A while ago, my family and I were sitting down to watch one of our favorite television shows, America’s Got Talent. It’s a great show where you get to see the many talents of individuals trying to win $1 million and their own Las Vegas show.
You get to see folks bending in ways that look painful, performing death-defying stunts and doing great singing and dancing. You also get to see awful acts like people who can’t sing or dance and you wonder how they ended up getting a tryout in the first place.
I’ve wondered how tough it is for the judges to evaluate these folks every year, trying to find the ones who everyone will love. What do they look for? Does that change every year? What happens if they get it wrong?
Sound familiar? It’s kind of like trying to find that next employee for your company, isn’t it?
HITTING GOLD
On the show, if the judges love an act, they hit a gold button in front of them, gold confetti surrounds the contestant and that contestant gets pushed through to the live round immediately.
How many times have you found that employee during a job interview who you wanted to hit the “gold buzzer” for? It’d be a person who’s perfect for the company and would help it grow.
Just like on the show, finding an employee worthy of that doesn’t happen often. There are a few things you can do, however, to have better luck at finding that “golden buzzer” employee:
Be a company people want to come to. Be known in the community as a great company that treats its employees well. Potential employees might check out online reviews to gauge how a company is, so make sure you are doing good work and treating customers right.
Be clear in what you are looking for. When you are placing a new job ad, be clear about what type of employee you are looking for and clearly state job requirements in the ad.
Weed through the resumes carefully. Don’t just start calling everyone who submitted a resume. Carefully look at their resume, call some references and ensure the person would be a fit for your company.
Ask the right questions. This one can be tricky. You need to ask the right questions during the interview. Throw in some random questions just to see how they think and react. There are plenty of resources online to help you with interview questions if you struggle with this.
Let them ask questions. Give the potential employee a chance to ask questions at the end of the interview. If they are truly interested, they’ll have questions.
THE RED BUTTON
It might get frustrating as you look for that “golden buzzer” employee, but don’t rush it and push it too hard, otherwise you could end up with the red button employee — the ones who are bad, aren’t good at what they do and could be poison for your company.
Take your time, go through the resumes and talk it over with your other employees to get their opinions. They might know the people applying and could be a valuable resource when you are looking for someone.
YOUR TRYOUTS
How do you find new employees? What steps do you take to ensure you are getting the right one in? Let me know by emailing me at editor@plumbermag.com.
Enjoy this issue!
