Small Workplace Asks, Big Career Wins

It’s that time of year. The stockings are hung by the chimney with care, and year-end reviews salary negotiations are upon us at work. But with many workplaces facing the prospect of new salary freezes for existing employees, the prospects of significant raises are once again gloomy for 2012. What’s more, many workers feel uneasy big-ticket making demands of management in an environment still recovering from layoffs, meaning they leave reviews feeling uncompensated and even dejected. So much for holiday spirit!

But Stephanie Binetti, an executive director for tutoring firm IvySage might have found the answer in 2011. When planning her upcoming year, Binetti, who works remotely, approached the company about a problematic long-standing meeting. Could the 9:30 am meeting be pushed to 1:30 to accommodate her child’s nap? Her team conceded.  “For the team this was easy and costless,” says CEO Michele Michaelis Slifka, “And for Stephanie it really helped to reduce her stress.” Both Binetti and the company  ended the year on a high-note and had a much happier 2011 as a result.

Small ask, big reward. In science, it’s called the minimum effective dose—the smallest dose that will affect the desired outcome in an experiment. In the case of your career, we’re talking about happiness, job satisfaction and general well-being. And it just might be the answer to ending the year on a high note—and starting 2012 on the path to a happier, healthier, more motivated career.

“The review meeting has been a very one-way meeting for the past few years for individuals who feel—with good reason—that asking for a significant raise isn’t an option,” says David Lewis, president and CEO of OperationsInc, a human resources outsourcing and consulting firm. “We used to talk pre-2008 about going into a review prepared to make your case for an increase or a big enough bonus. These days the attitude is very yes sir, no sir, take what I can get.”

According to Tina Chen, VP of Operations at HR Outsourcing firm Employco USA, many job seekers are tied to the notion that monetary compensation from a salary is the only factor to consider. “What many employees fail to see is that there are many other benefits that hold “monetary value” outside of what’s directly reflected on a paycheck. Just because a company isn’t in a position to provide monetary increases doesn’t mean that they can’t offer other extras in its place. There are many small asks that can  make the workplace more attractive.

While the state of things are admittedly less than ideal, Lewis concedes that it is possible to “find some small victory” in asks that are non-compensation oriented, but can have significant impact on your day-to-day or overall career goals. Anthony Morrison, vice president of Cachinko, a job-matching and online networking resource, agrees, and says the best approach to finding the right asks for you is to take advantage of the weeks leading into the holidays to reflect on the work you’ve done in 2011. “What kind of employee are you? How could you have done better? Where do you want to head in 2012? Take in those questions and you’ll find the best ‘small ask’ for you.”

“Flexible scheduling is a good one,” says Lewis, but stresses to be careful if your position is more task-oriented than strictly nine-to-five. In other words, don’t ask to come in at ten and leave promptly at six. “Best to leave the end time off of the ask,” he says, and consider the working schedules of higher ups. “Your arrival and departure times could take you out of the office when higher ups get most of their thinking and meetings done, leaving you on the outside looking in.”

In a best-case scenario your manager has his eyes on career development, but often forward-thinking or succession planning isn’t a priority for managers who are blinded by day-to-day tasks. “Every review has a component of goals and objectives,” Lewis says. Use the opportunity to ask for a formal plan of development, whether through mentorship, involvement in bigger projects or another path to advancement.

“You may be uncomfortable initiating the conversation,” Lewis says, “But suggest steps. Say ‘Next year at this time I want to be in a better position to be promoted. I’d like to find ways to achieve that goal.’” Instead of asking the question, make the suggestion, he says. “Go in with a plan on that basis, it can and will potentially expand your horizon within the company and beyond.”

Formal training, mentorship or inclusion in projects can help to bridge the gap between where you are in your career and where you want to be, but they also have another advantage when discussed in a review setting: they are mutually beneficial for you and the company. “The best small asks you can pick are those that help everyone, not just you,” says Morrison. “Will an hour of flex time make you more productive? Cab a more relaxed schedule ensure that your attendance record is better?” Presenting both the ask and the reward as good for the company can be key in getting a positive response.

