Handling a Bad Hire, Part 1

Even when both the business owner and her new team member have the best intentions, sometimes a match just isn't meant to be. A poor business owner-team member pairing can impact a business in many ways, from loss of morale, to frustration, to wasted time and money. So what should a female entrepreneur do when she realizes she's made a bad hire? Is there a right way to handle it?

A new study from Jane Out of the Box, an authority on women entrepreneurs, recently revealed there are five distinct types of women in business. Each of these five types has a unique approach to running a business—and as a consequence, each of them has a unique combination of characteristics and factors. This article profiles three of the Jane “types” and the different ways they may handle hiring the wrong person on a team and all that comes with it.

Go Jane Go is passionate about her work, and has no problem marketing and selling herself, so she has plenty of clients—but she's struggling to keep up with demand. She may be a classic overachiever, taking on volunteer opportunities as well, because she's eager to make an impact on the world and may really struggle to say “no”. Because she wants to support so many people, she may even be in denial about how many hours she actually works during the course of a week. As a result, she may be running herself ragged or sometimes feel guilty about the list of goals not yet achieved.

Because Go Jane Go takes her work very personally, she may let herself obsess over her bad hire. Here are some of her possible reactions to hiring the wrong person, and some things she can think about to make the best of the situation:

• Guilt. Go Jane Go is a people person, and wants her team to be happy. If she hires the wrong person, she may feel guilty about letting him go and wonder what she, herself, has done to contribute to the difficulties.

• Tips for dealing with Guilt: In this case, Go Jane Go needs to separate the personal from the professional. She has a responsibility to the long-term health of her business - and herself! Having a team member who just doesn't fit often brings morale down, so removing that team member often will get everyone else back on track. And in the long run, the terminated team member may even feel grateful for valuable lessons learned.

• Harder Work. Because Go Jane Go tends to avoid confrontation, she may start working harder to make up for whatever her new team member lacks, even taking back some or all of the work that she delegated to him.

• Tips for avoiding Harder Work: Conduct a thorough analysis of whether the new team member will be able to do the job. If the problems are attitude, mindset, or competency, the situation will not improve with time. Have a thorough, objective performance review with the team member. Although this may feel confrontational, by keeping the conversation focused on objective job performance criteria, Go Jane Go will help her bad hire see what is lacking and put him on notice that performance must improve. Following this conversation, Go Jane Go may be surprised to find herself feeling lighter - and with more time on her hands.

Merry Jane. This entrepreneur is usually building a part-time or “flexible time” business that gives her a creative outlet (whether she's an ad agency consultant or she makes beautiful artwork) that she can manage within specific constraints around her schedule. She may have a day-job, or need to be fully present for family or other pursuits. She realizes she could make more money by working longer hours, but she's happy overall with the tradeoff she has made because her business gives her tremendous freedom to work how and when she wants, around her other commitments.

Although Merry Jane values her relationships, both with her clients and with her team members, she also values the fun she's having with her business and the time she spends away from it, fulfilling other responsibilities. Therefore, if hiring the wrong person becomes a distraction for Merry Jane, she won't have a problem letting him go. Here are some of Merry Jane's possible reactions to hiring the wrong person:

• Lack of Awareness. Because Merry Jane has so many other priorities in her life, she will hire team members who can do what they need to do without much guidance. She probably won't be hovering while they're working, so she may not notice she's hired the wrong person until the situation has snowballed.

• Tips for dealing with Lack of Awareness. When Merry Jane hires someone, she should provide very clear performance expectations and check in periodically to see how the new team member is doing. Ask him to provide weekly status updates on progress that can be quickly and easily read and check regularly to ensure things are on track. If they are not, course corrections, including replacing the team member, are easily done early in the process.

• A Clean Break. Merry Jane loves her business because she's set it up for maximum efficiency, using systems to get the work done well. If a new hire is not performing well, it's important for Merry Jane's precious time that she make a quick, clean break.

• Tips for making a Clean Break: Upon receiving weekly status reports, determine whether course-correction is needed. If so, meet with the team member to explain the gaps and notify him of the corrections that need to be made and in what timeframe. Reaffirm the objectives of the position and schedule time to meet again for another review. Timing will be dependent on the nature of the work, but convene in the shortest possible time period during which performance can be expected to have improved (typically 1 week to 1 month). If improvements are insufficient, part ways by clearly articulating the importance of the missed objectives and the areas where expectations were not met.

