Medley put an ad in The Indianapolis Star and found three
job candidates. He recalls the interview he had over lunch with his
first hire, Mike Bankert, who, five years later, is still with the
company and now on salary. "I played up the company like I
knew it was going to grow," says Medley. "I gave him my
vision, and I think he believed it."
If you're going with an ad, be logical in deciding where to
place it-whether you decide to post it on Monster.com or in your
local newspaper. "Pretend that you're looking for this
job, and then select [your placement] that way," suggests
Arlene Vernon, owner of HRx, a human resources consulting firm in
Eden Prairie, a suburb of Minneapolis. She's been helping small
businesses with their human resources needs for more than 25 years,
and she's often found good employees for her clients through
the newspaper classifieds.
But if you don't have to hire somebody this minute, she
recommends trying to find an employee through word-of-mouth.
"Go to industry meetings," she suggests. "Hopefully,
you're already doing that anyway, and as you're talking to
people one-on-one, mention that you're looking for somebody to
hire. Ask 'Who do you know that would be interested in a
start-up?'"
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Mentioning that you're a start-up is important, says Vernon,
because certain personalities work well with the unpredictable
nature of a new business, while others don't.
The Interview
Questions, ask many questions. Ask them of yourself, and ask them
of your potential hires.
You need to know exactly who you want to help you grow your
business. What you don't need is to hire somebody just like
you, says Bruno, whose agency assists in recruiting secretarial,
administrative and human resource professionals. "You want
their strengths to complement your weaknesses," she says.
But that's the easy part, according to Bruno, who insists
that you investigate
prospects' references. "Reference-checking is an
art," she says. "And it has to be, because in this day
and age, sometimes a person's entire resume is a fantasy."
There is one crucial question you must ask every reference, and if
you phrase it in just the right way, it's difficult for that
person to give a vague answer. It's simply "Is this person
eligible for rehire?" "If the answer is yes," says
Bruno, "you've got a good person. If it's no, then
no."
There are three basic guidelines you should stick to in a job
interview, says Vernon:
- Keep it legal. Because of federal guidelines and laws
that vary from state to state, you can get sued if you ask
questions that have nothing to do with the job, says Vernon. Stay
away from topics such as your potential employee's religion,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, whether he or she is married and
whether he or she wants children. "Just keep it focused on the
job," says Vernon, "and you'll be fine."
- Be honest. For obvious reasons. "Even be blatantly
honest," says Vernon. "If there are difficult parts of
the job, let them know upfront."
- Ask tough questions. "Ask them to show you how they
would do something," says Vernon. "If you need an
administrative assistant, tell them to turn on the computer and get
into Word and write you a letter." Or give them real-life
examples of challenges they may face working for you and listen to
how they think they'd handle the situation, suggests
Vernon.
And how do you explain to your first employee that you're
hiring him or her to do the tasks that you'd rather not do?
"It's all how you frame it," observes Beth Ellenby,
owner of Rest of Your Life Productions, a Norwalk, Connecticut,
coaching firm for individuals and corporations. Ellenby's
business has been running entrepreneurship coaching groups for
women in New York City for the past two years. "For some
people, the grunt work is doing the accounting. But for [other]
people, there's nothing more fun than getting a big box of
papers and sorting through them. For some people, they dread making
cold calls. Others say 'Let me at it.'"
And Ellenby adds that it's impossible to get rid of all the
grunt. "When you're only two people, you're both going
to have to do things you don't love doing."
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