Of course, you could get shut down. Making a minor request and being denied can be a blow, says Lewis, but for a lot of people, it can be an important turning point in their career. “This can prove a serious fork in the road for an employee to decide how angry they really are in terms of working longer hours with no raises for a company who seems to be taking advantage of its workers,” he says. If you get stiff-armed over something like career advancement or flexibility, it might hurt to know, he says, “but at least you know. It certainly takes the mystery out of your value to the company.”

But even if your request is met with positive news—and your manager makes promises to meet them in 2012, Lewis adds that no rewards will be seen without follow up. Especially when it comes to mentoring or increased project assignments or involvement he says. “It’s one thing to put out there at the review, but [after the fact] you have to walk the fine line of persistence and pain-in-the ass to see results,” he says, then pauses. “But you probably want to lean towards pain-in-the-ass.

                                         ======Meghan Casserly=====

5 Ways To Spot A Bad Boss In An Interview

A boss can literally, make or break your career. Here are five ways to spot the bad ones before they become yours.

A great boss can make you feel engaged and empowered at work, will keep you out of unnecessary office politics, and can identify and grow your strengths. But a bad boss can make the most impressive job on paper (and salary) quickly unbearable. Not only will a bad boss make you dislike at least 80% of your week, your relationships might suffer, too. A recent study conducted at Baylor University found that stress and tension caused by an abusive boss “affects the marital relationship and subsequently, the employee’s entire family.” Supervisor abuse isn’t always as blatant as a screaming temper tantrum; it can include taking personal anger out on you for no reason, dismissing your ideas in a meeting, or simply, being rude and critical of your work, while offering no constructive ways to improve it.  Whatever the exhibition of bad boss behavior, your work and personal life will suffer. Merideth Ferguson, PH.D., co-author of the study and assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at Baylor explains that “it may be that as supervisor abuse heightens tension in the relationship, the employee is less motivated or able to engage in positive interactions with the partner and other family members.”

There are many ways to try and combat the effects of a bad boss, including confronting him or her directly to work towards a productive solution, suggesting that you report to another supervisor, or soliciting the help of human resources.  But none of those tactics gurantee improvement, and quite often, they’ll lead to more stress. The best solution is to spot a bad boss—before they become yours! Here are five ways to tell whether your interviewer is a future bad boss.

1. Pronoun usage. Performance consultant John Brubaker says that the top verbal tell a boss gives is in pronoun choice and the context it is used. If your interviewer uses the term “you” in communicating negative information ( such as, “you will deal with a lot of ambiguity”), don’t expect the boss to be a mentor.  If the boss chooses the word “I” to describe the department’s success—that’s a red flag.  If the interviewer says “we” in regards to a particular challenge the team or company faced, it may indicate that he or she deflects responsibility and places blame.

2. Concern with your hobbies. There is a fine line between genuine relationship building, and fishing for information, so use your discretion on this one. If you have an overall good impression of the potential boss it may be that he or she is truly interested in the fact that you are heavily involved in charity work, and is simply getting to know you. On the other hand, the interviewer may be trying to determine whether you have too many commitments outside of work. The interviewer can’t legally ask if you are married, or have kids, so digging into your personal life can be a clever way to understand just how available you are.

3. They’re distracted. The era of email, BlackBerrys and smartphones have made it “okay” for people to develop disrespectful communication habits in the name of work. Particularly in a frenzied workplace, reading email while a person is speaking, multi-tasking on conference calls and checking the message behind that blinking BlackBerry mid-conversation has become the norm of business communications. But, regardless of his or her role in the company, the interviewer should be striving to make a good impression—which includes shutting down tech tools to give you undivided attention. If your interviewer is glancing at emails while you’re speaking, taking phone calls, or late to the interview, don’t expect a boss who will make time for you.

4. They can’t give you a straight answer. Caren Goldberg, Ph.D. is an HR professor at the Kogod School of Business at American University. She says a key “tell” is vague answers to your questions. Listen for pauses, awkwardness, or overly-generic responses when you inquire what happened to the person who held the position you are interviewing for, and/or what has created the need to hire. (For example, if you are told the person was a “bad fit,” it may indicate that the workplace doesn’t spend much time on employee-development, and blames them when things don’t work out).

