Hiring: Beware the “ACE OF SPADES” – by Patrick Valtin

There are four aces in hiring. It is not about playing cards, it is about picking people who will help you win – and won’t make you feel like you lost your last dollars playing poker. Use the four aces of selection to systematically evaluate each applicant: Performance mindset, willingness, know-how and personality. Like playing cards, these Aces are your most important “hiring cards,” yet they are not equal in value. You must know exactly what you want to measure and in which sequence.

• Performance mindset: Your Ace of Diamonds. Detecting top players who are naturally high performers is your highest priority. Use “detectors” suggested by our No Fail Hiring™ System in the interview to estimate if an applicant has a strong performance mindset – or not. This factor is the most important one – you hire people for results, not for just “doing things.”
  
  
• Willingness: Your Ace of Hearts. To a large degree you can improve technical skills; but how do you improve attitude? Never compromise with this vital fact: people get hired for their hard skills and get fired for their lack of soft ones. A positive attitude is such a vital soft skill
  that you want to measure it as soon as you can in the hiring process. Willingness to learn, to do new things, to do more than what is expected, to handle problems, etc. are so important! Is estimated that over 77% of hiring failures are due to lack of willingness.
  
  
• Know-how: Your Ace of Clubs. You want to have competent employees who can at least master the basic technical skills as required on the job. The golden rule is: never trust what they say, always test what they should be able to do. Know-how is measured in the doing, not in the talking. you want to know if an applicant can do accounting? Put him or her to the test for 5 to 10 minutes, by challenging hi/her on a practical accounting issue.
  
  
• Personality: Your Ace of Spades. We measure personality last; not because it is the least important evaluation criterion but because if you let yourself be influenced by a “nice” personality, it could offer trouble, or even, potentially, destroy your business! The golden rule is:
  never trust what you see, because you don’t know if it is real! Too many employers fail to detect the difference between temporary personality and the lasting one. don’t fall in the trap of the visible – it might change the next day or week. 

COMING UP
Detecting if an applicant possesses the right hard and soft skills in less than one hour is hardly an exact science. But you can maximize the objectivity of your evaluation with the No-Fail Hiring System. Attend out upcoming workshop on September 8, 2011: visit www.nofailhiring.com/events.php  to find out how you can double or even triple the effectiveness of your hiring procedure.

To your success,
Patrick Valtin President/CEO
M2-TEC USA, INC. Author of “No Fail Hiring”