Accidental Jane is a successful, confident business owner who never actually set out to start a business. Instead, she may have decided to start a business due to frustration with her job or a layoff and decided to use her business and personal contacts to strike out on her own. Or, she may have started making something that served her own unmet needs and found other customers with the same need, giving birth to a business. Although Accidental Jane may sometimes struggle with prioritizing what she needs to do next in her business, she enjoys what she does and is making good money. About 18% of all women business owners fit the Accidental Jane profile.

Tired of corporate politics, Accidental Jane relishes the opportunity to be on her own, and therefore, is slow to hire outside help. When she does so, she may find that a lack of documented systems may trip up her ability to bring someone on board effectively and quickly. Although she knows exactly how she likes the work done, the process steps may not be as apparent to someone new. Here are some of Accidental Jane's possible reactions:

• Frustration. Accidental Jane may have hired a person she considered ideal but may feel frustrated with the results because the team member is not executing the work the way Accidental Jane does.

• Tips for Dealing with Frustration: Make sure it's the person, not the process. Have a candid conversation with the team member, focusing the discussion specifically on whether he feels clear about the tasks at hand. Have him describe his perceptions of the assignment. This will often give Accidental Jane an excellent opportunity to uncover miscommunications and misunderstandings regarding the work.

• Managing effectively. Sometimes team members need more guidance to improve their performance.

• Tips for Managing Effectively: Schedule regular check-ins with your team members. If you have more than one, consider a group call where you can meet with the entire team at once. Further, have team members document their own systems. Whenever performance challenges occur, review the documented process first to uncover any flaws. If the process is correct, Accidental Jane can then easily and professionally release a team member who is not following the agreed-upon process.

Once a business owner has gone through the entire hiring process, from advertising to interviewing to hiring to training, it can be disappointing if it's just not a good match. Whether the chemistry isn't there, the team member misrepresented his skills or the job turns out to be different than he expected and it just isn't working out, sometimes a business owner needs to be the one to end the relationship before it causes too much damage to a business. Although Go Jane Go, Merry Jane and Accidental Jane may handle the end differently, every business owner can learn from their reactions so the end is as painless as possible.

Article Source:
http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com
http://entrepreneurship.bestmanagementarticles.com
About the Author:
Michele DeKinder-Smith is the founder of Jane out of the Box, an online resource dedicated to the women entrepreneur community. Discover more incredibly useful information for running a small business by taking the FREE Jane Types Assessment at Jane out of the Box. Offering networking and marketing opportunities, key resources and mentorship from successful women in business, Jane Out of the Box is online at www.janeoutofthebox.com

Realizing the Importance of the I in Team

The clever phrase "there is no I in TEAM" is used in conference rooms throughout the corporate world. Businesses spend a great deal of time and money on team building training, seminars, and workshops. Companies are aware that in order for business to be successful people must learn to work as a team, but the phrase about the absence of "I" in team may be a problem. That phrase implies that there is no individuality brought to team situations, and that individuals with different viewpoints must not object because they are part of a team. That seems ridiculous, because effective businesses know that anti-groupthink holds a lot of value and often provides innovative ideas. What if instead of ignoring the "I," businesses focused on it, and attempted to understand each individuals potential inside of a team.

If managers could pinpoint their employee's individual strengths, they could then utilize those strengths to build a stronger team. In order for teams to be truly efficient and cohesive, team members need to understand each other's differences and how they contribute to the overall effectiveness of the team. One team member might excel where all others lack, and vice versa. Team building needs to incorporate the analysis of each individual to determine how the team will be most successful.

The first tool necessary for this revolutionary team building process is an employee assessment. Employee assessments give managers insight into their employees as individuals. They quantify behavioral tendencies and personality attributes that affect how employees will conduct themselves in various work environments. Based on these results managers can determine what skills need to be taught and to which individuals in order to reach their maximum potential. Skills can be taught, but behaviors are difficult to modify, so the role employees play in a team situation should be determined based on their behaviors.