You should also question turnover rates, how long people stay in given roles, and what their career path has been. All of these answers can indicate not only if the boss is one people want to work for, but whether pay is competitive, and employees are given a career growth plan.

5. They’ve got a record. Ask the potential boss how long he or she has been at the company, in the role, and where he or she worked before coming to it to get a feel for his or management style, and whether it’s what you respond to.  For example, bosses making a switch from a large corporation to a small company may lead with formality. On the other hand, entrepreneurs tend to be passionately involved in business, which can be a help or a hindrance, depending on your workstyle.

Goldberg also recommends searching the site eBossWatch, where you read reviews that former employees have given to a boss. If you’re serious about the position, she also suggests reaching to the former employee whose spot you are interviewing for, and asking for their take on the workplace. (LinkedIn makes this task easy to do). The former employee’s recount may not necessarily reflect your potential experience, but it can help you to determine whether his or her description of the job and company “jibes” with what the potential boss said.

Five New Management Metrics You Need To Know

This is a guest post from James Slavet of venture firm Greylock Partners, which invested in Facebook, LinkedIn, Groupon, Pandora, Redfin and One Kings Lane. Slavet’s investments include Groupon, Redfin and One Kings Lane.

After years of leading teams and then, at Greylock, watching some of the best startup CEOs in the world, I’ve learned that the most important metrics are often ones you never read about on the income statement or in the financial press.

“If you can measure it, you can manage it” is a business saying that goes way back. Maybe it was Henry Ford who said that, or Peter Drucker? Regardless, most managers only measure outputs, not inputs, which is like telling a Little League team to score more runs, rather than actually explaining how to swing a bat and make contact with the ball. Similarly, most companies measure traffic, revenue or earnings, without considering how to improve the company at an atomic level: how to make a meeting better, or an engineer more productive. Here are five metrics that great teams should measure:

Metric 1: Flow State Percentage

Jobs that require a lot of brainpower—software programming for instance—also demand deep concentration. You know that feeling when you’re “in the zone,” cranking on something. That is flow. Unfortunately, most of us are constantly interrupted during the day with meetings, emails, texts, or colleagues who want to talk about stuff. These interruptions that move us out of “flow state” increase R&D cycle times and costs dramatically. Studies have shown that each time flow state is disrupted it takes fifteen minutes to get back into flow, if you can get back at all. And programmers who work in the top quartile of proper (ie uninterrupted) work environments are several times more productive than those who don’t.

Ideally programmers and other knowledge workers can spend 30% – 50% of their day in uninterrupted concentration. Most office environments don’t even come close. To get started, ask your engineers to track for a few days their personal flow state percentages: how many hours each day are they in flow, divided by the number of total hours they’re at the office. And then brainstorm ways that the team can move this number up. For example, perhaps there’s a little paper sign at each person’s desk that says “Go Away, I’m Cranking.” Or maybe you have a day where no meetings are allowed. Tom Demarco has written insightfully on the topic of flow.

Metric 2: The Anxiety-Boredom Continuum

Years ago, back when I was younger and cooler, I took a salsa class with my wife-to-be where the instructor said something that really stuck with me. He said that his goal was to keep all of his students in the pocket between boredom and anxiety – but closer to anxiety. In other words, we shouldn’t be so overwhelmed that we break down and give up, but we also shouldn’t be coasting either. He kept the rhythm fast enough so that we were challenged, but not so difficult that we lost the steps completely. And he kept tuning the difficulty level of the class to stretch but not break us.

This same anxiety-to-boredom continuum also applies to managing people. Star performers can get bored easily, and often function best when they’re expected to rise to great challenges. You want expectations to be high, but not completely overwhelming. With this in mind, check in with your employees periodically about where they are on this continuum, while also keeping an eye out for signs of where they stand. If they have low energy, or are showing up late and leaving early, they may be bored. If they’re responding to small setbacks with anger or frustration, or getting sick a lot, they may be pushing too hard.

