John Ossa: Finding the Best

John Ossa

In order to recruit and hire great employees, you have to have a clear vision of what the company needs from him or her, clear metrics for how that person will be measured and a strong sense for the intangibles you want. Success in hiring starts by having a plan.

Too often, hiring is reduced to filling a spot. A position vacancy is a great opportunity to re-think the workflow, and decide if that position should stay as it was, or be recreated in a different form. If you are clear about the role and the tasks that go with it, make sure that how the position is rewarded really helps produce the desired results. As an example, as work forces change in makeup, whether you are gaining more older employees, or younger employees – those generational shifts can trigger different opportunities in how people are motivated and rewarded.

The most difficult part of recruiting and hiring is understanding how a prospective employee will fit the culture of the company. All companies are comprised of people, things and ideas. There are people that like people, there are those that are "thing people" and there are those that are "idea people".

The people person is likely to do well in a service business. You know the type – easy going, collegial and are likely to be good listeners, empathetic and like collaboration.

The "thing person" is more likely to be operations oriented. Stable, predictable, compliant and focus on details. The "idea person" likes ideas and experiments, is constantly changing and emphasizes learning. These people typically espouse a vision and are creative problem solvers. Although these are broad categories, and people rarely fall completely into tidy categories, there are certain traits and truths in this breakdown that point to cultural fit and its' qualitative aspects.

There is one more key consideration, which has two aspects. Any position has an arc, or trajectory that goes with it. Does excellent performance of the position tasks lead to something else, or not? Does this position require a type of functional expertise from "day one"? It is important to be very clear about these two points for the best interests of all concerned. It is not common, but does happen often enough that a position requires exacting expertise that is not readily transferable to something else. There are people that will happily sign up for those positions; the key is clarity on this issue going in.

Ultimately recruiting and hiring should bring in people that elevate the company. The key screening tool is the interview. The interview has to look at past performance, legal requirements and cultural fit, skill assessment and personality assessment – will this person "fit?" These are not easy questions to answer because they should reside in the context of where the company needs to grow. Sometimes, the comfortable choices, are not what will incite results, or transition the company into new areas. So, be clear about what you want and need.

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