Once employees have been assessed, and their team roles have been assigned based on their behaviors and natural tendencies, managers should strive to create cohesion within the team. It is unrealistic to assume that if roles are chosen correctly there will never be conflict between team members. When any number of people work together, a smart business leader will understand that conflict is unavoidable, but that measures can be taken to try to encourage a team-oriented environment.

Assessments will reveal important facts about the team's individuals. These results can then be combined to create a team assessment. Team assessments will reveal a team's strengths and weaknesses based on the individuals within that team, and how those members work together. These combined results will allow managers to successfully build and develop their teams in areas that are especially important to the functionality of that organization. This will also help to determine which team member would be best for a certain role, or if someone from outside the team should be included during part of the process to ensure success. For instance, if a team lacks the ability to pay close attention to detail, it might be appropriate for that team to bring in someone from another department to edit their work.

Goals should always be kept in the forefront of team member's minds. Clear objectives and organized job descriptions will eliminate room for error or miscommunication between team members. When each role has been assigned, outlined, and understood by each member the potential for miscommunication is dramatically reduced. Each member needs to understand their contribution to the team, who they need to depend on or collaborate with to achieve their goals, and how their contribution affects the team as a whole. When these elements are constructed and understood, teams are allowed to maximize their potential productivity.

Team building is a necessity for businesses to thrive. Employee and team assessments are two tools that can ease the process of creating a cohesive and effective team for the business. The differences exhibited by individuals are what prompts innovation through collaboration. Highlighting an individual's strengths, and then establishing how those strengths coalesce with what other team members can offer, will build a team without detracting from individuality.

Article Source:
http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com
http://workforce-management.bestmanagementarticles.com
About the Author:
Jim Sirbasku is co-founder and CEO of Profiles International, a leading provider of human resource management solutions and employment assessments for businesses worldwide. http://www.profilesinternational.com/home.aspx

Lower Turnover + Less Accidents + Better Teamwork

A pre-employment test I researched and created - helped me learn a lot about people who are turnover risks, accident-prone, and rub co-workers and customers the wrong way. Specifically, such people are impulsive. So, you should avoid hiring impulsive people.

Definitions:

* Impulsive people = act before thinking.
* Non-impulsive people = think before acting.

You want to hire job applicants who think before acting, that is, people who are responsible, careful, prudent human beings.


BAD JOB PERFORMANCE - IF YOU HIRE IMPULSIVE PEOPLE

If you hire impulsive people - that is, people who act before they think - you are more likely to have expensive problems, such as

- Accidents - because they are careless
- Interpersonal Messes - because impulsive people blurt out inconsiderate, hurtful remarks
- Turnover - because they are disloyal and uncommitted
- Substance Abuse - because substance abusers are impulsive people
- Absenteeism - because they do not care that you expect them to show up
- Lost Customers - because impulsive people fail to offer good service
- Violations of Rules - because they think it is o.k. to break your rules

In fact, my pre-employment test research to created “Dependability Forecaster(tm ) Test” discovered a statistically significant correlation between being (a) substance abuser and (b) highly impulsive. My test research finding means

* substance abusers = highly impulsive people
* when you hire highly impulsive people = you are more likely to hire substance abusers

You do not want to hire substance abusers, do you?


GOOD JOB PERFORMANCE - IF YOU HIRE NON-IMPULSIVE PEOPLE

When you hire people who are not impulsive - that is, people who think before they act - your company may profit from
+ Safety - since non-impulsive people think to avoid accidents
+ Nice Relationships - with customers and co-workers
+ Retention - since non-impulsive people are more likely to be loyal
+ Less Substance Abuse - low impulsiveness does not correlate with substance abuse
+ Better Attendance - they follow rules, including showing up for work
+ Good Customer Service - because they consider their words and use good manners
+ Rule & Policy Following - because they feel rules are meant to be followed



EXAMPLES OF IMPULSIVE EMPLOYEES' HORRIBLE MISTAKES

You can imagine these examples of impulsive employees:
- Delivery person - carelessly unloads a truck, dropping boxes, thus breaking the contents
- Patient's Caregiver - unsafely picks-up patient, thus dropping and injuring the patient
- Warehouse employee - injures himself by incorrectly picking up a box
- Housekeeper or Janitor - spills dangerous chemicals
- Kitchen Staff - waste food, and violate health rules
- Car Valets - take joyrides in clients' cars or dent cars
- [fill-in examples - of impulsive employees you witnessed]


1 JOB WHERE IMPULSIVE PEOPLE DO SUPERBLY WELL

Believe it or not, impulsive people are sought after for one highly visible job. For this position, impulsive people are the very best.

