are more immediate. If you would like to hear them then please plan to join us live on The Weekly Business Hour on Monday April 2nd from 11:00am – 12:00pm CST on www.irlonestar.com , the Lone Star Community Radio app, or on Conroe City Radio at FM 104.5 & FM106.1.

You can also find the podcast of the show (posted on Wednesday April 4th ) by going to The Weekly Business Hour page on www.irlonestar.com  or on Facebook to The Weekly Business Hour page: https://www.facebook.com/theweeklybusinesshour. The podcasts are also posted weekly on Wednesdays on YouTube on The Weekly Business Hour channel and on other social media outlets such as Stitcher, Google Play and ITunes.

If you have questions or comments then please email me at [email protected]