One of the biggest issues with all professional practices is maintaining the level of delivery you know you need to in order to stand out.
When it comes to hiring anyone, particularly that front desk person, the old adage of “hire slowly, fire quickly” still stands the test of time.
It is easy to get anyone in to take up a role within the business. But to find someone who will add real value to the business is another thing altogether.
You have to know as much as you can what you are getting.
So what are some ways to do this?
I advise people I work with to try and provide an opportunity for an individual to complete some tasks as part of the selection process. This can vary from typing a letter from scratch to a role play.
These contrived situations will provide you with a base level knowledge of what the individual knows. Clearly they can’t know your systems perfectly but you will be able to gain a confidence level of what you might be getting.
Here are some other ideas:
- Walk them through your filing system and ask them questions about how they might set it up
- Convey a client story that requires an empathetic response … and see if you get a genuine one
The point is the more you confirm the skills before the hiring, the less pain you will have afterwards.
Many people might think going to these lengths is too time consuming. It’s not. Think of the time you will save by not having to deal with a poor performer which has come about because you didn’t take the time to assess properly?
The last benefit is that, by hiring slowly, should things turn sour at least you will have a benchmark of performance you know you want to achieve and will be able to deal with the issue quickly and effectively.
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