Metric 3: Meeting Promoter Score

Most meetings suck. And they’re expensive: a one-hour meeting of six software engineers costs $1,000 at least. People who don’t have the authority to buy paperclips are allowed to call meetings every day that cost far more than that. Nobody tracks whether meetings are useful, or how they could get better. And all you have to do is ask. In the last minute of a meeting, ask the participants to each rate from 1 to 10 how effective the meeting was, with one suggestion for making the meeting better. It can be on a scrap of paper, or a simple web form. Verne Harnish has some good ideas about running better meetings.

Metric 4: Compound Weekly Learning Rate

My three year old son just asked me what the word “expert” means. When I answered, he nodded and asked “so am I an expert about superheroes yet?” The best leaders hold on to this relentless curiosity. Joi Ito wrote recently about “neotony”, the retention of childlike attributes in adulthood. This ability to learn is like the compounding interest on an investment: after two or three years, a relentless learner stands head and shoulders above his peers. Jeff Weiner, the CEO of LinkedIn, referred me to Joi’s posting. Jeff is one of the most relentless learners I know, and this quality is an essential element of his success and the success of his teams. So try asking your team this question: how did you get 1% better this week? Did you learn something valuable from our customers, or make a change to our product that drove better results? As your team gets into a learning rhythm, you can review this as a group. 1% per week adds up.

Metric 5: Positive Feedback Ratio

 You can learn as much from John Gottman as you can from John F. Kennedy about being a great communicator. Gottman, a psychologist, is the author of “Why Marriages Succeed or Fail”.

In his research, he found that marriages that succeed tend to have five times as many positive interactions as negative ones. And when a couple falls below that ratio, their relationship falls down too.

The same is true at the office, where you’re often connected for years in relationships with people who can either become wary of your criticisms or eager to give you their best effort. Catch people doing good things. Never miss a chance to say something nice, even if you feel a little silly. Then when you have feedback on areas to improve, they‘ll really listen. It may be hard to manage to the 5:1 ratio at the office, but you should be mindful of the balance.

So, there you have it, 5 metrics that will never show up in the best companies’ financial statements or a Wall Street Journal article, but are the kinds of reasons those companies succeed. Tracking these five metrics isn’t glamorous. But it’s something everyone can do. And it really works.

How to Make a Trade Show Profitable

If you’re going to spend thousands of dollars for a trade show booth, get your money’s worth.

This week I spent time filling out the application to attend the largest trade show in my industry. The small booth costs $3,995, just for the raw space. Add to that the airfare, lodging, meals, and costs of having sales reps in the booth instead of in the office, as well as the time and labor before the show getting displays ready, and I spend close to $10,000 to get us there. While that’s a good bit of money, I know it is worth spending, because my team will typically do three to five times that in sales on the trade show floor, and that’s not counting additional business after the show.

However, there are a lot of companies that exhibit at this show which don’t do as well as we do—yet they have paid the same money, and often times, a lot more, to be there.  When they return home, I imagine they lament that it was not a good show for them and worry about how they are going to recoup their expenses.  This moment of hindsight comes too late.

Here’s how I recommend you make a trade show profitable—ahead of time:

Buy a booth you can afford (and then some).

The first mistake companies make is thinking that they have to go big or go home, often taking booth spaces that are far too expensive to make sense. Having a big booth may intimidate your competitors, but it does little to impress your sales prospects–and they are the reason you are there.  What customers want is a well-organized booth with all the products they came to see.  I have taken the same 10X10 booth at every show for the last seven years. It’s enough for us to display all our major product lines, and the break-even point is far easier to reach for us than it must be for companies with giant booths and a huge staff to man them.

Strategically organize your booth.

The second problem is how companies arrange their booths.  The typical set-up of a booth is a table at the front, providing a place to make literature easily available to passing prospects.  Note the choice of words here: “passing prospects”.  A table at the front creates a barrier to customers, and the best you can get with it is a prospect that passes you by.  When I set up my booth, all literature goes at the back of the table, and the table is turned perpendicular rather than parallel to the aisle, drawing customers into the booth, rather than repelling them.  I want them to look at my product first, then take the time to ask questions about it, and finally, once they have connected with my sales reps, to have access to the catalogues they can take with them to remember the connection they have made.

