10 Tips for Hiring Excellent People

As an entrepreneur it’s definitely okay for you to obsess over hiring employees because, for small businesses especially, one bad hire can squash an entire team’s productivity quite quickly.

Below are 10 Tips for hiring excellent people that have been gleaned from successful small business owners around the country. All of these business owners stress that hiring an employee that “organically fits” into their corporate structure and are passionate about their brand is truly more important than the credentials that they bring with them, and that personality is also a big factor.  Enjoy.

1. The best people to hire are those that are passionate about your products and truly believe in the mission that you have set out for your business. Even if their credentials might not be exactly what you’re looking for, their passion will in most cases allow them to quickly make up for those deficits.
2. Nearly all successful small business owners will tell you that integrity is more important than experience. Being able to trust your employees is a key factor to your long-term success.
3. Most agree that hiring someone with serving experience that they learned in a restaurant is an excellent trait as anyone who has been able to successfully work in the food service industry really knows how to get things done quickly and efficiently.
4. Nearly anyone can be taught a technical skill. For successful small business owners, a person’s personality and demeanor is usually more important as these two traits usually can’t be changed.
5. Taking a potential candidate out to lunch or dinner before offering them a position in your company is an excellent idea that adds a new dimension to the interview process and can give a lot more details on whether or not a person will fit into an organization.
6. Most small business owners agree that hiring someone with a lot of enthusiasm for life, tons of energy and a positive attitude is an excellent idea.
7. One brilliant suggestion is to provide an assignment to a potential new hire during their interview. The way they handle the assignment and follow it through to its conclusion can be a real eye-opener and give you a lot of information into how they will perform.
8. All successful business owners agree that it’s better to wait for the right person than to compromise on your hiring standards. If you don’t feel that a person is right for the position, keep searching until you find one that is.
9. Finding someone who volunteers or gives back to their community in some way is usually a sign of a person who cares and will thus care about your business as well.
10. Trying to avoid hiring someone out of “sympathy” as, in many cases, this will only come back and shoot you in the foot at a later time.

And there you have them! 10 excellent Tips that, if you’re an entrepreneur getting ready to start a new business, or you’ve already started and need help expanding, should help you to find the best people to accomplish the tasks ahead.