Hire a variety of types. We do personality profiling and behavior profiling. My belief is 90 percent of people repeat their behavior from previous jobs. You’re interviewing and you have had them already take some profiling, and you’re able to figure out what the behavior’s going to be after you hire them.
You look for things and then you drill down on specific cases of experience and not just theoretical questions.
We use an outsource service that’s online. There are questions that steer you to stability. The one profile is called DISC [dominance, influence, steadiness, conscientiousness]. So if we’re looking for somebody
that’s detail-oriented and steady, their personality will come in as a high C high S. If you’re looking for a salesperson, we’re looking for somebody that’s a little more I. I’s are people persons. A D is a ‘get it done, don’t get in my way’ type of person. You need those. Not that any one personality profile is right,
because there are strengths in all of them and weaknesses.
These profiles give you do’s and don’ts for communicating. If they need to talk to Joe Smith, and Joe Smith’s a high D and this other person’s an S, you know you’ve got to deal in facts and talk to them in a certain way — great communication tools once you hire them on.
Keep good hires on track. We use an annual review — the 360 tool. The idea is if I’m evaluating somebody, I get somewhere between six and 10 people that work with this person, not just the person’s boss.
That’s the old conventional way, doing a review and filling a form out. That’s one person’s opinion on how that person’s doing. A 360 is anonymous so people can pretty much say what they really feel.
We sit down with everybody once a year and do that. You’ve got to explain that if one person says something, it might have been a bad day. It’s not that important.
If two say something, they’ve got my attention. And three, there’s something either to build on, because we look at strengths, and then we also look at opportunities for improvement. What are you going to change after this review? Do you want to go to a leadership course?
You’ve got to tell the person, ‘Five people say you’re condescending when you’re talking to people. What are you going to do to make yourself more aware that you’re doing that?’ You do a lot of questions on
what they are going to do about it, not how I’m going to fix it for them. They need to fix it.
Say someone doesn’t have good listening skills. So you’ve got to say, ‘OK, how can you improve your listening skills? Why don’t you make believe you’re Columbo? And rather than not letting the person finish and you not listening, ask questions.’
Listening has to improve when you ask someone a question and they’re responding.
How to reach: Advanced Roofing Inc., (800) 638-6869 or www.advancedroofing.com