Don’t get me started about chairs.

I allow one chair in our booth—with the strict rule that it is for customers only. Sales reps who are sitting down look low-energy and their lack of enthusiasm translates directly to how their products are perceived by potential customers. Successful reps know every prospect passing by is a potential customer, and they‘re at the edge of the booth, working the aisle to convert prospects to customers.

Eliminate distractions.

Don’t allow technology in the booth. I know, I am ‘the Antichrist’.  But think about it this way. First came the scanner—that awful device that would save you from having to collect business cards and enter data manually when you returned to the office.  It eradicated the paperwork but it also eliminated the handshake.  Now, instead of putting the emphasis on making contact with prospective customers at shows, companies spend thousands of dollars to have their sales reps wave an electronic wand over someone’s badge, hoping it will magically make them a sale later.  Get real.  Most business originating from a tradeshow is done at the tradeshow—whether in the form of an actual sale, or a connection made between the seller and the buyer, communicating valuable information. Buyers go to a show and take away with them both product information and people knowledge.  They remember the sales reps who spent time talking with them about what they were looking for—not the rep who wasted five minutes of their time trying to get their badge scanner to work.  As a business owner, I never spend money on a scanner.  I train my reps on how to get the information in a way that will make a sale, not a database entry.

Smart phones are not allowed.

Not for my sales team. They cannot check their email, talk to the home office, text their significant other, or anything else while on duty in my company’s booth. They are there for one purpose—to connect with our customers. Anything that takes away from that is a liability. Most companies do not make this a rule, and even encourage distracted behavior by emailing their employees while they are working the show, or requiring them to have their smart phones on site. Can you really think of a person you are less interested in stopping to talk to than someone who is engrossed in the inner world of his phone? I can’t.

Leave laptops at the hotel, too.

Most sales reps will use a laptop for a purpose other than demonstrating something useful to potential customers. Take for example the reps whose booths I skipped at an art show a few weeks ago.  They were playing solitaire! As I looked at them, clearly wanting information about their offerings, they missed the cue—busy playing hands on their screen.  I left their booth, and did not even take a business card.  If they were too busy with distractions to talk to me at a venue specifically geared towards selling,  I already know what their customer service and follow-up is going to look like.

Choose wisely. Who will staff your booth?

A lot of company managers look at tradeshows as a place to send the b-team, telling themselves that they really just need greeters to distribute catalogs.  If you think of a tradeshow as a place to “hand out information,” you are wasting your money and would be better off staying home and doing a mailing.  A tradeshow is a place to meet customers, to make a valuable connection with them, as well as to start—and, hopefully, complete—sales.  How many times have you stopped at a booth and attempted to ask questions about a product, only to be “helped” by someone who did not know the products well enough to give you an answer?  How many trade show contacts have told you they would have to get you additional information after the show when you had been ready to purchase right there in the booth?  

No matter how good your products are, they will be dwarfed by the power of the people you put in your booth.  Give them the right tools, establish the ground rules, and make sure you put the best people you have in the booth so they come back with orders.  

====Vanessa Merit Nornberg=====

The Four Worst Hiring Mistakes

The problem might be you.

In this job market, you might expect that hiring new employees would be easy. But many entrepreneurs still struggle to find good people. In a recent survey of Inc. 5000 CEOs, hiring edged out even the economy and government regulation as their top concern, with nearly one-quarter of respondents identifying it as the biggest challenge they had faced in the preceding three months.

To be sure, not every candidate is a rock star. But if you keep turning up dud after dud, the problem may not be the applicant pool. In a quest to find the best workers, entrepreneurs sometimes wind up adopting hiring practices that are actually detrimental to their companies. Here are the four most common problems that afflict interviewers.

Are you a narcissistic boss?

Without a deliberate hiring strategy, founders often gravitate toward job candidates who share their personality.

Are you a perfectionist boss?

Wonder why it's so hard to find good people? Maybe you're asking too much.

Are you overthinking your hires?

So what if you make a hiring mistake? Here's how to beat analysis paralysis.

