Back Page: Bringing in the best

Hiring the right people is the most important aspect of building a successful business, and it’s easy to determine who the “right” people are for your organization, says Kathryn Dager, president of Profitivity Inc., and an internationally recognized speaker, consultant and trainer. Dager outlined ways to screen out unwilling, uncooperative or incompetent candidates during the interview process at her 2012 OFA Short Course session titled “Hiring a Team Your Customers will Love.”

There are many reasons why you want to get staff hiring right the first time, Dager says. Successful employees will listen to and learn from the knowledge you impart, ultimately becoming valuable assets when it comes time to expand operations and move people to different departments. They’ll also be of critical assistance when it comes time to train and orient additional new employees as your business needs grow.

Dager provides a structured hiring plan to select people for your staff, which involves knowing which behaviors and personality traits are integral to a good employee, as well as how to identify the presence of these traits just by talking with a candidate during an interview. A structured hiring plan must begin with a hiring profile – a description of the kind of person you want joining your team.

Hiring the right people also impacts the bottom line: Consider the fact that it can cost you more than $2,000 in time, training and more to bring a new seasonal employee onto your team. If you make 5 percent total net profit on a dollar, you have to increase your sales by $40,000 to make up for that $2,000 loss, Dager says.

For more: Access the full webinar titled “Hiring A Great Seasonal Team” by contacting Kathryn Dager at profitivity@earthlink.net, or call (310) 477-8333.

Photo courtesy of Kathryn Dager