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| Welcome Business Managers
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Vol 1, No 3, July, 2002 |
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Remember "ChainSaw Al?" As the
"CEO of Sunbeam in
the mid 90s", Al
Dunlap
cut half of the company's 12,000 jobs before finally
being ousted by the Board of Directors.
In the end, it was brought to light that the national
search firm who placed the "butcher in a pinstripe suit"
(as he was also affectionately called) never did a
background check on their candidate! The New York
Times found Dunlap was fired from two firms and was
also accused of accounting fraud.
As unbelievable as this sounds, many companies - large
and small - never bother to check references. This
month we talk about why reference checks are
necessary and give you five solid suggestions that will
help you in your reference checking.
Betsy Harper
Managing Partner
Sales and Marketing Search
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| Reference Checks - Great Info or Blowin' Smoke? |
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You must always check references. Its just
good
business. It could prevent a disaster in your company
plus provide important insights into your future
employee.
Detailed below are 5 steps to make sure that
who
you see is who
you get!
- Get the Right References.
Check to see how long each of the references has
worked with your candidate. If you are speaking to
people who have only known him or her for a short
time, this could be a red flag. Ask your candidate for
references with whom there's a history.
Also, make
sure you're given a well-rounded group: a manager, a
customer, a peer and a even a senior executive who
the candidate may not have reported to is a nice
mix.
- Ask the Right Questions. There's a great
old saying, "Ask the right questions,
and you'll get the right answers."
Ask open-ended questions. Use phrases like "tell me a
little about . .. " or "on a scale of one to ten . . ."
While there are some stock questions (how long did the
candidate work for you, exact title, etc.), keep it
conversational!
One that we like to use is asking the reference to tell
us about what was the most significant contribution
that the candidate made to the organization. That's a
great one. We've gotten everything from they "kept
the kitchen picked up all the time" to "executed the
marketing strategy and were single-handedly
responsible for the successful IPO of the company."
IMPORTANT: if you are speaking to a reference
that
has hired the candidate before, there's only ONE "yes
or no" question you should ask at the end of your
conversation -- "Would you ever hire this candidate
again?" Ask the question and then sit back and
listen.
- Check Them Yourself. Many
times we're asked, "who should check the
references?" Answer: The person who has the most to
gain -the hiring manager!
While good companies make use of their HR
department, the person who has the most to gain from
these conversations is whoever that person will be
working for. This is a golden opportunity to find out
how the candidate works, their motivations,
management style, etc. I guarantee that this quick
ten-minute conversation will be a gold mine for you - if
you ask the right questions. Don't pass it up!
- Get the Facts. The most lied about fact
on resumes is education.
Make sure you call the college or university listed and
ask to verify a degree (schools are more than happy to
do this).
If there's any discrepancy between what is on the
paper and what the school verifies,
straighten this out immediately with your candidate!
You may have a problem.
- Don't Be Afraid To Establish a
Contingency. Remember, if you haven't done the
reference check and
you want to make the offer, do it "contingent upon
successful completion of references." This way you
won't lose your candidate to a competitor and you
leave yourself a loophole in case those references don't
check out!
So, in the end, it's a pain and many people think it's a
waste of time. But, it's important! Like buying a new
home - you hope for the best but only a fool would
close the deal without that all-important home
inspection. It's just good business!
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| Feedback On "Bo!" |
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Wow! We knew we'd get some response to our last
article about the "Perfect 10." And was it ever fun to
read.
Henry White, CEO of Momenta Consulting wrote
"Hi Betsy, great content-but
couldn't you have made the picture of Bo Derek a little
larger?"
Bruce P. Allen, VP Americas of
Team Studio
Inc. wrote "I hire for the intrinsic qualities I
can't teach - positive mental attitude, a natural sense
of inquisitiveness and chemistry. In other words, give
me a 7 any day. Then I can train them myself-a much
better strategy."
Responses were all over the lot - or from 1 to 10 you
could say! Click "reply" to log in your opinion!
In the meantime - keep on looking for those
enthusiastic 7's and 8's - and don't slow down your
hiring searching for perfection!
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| We're Bookworms! |
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Okay, this won't go down as this summers' potboiler,
but if you have questions about what you can and
can't ask in an interview, what employment forms you
need to submit to hire someone, performance appraisal
guidelines, etc. etc. check out the SBANE
(Smaller Business Association of New England )
"Human Resource Guide to Recruiting, Retaining
and
Rewarding Employees."
Whether or not you have an HR department in your
company, this is an invaluable guide.
Click here to contact SBANE
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| Nothing Succeeds Like Success |
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You have to love a company that consistently racks up
stellar sales and financial performance (and has a stock
that has withstood this crazy tech market!).
Recently, our client Kronos, the premier
provider of frontline labor management software, was
named one of Massachusetts' top 100 performing
companies by The Boston Globe.
They also made
a move to enter the HR/payroll software market and
asked us to help them find their first channel sales
manager for that product in New England. We did -
and we wish them every success in this new
venture!
Click here to find out more about Kronos!
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