How to make hiring less frantic

Recruiting is like selling: You need to develop a pipeline and build relationships. Here's how

=====April Joyner=====

How to Make Hiring Less Frantic

Recruiting is like selling: You need to develop a pipeline and build relationships. Here's how.

At some companies, new employees are emergency purchases. With limited time and funds, entrepreneurs seek employees only when it's absolutely necessary for their company's continued growth. Then they frantically attempt to fill the positions.

Recently, that became an issue for Nick Bock. In the early years of his company, Five Nines Technology Group, an IT consulting firm in Lincoln, Nebraska, Bock didn't have to worry about hiring. He added only a handful of positions a year. And because Five Nines had quickly earned a strong local reputation, the office received a steady stream of resumés from computer engineers, even when there were no jobs to fill.

But lately Bock has struggled. Eighteen months ago, after taking on several new clients, Five Nines had to more than double its head count, from 23 to 47 employees. Bock hadn't anticipated how difficult it would be to staff up. After quickly tapping out his leads, Bock scrambled to find suitable candidates. Meanwhile, his team of engineers was putting in extra-long days to handle all the new work. One person quit. Bock tried to smooth things over by giving out bonuses.

Recruiting is a lot like sales. It involves developing a pipeline and building relationships. Bock realizes that now and has made recruiting a priority.

He schedules meetings with promising engineers even when Five Nines doesn't have any openings. And when there is a vacancy, Bock publicizes it on job boards and the company's Facebook and Twitter pages. He also asks employees to spread the word. Bock personally reviews each job listing, occasionally recommending changes to better attract the attention of skilled candidates. He also tries to scoop up talent at the earliest opportunity. If a candidate seems like a good fit, he will extend a job offer before finishing the round of interviews.

Bock's new approach has already had a big effect on Five Nines. The company now hires at least one employee every six weeks. Still, Bock thinks he could do more to streamline the hiring process. "I would love to always have one or two people queued up and ready to go," says Bock. "I don't know if we'll ever get to that, but if you don't have something you're striving for, it's easy to slack off."

Treatment:

Make recruiting an ongoing process. Maintain a list of prospective hires, even if there are no immediate openings.

Create an employee referral program. Also tap social networks, professional organizations, industry trade shows, and local universities.

Stay in contact with talented prospects through occasional lunch dates or meetings.

=====April Joyner=====

Are You Overthinking Your Hires?

So what if you make a mistake? Here's how to beat analysis paralysis when hiring a new employee.

Any job seeker knows from experience how much first impressions matter. In fact, they probably matter too much. A single interview, after all, rarely uncovers enough information to determine whether someone would be a good employee. To compensate for this shortcoming, many entrepreneurs follow the adage to hire slowly, fire fast. But hiring too slowly can be just as counterproductive as making a snap judgment, especially when entrepreneurs tack additional steps onto the interview process without clear objectives in mind.

Gary Jaffe, CEO of The Booksource, a St. Louis-based distributor of schoolbooks with 135 employees, made that mistake last fall when he began looking for a new sales director. The search ended up taking five months—two months longer than the contract period for the recruiter he enlisted. Each candidate was required to go through two personality assessments and about four hours' worth of interviews, meeting with each of the company's three managers. After sitting in on each interview, Jaffe privately questioned the candidates he found promising. His impressions of candidates would often start out positive but deteriorate as the interviews dragged on. "In the first two hours, I would have absolutely hired this person," says Jaffe. "By lunch, he was questionable."

There are many reasons entrepreneurs prolong the hiring process. For starters, adding employees at a small company is tricky. "Once you insert a new person into the mix, you change the team's dynamics completely," says Lanny Goodman, CEO of Management Technologies, an Albuquerque-based firm that trains entrepreneurs in management techniques. Previous hiring mistakes can also cause entrepreneurs to drag their feet: Because they second-guess their opinions, entrepreneurs add extra rounds of interviews and assessments.

That was the case for Jaffe. After firing two of the company's executives, he had begun to doubt his ability to make good hiring decisions. "It's so frustrating when you get it wrong," says Jaffe. "It takes so much effort to fit this person, and you say, 'Why is this not working?' " He was determined to get it right this time.

