How can a start up avoid hiring the "wrong" people?

First, YOU need to be the right person...

Can you inspire people with your vision of a better future? (You started something - how will it do that?)

Are you willing to 'feed' your people - their spirits as well as their bodies? (Or is this all about you?)

Will you be sure to integrate everyone on your team? (How will you lead? From the front, or from the rear?)

If you have that figured out, the rest is easy. You need to be very specific in your ads or job descriptions in order to attract the right people. You need to select those who have a deep desire to contribute in the way that you need them to, and who will be team players. And you need to make sure that they are rewarded in a way that demonstrates your trust and respect.

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I definitely agree with Dr. Presser that it all starts by being the right person, and exuding the right attitude. The second step is to know what constitutes the right hire for a given organization.

But, as John points out, it goes beyond that. The hiring process needs to be well structured and identify key characteristics of what makes a great hire (or, at the very least, what would make the wrong hire).

Yes, skill is important, but it is not often measured well in the interview process. (A person's ability to answer obscure questions about the position don't necessarily translate into an ability to perform well, for example).

Fit is more important, but many organizations don't even understand their own corporate culture, or are not able to clearly articulate it.

Lastly, everyone wants to hire high performers, but many organizations are not doing things that would attract and retain high performers (because they are not high performing organizations).

Avoiding the "wrong" hire is very dependent on what constitutes wrong for any given organization. Did the employ not fit in? Did he or she have different expectations from what was initially outlined? Did he or she conceal things that made the long-term relationship problematic? Did the employer?

Being able to clearly articulate those goals and objectives and characteristics, will help create a process that attains them. If you don't know what a good hire looks like, you won't be able to hire one.

Contract a resource with a "Right to Hire" clause, can be very helpful. This will give the resource an opportunity to work with your existing employees and show "work ethic" (WE). If the "WE" is there, you and your employees will know if it's a match.

I hope this helps.

Steve

Great question Caty. I'd add that it's helpful for organizations to do some careful thinking about the values and skills they wish the candidate to have. This goes beyond just a list of competencies to more thought about what kind of person fits in with the organization's culture. In the interview process, I'd pay close attention to asking many open-ended questions that allow the prospective employee to tell me who they are rather than me assuming I know. The idea is for the candidate to tell you who they are without you having to say a word. Then you can see if their worldview fits with what you're looking for to succeed in the position.

@ Guy

I believe that who they are is only relevant respective to their passion and attitude. The other key issue is career fit, often times we believe that someone has the requisite skills but they may not be a career fit and this is another critical component.

@ Nik

I couldn't disagree with you more, I have proof that this isn't the case. The method you described is riddled with holes and all you have to do is reference the lack of success in those organizations that use the method you prescribed. The nonsense you referred to has again been validated and is also based on a scientific approach, Locust of control.

Caty,
You have received some great answers so far, I have a couple of additional thoughts.
With a start up each hire is especially critical as you are likely a small team. Hiring people not only for the their KSA's or knowledge, skills, and abilities is important, but also for how they fit into the team and their versatlity- ability to bring value beyond the dimensions of their role.
The other thing to remember that is also potentially painful is that your "start up" team may not be your long term team.
Organizations evolve and sometimes the people who help you launch may not be a good long term fit. A interesting acronym that may sound transactional is WIN- what is important now.
I believe skills sets that are complementary and values that are aligned are very important.
These people will help you create the foundation of your organization so think about and hire "whole people" not just a resume or a job description.

Many organizations don’t understand the causal relationship between good hiring processes and practices on the one hand and customer retention, employee engagement and retention, workforce productivity and business profitability on the other. Rather than seeing this as “the left hand versus the right hand”, our approach is more “hand in glove” where we look for wellness of fit between job applicants/candidates, the job for which they are applying and our client’s business goals.

At EPIC Software Corporation, we do this by actively engaging all applicants in a high-value, low cost online job applicant screening tool called the RoleFit Survey™ (RFS®) where all job applicants are screened against a leading practices and legally defensible job competency profile. A secondary benefit for our clients is that if an applicant is filtered out of one job application process they are not required to complete the assessment again, in fact, the intelligence behind our confidential and secure web-based system can identify if they are a suitable match for different job postings. This allows our clients to mine existing data to enhance their already significant ROI.

The RFS® is built upon our reliable and validated 54 Factor competency model and has been statistically proven to have a Predictive Index of 80%, nineteen times out of twenty – more valid and reliable than any other assessment tool available on the market today. We currently have 850+ jobs and unique job competency profiles in our inventory and can also create custom job descriptions and job competency profiles for our clients to meet more specific and rigorous needs. This gives our clients a reliable, secure, legally defensible turnkey approach, supported by an entire team of Industrial/Organizational Psychologists and a dedicated IT team, for a fraction of the expense typically associated with having these experts on your payroll; we make it both easy and affordable.

The RFS® is available in English, written at a 5th Grade reading comprehension level and typically takes an applicant only 10 to 12 minutes to complete. To date, over 100,000 individuals have already completed the RFS® and it is based on the science and predictive index of sound Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

The RFS-OE®, our Organizational Effectiveness optimization tool, can also be used for determining the best options for learning and career development, employee and leadership assessment and development, strategic succession planning and management and Reductions In Force - but this is for once you have already hired people versus when you are looking to hire people.

Caty, and anyone elas that might be interested, send me an email and I can send you a presentation and a link to try this approach for free.

Kind Regards/Gary

A world of puff pieces...

You can't guarantee good hires - a study published in the New Scientist (peer reviewed and non-self serving) demonstrated clearly that (despite the plethora of tools etc. available on the market place, and detailed assessment procedures used) a 15 minute interview when you're happy with the CV is equally successful to any other method.

I'd say that the nonsense about "attitude and passion" would be better substituted for a search for "professionalism" instead. High skill levels are an essential for a start up and if these are combined with professionalism you'll have a great team.

I've participated in a half dozen start ups now and the truth is that the vast majority of early hires aren't there a year or year and a half down the road. That's normal, many leave because they weren't expecting the pressure of developing processes, procedures, etc. rather than doing a job. Others leave because start ups are naturally conflicted environments (forming, norming, storming are all particularly vicious when teams are starting with no initial firm framework and each team is learning to work with others too with no experience of each other). And there are people like me who love start ups but hate the aftermath of operational environments, which aren't the kind of challenge we thrive on.

None of that makes those people "bad hires" though, it just means that they aren't going to stick around forever.

In a start up it's best to choose staff with previous start up experience (ideally new company but at least departmental) as managers, and to expect a higher rate of attrition than normal.

Fix on the tasks in hand and manage towards achieving goals - until the culture of a company has begun to emerge, it's very difficult to get a handle on who will "fit" and who won't.