Jobs For Sale

By Terry Haynes

 

           

            You are a business owner and your worst nightmare has just come true. Your most valuable employee has quit because he has been offered a better paying job.

 

            Panic! What do you do? You are not trained in hiring but you must find someone to help keep your business going and serve your customers. You may place an ad in the paper or put a “Help Wanted” sign in your store window and hope for the best. Finally, someone walks in and applies for the job. At first glance they have an acceptable appearance, can talk coherently and walk a reasonably straight line. You “like” what you see. Immediately you swing into action to start selling all the benefits of working for your company; how great it is, how it’s like family, and what great health, dental, and insurance benefits you offer. Your need to find a warm body and the urgency to have a full staff has clouded your business judgment. Have you pushed the “panic” button?

 

            STOP!! Unless you want to install a revolving door on your business, you must change the “seller syndrome” to the more appropriate “buyer mentality.” Think about the last time you made a major purchase of any type: car, house, refrigerator, or boat...anything that costs a lot of money. How did you go about it? Most of us research the item, do some comparison-shopping, and ask a truckload of questions before the decision to buy is finally made. For a small business owner, hiring a new employee is a major purchase. Payroll is your heaviest expense; therefore, you must be as careful about employee selection as you are about purchasing any piece of equipment. Large companies have personnel departments with professionals who specialize in screening, interviewing, testing, checking references, etc., and they do it every day.

 

            In larger companies (100, 200, 10,000 employees), as the percentage of employees increases, their effect on the overall success of the business diminishes. The smaller you are, the more impact each employee has on the success or failure of your business. Therefore, the “panic” hiring you do as a manager can adversely affect your bottom-line profits.

 

            By taking the “buyer mentality” approach in your hiring procedure, you are going to do a better job of selecting people. Let’s look a little more closely at the “buyer mentality” and how it can positively affect your ability to choose the best people. Just as you do research when you make a major purchase, you must research the job you are trying to fill and the applicants. Ask yourself these questions:

What do you want this person to do in the job?

What skills and experience must this person have to be successful at this job?

 

Spend the time necessary to write down your answers to these questions. Your answers will be your guide during the rest of the selection process. You are willing to buy and pay for the experience, talent, and knowledge necessary, but you must make sure that the person you select is the best qualified for your company.

 

By changing from the “seller syndrome” to the “buyer mentality,” you may spend a little longer looking for the right person, but have patience. You will hire people better suited, more motivated, and willing to work harder for the success of your company.

 

 

 

  The Atlanta Small Business Monthly