In a competitive job market, it gets more and more difficult to find the right candidates for your open positions. If you then are looking to fill a position that requires some specific skill sets, finding someone with the right experience can be even more challenging. In traditional hiring methodologies, you would first filter your candidates for experience and then interview them for softer qualities such as attitude and aptitude. I want to suggest that you flip that model on its head.
While having an employee who is familiar with what you do for a business is important, if you find the right candidate with the right attitude and an aptitude for learning, you can teach them the specifics of the job for them to grow into a successful employee. However, the best trained person with a bad attitude can be a cancer in your business.
One caveat in this hiring methodology though; since you may pay this employee less to come aboard since you have to bear the cost of training them, be sure to give them a raise as soon as they start producing like your other employees or you will quickly lose them to your competition who is willing to pay market rate. The last thing you want to do is invest all of the time in hiring and training someone just to lose them in a year once they become valuable to your organization.
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Michael Giuffrida from Southington CT has been operating businesses since 1997. He is an experienced entrepreneur in business management, profitable growth, business valuation, mergers and acquisitions, and information technology managed services.
You can teach skills, but not a positive attitude. I would far rather bring someone up-to-speed on our business and have a great person who fits with our company culture and that staff and clients enjoy dealing with than the most credentialed person who does not work well with others.