Impulsive people are the best people to select - if you are casting a reality TV show. Why? Because reality TV shows thrive on antics and “drama” of highly impulsive cast members.

You do not produce reality TV shows. So, avoid hiring impulsive people.


PRE-EMPLOYMENT TEST = BEST WAY TO PREDICT APPLICANT'S IMPULSIVENESS

Without pre-employment testing, most managers fail to spot impulsive job applicants. Research proves interviewers overwhelmingly make incorrect predictions about applicants.

Fortunately, a pre-employment test researched and designed to forecast - or predict - an applicant's level of impulsiveness cannot be faked by a job applicant. A built-in lie section warns you if an applicant tries to fool the test.

In creating pre-employment tests - for entry-level and blue-collar job applicants - I found it crucial that the test assess applicants' dependability. A key dependability ingredient is thinking before acting, that is, being non-impulsiveness. So, the pre-employment test includes an impulsiveness prediction section, in addition to also predicting (1) honesty on test, (2) work ethic, (3) stealing concerns, and (4) substance abuse concerns.

The pre-employment test's Impulsiveness scale is a very useful - but seldom seen - prediction that managers need.


YOU CAN AVOID HIRING IMPULSIVE PEOPLE

Your management goal is to hire employees who are productive, low-turnover, safe, team players, and dependable. Such stellar employees typically are
* non-impulsive people - who think before they act
* not impulsive people - who act before they think

A pre-employment test that includes a specific impulsiveness prediction gives you the easiest, quickest and most accurate prediction of how impulsive an applicant is. Such a pre-employment test helps you avoid hiring trouble-making impulsive people. So, make sure you hire applicants seem suitable on all prediction methods you use, including getting low-risk scores on the pre-employment test's impulsiveness section.

COPYRIGHT 2009 MICHAEL MERCER, PH.D. “Dependability Forecaster(tm ) Test”

Article Source:
http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com
http://human-resources-mgt.bestmanagementarticles.com
About the Author:
Michael Mercer, Ph.D., is an industrial psychologist specializing in pre-employment tests & hiring winners. His 5 books include “Hire the Best - & Avoid the Rest(tm).” www.mercersystems.com
Dr. Mercer created 3 pre-employment tests - tests to help companies hire outstanding employees. You can get s free 14-page recommendations on “How to Hire Winners” & subscribe to his Management Newsletter at www.mercersystems.com

10 Ways to Stimulate Employee Motivation

Today's fast-moving business environment demands that the effective manager be both a well-organized administrator and highly adept in understanding people's basic needs and behaviour in the workplace. Gaining commitment, nurturing talent, and ensuring employee motivation and productivity require open communication and trust between managers and staff.

1. Understand their behaviour

People at work naturally tend to adopt instinctive modes of behaviour that are self-protective rather than open and collaborative. This explains why emotion is a strong force in the workplace and why management often reacts violently to criticisms and usually seeks to control rather than take risks. So, in order to eliminate this kind of perspective and to increase employee motivation, it is best that you influence behaviour rather than to change personalities. Insisting what you expect from your employees will only worsen the situation.

2. Be sure that people's lower-level needs are met.

People have various kinds of needs. Examples of lower-level needs are salary, job security, and working conditions. In order to increase employee motivation, you have to meet these basic needs. Consequently, failures with basic needs nearly always explain dissatisfaction among staff. Satisfaction, on the other hand, springs from meeting higher-level needs, such as responsibility progress, and personal growth. When satisfaction is met, chances are employee motivation is at hand.

3. Encourage pride

People need to feel that their contribution is valued and unique. If you are a manager, seek to exploit this pride in others, and be proud of your own ability to handle staff with positive results. This, in turn, will encourage employee motivation among your people.

4. Listen carefully

In many areas of a manager's job, from meetings and appraisals to telephone calls, listening plays a key role. Listening encourages employee motivation and, therefore, benefits both you and your staff. So make an effort to understand people's attitudes by careful listening and questioning and by giving them the opportunity to express themselves.