One of the most promising applicants for the sales director position was referred by a trusted source. Jaffe's father, Sandy, who founded The Booksource and had been its CEO, had met the candidate in a business mentoring group. But despite the family recommendation, personality tests, and rounds of interviews, Jaffe was still unsure. So he invited the candidate out to dinner. After an evening of polite small talk and Southwestern cuisine, Jaffe finally made an offer.

But even after all that, Jaffe is again trying to fill the position. Less than three weeks after the sales director joined the company, Jaffe fired him.

No matter how many times you interview candidates, there's no way to accurately predict how well they will perform. Entrepreneurs who drag out the hiring process put off the ultimate test of a candidate: time on the job. Plus, as the months pass and pressure mounts to fill critical positions, entrepreneurs sometimes find themselves making the same hasty decisions they sought to avoid in the first place.

Treatment:

Set clear objectives for each stage of the interview process. Make sure follow-up interviews aren't rehashing the same discussions from previous meetings.

Limit the number of people evaluating candidates. It's wise to seek a second opinion, but involving more than two or three other managers can make it difficult to get a clear assessment.

Trust your instincts. As the hiring process drags on, you are more likely to ignore red flags.

========April Joyner=========

Are You A Perfectionist Boss?

Wonder why it's so hard to find good people? Maybe you're asking too much.

What matters more, skills or attitude? Entrepreneurs often say that they value intangible qualities above bullet points on a resumé. But in practice, many are hesitant to hire an employee who hasn't already held an identical job. And sometimes the quest to find the best candidate becomes a hunt for the person with the longest list of credentials.

Paul Millman has reasons not to fall into this trap. He is the president of Chroma Technology, a Bellows Falls, Vermont-based manufacturer of optical filters for scientific equipment. Before Millman co-founded Chroma, in 1991, he held a string of short-lived sales jobs, including one at a company with which he now competes. Millman had no scientific training, but he absorbed a lot selling optical filters, enough to launch a competing business.

Millman's views haven't exactly been reflected in Chroma's hiring process, however. Chroma is owned and run by its 98 employees. Four of Chroma's employees serve on a steering committee, which makes most management decisions for the company.

Last fall, when Chroma added some customer service positions, the committee created a job posting requiring applicants to have either a biology degree or at least five years of experience in the optical filters industry. The committee figured that sort of experience would come in handy, given that the new reps would also be charged with helping customers—mostly biologists—select the right optical filters for their needs. But very few people applied. The positions sat empty for six months.

Millman was perplexed by the stringent requirements. "I didn't have those credentials," he says. And in the company's early days, people routinely performed tasks in which they hadn't been formally trained. One of Millman's co-founders was even able to develop software for Chroma's manufacturing equipment, despite never having had a programming job. Plus, says Millman, Chroma already has some scientists on staff.

Every company wants the best employees it can afford, but some businesses have unrealistic expectations. "Sometimes companies expect a combination of Superman and Batman," says Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, the author of Great People Decisions and a partner at the executive recruiting firm Egon Zehnder International. In reality, the best employees are those who buy into the founder's vision and are willing to do what it takes to achieve it, says Saras Sarasvathy, an associate professor at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. Those aren't necessarily the people with the most experience. While studying how successful serial entrepreneurs approach decision making, Sarasvathy found that they placed a greater emphasis on a candidate's aptitude and commitment than on a candidate's previous positions.

That is wise because an impressive resumé may give a false impression about a candidate's potential, says Boris Groysberg, a professor at Harvard Business School and the author of Chasing Stars. In research for his book, he found that star employees from various businesses owed much of their success to their companies' processes and cultures. When these employees moved to other companies that lacked the same infrastructure, most failed to match their past performances.

Ultimately, Chroma did manage to find a new customer service rep with a biology degree. But it also ended up hiring two reps who did not meet the criteria in the job posting, and both of them have worked out just fine.

Treatment:

Decide which qualifications are truly essential and which skills can be learned on the job. An excessive list of requirements may discourage good people from applying.

Develop an on-boarding program. Even the most experienced hires need time to adjust to a new environment.

               

======April Joyner======