bizSanDiego the business of san diego county

Team Building - One Member At A Time posted on Tuesday, 13 May 2008

Three principles to hiring right.

By Ron Chamberlain, Area Developer
Sport Clips Haircuts

We’ve heard the phrase before – people are a company’s most important asset. While that claim is for all intents and purposes undisputed, many organizations have difficulty putting it into practice. This is particularly true when launching a business, where companies tend to engage in a simple exercise of getting bodies in the building.

Employees are people with the power to make or break both an organization’s culture and its promise to their customers. Building a solid team from the start can only be done with careful consideration and due diligence. So here are three principles I use to hire the right people for the right job.

Hire for Attitude
Skill sets are important to determining a person’s qualifications for any position, but they are by no means the only factors. The ability to interact with colleagues and customers in a positive manner under different – and sometimes stressful – circumstances should play as much of a role when choosing your next employee. A negative person or one that has difficultly adjusting to the wide range of personalities that walk through the door everyday can hinder the ability for others to succeed in their job as well as their own.

Employees with the right positive and team-oriented attitude will attract other potential staff members of similar capabilities as well. Contrarily, hiring the wrong person means they can drag others down with them.

Give Them a Piece of the Action
Empowerment is another overused business phrase; many organizations interpret this as simply giving employees more responsibility. People will exceed a company’s and their own expectations only if they are given the right tools and the right supportive environment to excel.

Managers must also look for ways to continually encourage and challenge staff members to broaden their horizons. This could be as simple as providing input into things other than their specific job role at company meetings or acting as “manager” for the day. Routine jobs are often boring jobs. Keep employees excited by keeping it new and fun.

Pay What They’re Worth
It may be tempting for some business leaders to “low ball” employee prospects when starting a new business. While that may look good on paper, it could backfire for many organizations. Just as most businesses avoid having their products and services commoditized, so too do your employees.

Moreover, staff members who are more concerned about the small size of their paycheck than about their job will be distracted and less focused in delivering high quality service to their peers and customers. Investing in the right employee will bring with it dividends well beyond the bottom line.

Fitting In
Professional sports teams talk at great lengths about fielding the right players. The same holds true for any organization looking to fulfill its customer promise. Managers must look at each potential employee for their ability to not only do the technical aspects of the job, but fit well within the organization’s culture. Companies that gloss over these issues do so at great risk.

Ron Chamberlain is the San Diego and Imperial County Area Developer for Sport Clips Haircuts, a nationwide chain of franchised retail stores specializing in creating a championship haircut experience for men and boys in a fun sports environment. He’s architected nine store openings in 18 months, with plans for up to 50 store openings in the area within five years. He can be reached at ron.chamberlain@sportclips.com.

Posted by John Lincoln