Babystep 5: The Hiring Process
There’s a reason hiring is the second system that we cover. If your company is full of people that aren’t upholding your culture, strategy and tactics, then you’re doomed from the start.
Your primary purpose when you hire is to hire people who are aligned with what you’re doing, why you’re doing what you’re doing, and your end goals.
In his landmark book, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t” Jim Collins explains this idea by using the analogy of “getting the right people on the bus.’
It is important for you to be absolutely clear on your culture, your strategies and your tactics, before you hire.
By the time you are hiring, you should be able to clearly explain these aspects of your business to your candidate. Your candidate might not share the exact same values as you, but they should at least be compatible. This is important because your candidate will be expected to passionately uphold your values. Agreeing with your values is not enough.
You should ask:
“Will this person naturally follow our values or is it always going to be a challenge?”
“Will it be a joy for them to follow our values?”
“Will they defend those values if they see another employee violating those values?”
As for your strategy, it’s not necessary to divulge every detail, but you should share enough to find out if they’re going to fight you every step of the way. It’ll be an issues if they disagree with your strategy and don’t act accordingly on the job.
And what about after they’ve been hired? None of this matters if you’re not keeping your current team accountable to the values. It will all have been a waste if your new hire comes onto the job and sees the current employees acting differently than what you’ve outlined. People tend to follow the behaviors they’re witnessing more than the behaviors they’re being told.
Another reason why accountability is so important is that it makes firing smooth. If you’re consistently keeping your employees accountable to your core values, the employees who don’t agree with your values will feel the pain of being kept accountable and will either change or leave on their own.
There is honor in this because neither your employees nor the person you’re letting go will feel that you’ve acted unfairly if the values were outlined clearly and they were given multiple warnings to act accordingly.
Alright now for some hiring tips:
Ask the person how other people would describe them. This helps people to be more honest. Such as: How would your wife describe you? Your previous boss? Your sister?
Ask questions such as: How much do you align with this core value? And make it a 1-10 scale. After they answer, ask them why not the number below and why not the number above. Their explanation will help you understand how they think.
When legally possible, hire people on a short-term contract first and see how they work. Interviews can be misleading, and it’s nice to see how people act before offering them a full-time position. If you decide to do this, design tests during their shifts to see how they’ll do. For example, if you want to know how well they manage, tell the people who will be working under them to do less and see how they handle that situation.
Always check references. Anyone who doesn’t check references is putting themselves at risk.
Be consistent in how you evaluate candidates and develop a consistent set of questions. This will aid you when seeking to be fair.
If you have any doubts about a candidate in a certain area, don’t be too quick to dismiss your concerns.
Avoid the two most common pitfalls: hiring too fast and firing too slow. Hire slowly and methodically. If you sense a problem with a new employee, hold them accountable in a kind but firm, and consistent manner. If you are too slow to address these issues, they will only increase and become harder to change.
Disclaimer: Every other principle in the SCI Cafe Management system depends on you hiring the right employees. Perfecting how you hire should be one of your highest priorities. Overlook and ignore at your own peril!
You can purchase SCI’s, “From Your Coffee Shop Dream, To Your Dream Coffee Shop” book here.
With SCI’s book, you’ll walk out these steps through the fictional, but all too relatable, story of Claire Wallace as she journeys toward her dream coffee shop.