Five Steps to Better Hires - Michael Walsh (Founder and President of Kaizen Consulting)

Michael Walsh is an insightful and articulate entrepreneur. The last time he was on the show, Michael talked about Value Exchange and the importance of relationships to a strong business. This time Michael shifts his focus to hiring the right people and his FIve Point Process for finding the right people. No matter the size of a company, having a powerful people plan to integrate new staff as you grow and evolve is vital to any business or organization. Michael points out that people join companies but they leave bosses. Even if an employee really enjoys a job, if they don’t work well with whoever they answer to directly, they’re not likely to stay. When more care and attention is spent on hiring the right individual for both the position and the person leading that position, Michael says that it has a great impact on the viability of the company. Through defining the role and assessing the manager and current teams, you paint a picture of precisely who you need to fill that role and following the 8 Step Selection Process is how you find them. The two most commonly used things in hiring, says Michael, are resumes and interviews. The problem is that these resumes and interviews are also the two most troublesome areas because in both cases the prospective employee is putting their absolute best foot forward. To best determine who a person is, Michael uses what he calls the 8 Step Selection Process: He looks through resumes and does a basic screening to determine who says they have the skills and attributes he needs and follows that up with a phone interview to determine if the prospective hire actually does have those skills and attributes. Once that preliminary screening is done, he arranges an in person interview. If the first in person interview goes well, he arranges another in which he has the applicant fill out some psychological tests to determine what kind of person they are and how they work. After the second interview, Michael checks the applicant’s references and from there he arranges a third interview. He has found that if you meet a person 3 or 4 times, you begin to see who they really are rather than who they try to be when trying to impress on that first interview. If the third interview goes well, Michael moves on to the final negotiations of the role with the new hire before he actually starts them in their new job. Michael says that it doesn’t have to take a long time. He’s gone through the entire process in a week or less. Through the 8 step process, Michael is able to have a thorough understanding of the prospective employees he’s meeting with and this helps him choose the person who is precisely the right fit for what he needs. The process sounds like a lot of work but it’s a thorough process that increases the likelihood of finding a good fit. On previous Napkins we’ve talked about how one bad hire can break a company. If this process can help you avoid writing the check for a bad hire and find the right person for the job, isn’t it more than worth the effort? Listen to my conversation with Michael here: