How to Hire the Best: Notes from Dr. Sabrina Starling
In this blog post, we are going to discuss How to Hire the Best. This is a vitally important topic, as the health and success of your business depend on it. We will be drawing on insights from Dr. Sabrina Starling, The Business Psychologist and international best-selling author of the How to Hire the Best series and The 4 Week Vacation™
Today, we'll be taking a look at some of her most valuable insights!
We need to shift our mindset.
What do we need to stop and start thinking? From "how do I get someone to work here?" we need to shift to "how can I be an employer of choice for the A-players we want in our team?" And in order to answer this question, you should first be clear about what an "A-player" looks like.
A-players
These team members are known for being intrinsically motivated. Because their drive comes from within, these team members are not limited by their talents, skills, and attitudes in order to succeed in their tasks. They're the team players who simply want to do a great job and don't have to be paid or rewarded to make them work harder. Consequently, they are often high-performers who contribute to a positive team dynamic and culture.
An A-player asks "what's needed for me to support this team" versus, "Hey, Joe, over there, he's one of those pawn pirates. He's constantly stirring stuff up and making trouble around here." Therefore, A-players are looking at how they can make their team better and, and not pointing fingers.
A-players are great communicators and want to know the big picture. So, if you're the business owner and your only goal is to "have more customers walk in our store" that's both boring and insufficient! They want to know the big picture. A-players are looking forward to being a part of something greater than themselves. They want to know what you're enthusiastic about, or what you're doing for the people you serve both on your team and your customers, as well as the impact that your business has on the community.
Are you ready for the best part?
A-players want to know what their role is and what results you want them to deliver to support your vision!
Attract A-players
In order to attract A-players, you need to be an employer of choice – "why would A-players want to work with me?"
How can you do this? By looking at:
What is going on in your team that might be repelling A-players?
Take note of what rules and procedures you may have put in place lately because a pawn pirate has recently done something disappointing, and how would such policies and procedures be regarded by an A-player. You should also have this in mind: Did I put those policies because I have bad team members and if I had A-players, would I need those rules?
What do A-players want?
This means identifying what they appreciate most about the businesses they worked in. Get to know your A-players better. Talk to them and ask them: "What do you appreciate working here?" "What do you like about our workplace?"
Take notes and make sure you capture their exact phrases. Why is this important?
The psychology of A-players is: WE HANG TOGETHER.
Our language is key. We want to speak the language of A-players in order to attract them!
If your A-players express their delight at working for you because you treat them like family and with respect, or they state that the teamwork is fantastic, or even compliment you on your attention, and you think "well, it's not unique or special since that's how we do it here it's not a big deal!" Apparently, it is! Because your A-players witness and say something about them.
That's a great way to also make a distinction on how your business is different from others in the area.
What are our immutable laws?
This part is crucial: we need to define our immutable laws.
Our immutable laws are our core values. They are how we do life and how we do business. They are the things that we will never compromise on no matter what.
The advantage of being governed by immutable laws is when we define them, it will attract the right people to us. When we hire people whose immutable laws are similar to ours, subsequently, we trust them! We can rely on them and trust that if anything happens, and we don't have policies and procedures for that specific situation, A-players who have immutable laws that are in line with ours, may act in a way that will make us feel good. They may handle it in a manner that we would not, but the outcome will be something we will be proud of since they adhere to immutable laws that match ours.
Identifying your immutable laws can also help you determine who's fit and not a good fit in your team. More importantly, declaring your immutable laws we're actually saying: "This is how we do things around here, and these are immutable, so if you break these laws, you won't be here anymore."
What is my vision?
We have a tool in place to help us filter our choices on a daily basis if we have a clear vision. Moreover, having a clear vision, a clear direction on where you want to go will help you and your business to get to where you're heading. And your A-players NEED to know what the vision is. They need to be bought into it. They need to know where you're going so they can help you get there.
Hiring A-players
Know the word on the street about your business.
Utilize the Employee Net Promoter Score:
- Ask your current team members: On a scale of 1-10 how likely are you to promote a family member or a friend to work here?"
- Your 9s and 10s are PROMOTERS, 7s and 8s are PASSIVES, 6s and below are DETRACTORS.
- Then ask a follow-up question: What is the main reason for the response you gave above?"
- If you have more DETRACTORS than PROMOTERS, and you look at their responses, you will start to get a sense of the word on the street may not be so good about this business right now.
- Think of "what can I do to improve what my team members are saying?"
Start recruiting your A-players and every time you hire, your goal is to hire up.
So if you have a team of C-players, identify the first one that you have to replace. Start recruiting for that role and fill it with a B-player, or if you can find, an A-player. And constantly try to improve the quality of the team members you have. It's never a good thing to just fire the entire team -- that's going to cause way too much chaos.
Retain your A-players
- Identify your A-players in the team.
- Devote your time and attention to them.
- Ask what support they need, what their challenges are, and how you can help them be more successful in their job.
- Do weekly 1-to-1 meetings with your A-players.
- Once you've hired A-players, devote a 30-day intensive onboarding to training them and you're accessible to answer questions, lay out their training, and what you're going to support them in learning and accomplishing. So that you're setting them up for success from the beginning with you.
The first step is admitting that there is a problem. If your team is in shambles, it's time for a change. Take a good, hard look at your current employees and see who isn't measuring up. It's important to be honest with yourself during this process; if someone isn't meeting your expectations, they need to go but you should be strategic in replacing them. Most importantly, keep your A-players. These are the people that you want to keep around; they're your top performers for a reason. Not only that, but they can help you to attract and recruit more A-players.
What do you think? Do you have any other tips on How to Hire the Best? Let us know in the comments below!
Yigal Adato
Yigal is a 3rd generation pawn broker, and is now a mentor, coach and educator with the pawnbroking industry.
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