5. Build confidence

Most people suffer from insecurity at some time. The many kinds of anxiety that affect people in organizations can feed such insecurity, and insecurity impedes employee motivation. Your antidote, therefore, is to build confidence by giving recognition, high-level tasks, and full information. In doing so, you only not refurbish employee motivation but boost productivity as well.

6. Encourage contact

Many managers like to hide away behind closed office doors, keeping contact to a minimum. That makes it easy for an administrator, but hard to be a leader. It is far better to keep your office door open and to encourage people to visit you when the door is open. Go out of your way to chat to staff on an informal basis. Keep in mind that building rapport with your staff will effectively increase employee motivation.

7. Use the strategic thinking of all employees.

It is very important to inform people about strategic plans and their own part in achieving the strategies. Take trouble to improve their understanding and to win their approval, as this will have a highly positive influence on performance and increasing employee motivation as well.

8. Develop trust

The quality and style of leadership are major factors in gaining employee motivation and trust. Clear decision making should be coupled with a collaborative, collegiate approach. This entails taking people into your confidence and explicitly and openly valuing their contributions. By simply giving your staff the opportunity to show that you can trust them is enough to increase employee motivation among them.

9. Delegate decisions

Pushing the power of decision-making downward reduces pressure on senior management. It motivates people on the lower levels because it gives them a vote of confidence. Also, because the decision is taken nearer to the point of action, it is more likely to be correct. Consequently, by encouraging them to choose their own working methods, make decisions, and giving them responsibility for meeting the agreed goal will encourage employee motivation among your staff.

10. Appraising to motivate

When choosing methods of assessing your staff's performance, always make sure that the end result has a positive effect on employee motivation and increases people's sense of self-worth. Realistic targets, positive feedback, and listening are key factors.

If you follow these simple steps in increasing employee motivation, rest assured you will have a good working relationship with your staff at the same time boost you company's productivity. Just bear in mind that people are employed to get good results for the company. Their rates of success are intrinsically linked to how they are directed, reviewed, rewarded, trusted, and motivated by the management.

Article Source:
http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com
http://human-resources-mgt.bestmanagementarticles.com
About the Author:
John Morris For more great employee motivation related articles and resources check out http://employeemotivation.hrhaven.com

Employee Problems? How Regularly are You Having to Recruit?

Indeed if you ever have the need to recruit, pitching adverts at where your customers can see them is a great way to get employees that fit your values and business niche.

So, advertising to those already sold on the McDonalds ethic is not a bad way to get free publicity for their recruitment needs.

Why were they advertising at all? How is it that somewhere needs to ensure that they have a steady flow of employees inbound, with all the cost- penalties that entails, rather than people who stay?

In the case of McDonalds, they probably have a higher turnover of employees because of the nature of their business. Many part-timers; lots of young people; students coming and going as they pursue their education (not to mention financial needs!).

In other organizations, where they find the need to recruit regularly, this in itself should be a sign that careful consideration needs to made about the symptom - regularly needing to recruit - as well as any other factors that might indicate an environment where employees leave, regularly.

Where there is a high absence level; high turnover; a higher than expected level of customer complaints, for example, these all add up to indicating that there is potentially a far greater malaise. And that is much more likely to need closer scrutiny than just fighting the high turnover fire.

Time to get real clear on just what bugs your people - what is irritating them sufficiently that they will leave you for something else. And remember, those who leave give you real evidence - what about those who stay - and deliver way below what you would want them to.

From these people you get no hint that they are just not working as effectively as they might. And that's worse!

One challenge is, well, just what is high turnover? In many larger organizations, there have benchmarks or peer businesses that can be easily measured against. If not, a great way to check how you are doing is by a rolling average. add 12 months together and divide by 12, updating each month as you go.

Then the challenge is to beat the rolling average, by taking small steps to hang onto your people. In larger organizations, get a few of your team involved in heading off issues that are likely to irritate your people.

Better still, get individuals for all levels within the organization, team or department to form a working party, with explicit conditions that all are to be treated equally and listened to equally, creating collaborative solutions to the issues uncovered.

Bottom line is, the more you know about what is annoying your people - even little things - the better you can respond and retain your people longer.

And yes, what you get paid for as a manager is to fix these problems before they start to affect your buiness. It's what you do.

(c) 2007 "Coaching Businesses To Success".

Article Source:
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