Every company, whether small or large, wants to hire the right people. That’s why corporate recruiters and small business owners hire people with the right background and the right degrees, right? Wrong. Education and work experience are only minor details to consider when looking for the best employees. Those who hire people based off of what looks good on paper, or just simply to fill positions in the company are missing the point. Hiring a new employee should be viewed as another opportunity to improve business. Hire the best employees; don’t settle.
One of my favorite entrepreneurship gurus, Guy Kawasaki, gives some very good advice that business owners and corporate recruiters should think about when looking for new employees.
The Bozo Explosion: A players, by definition, hire A players. B players hire C players, and C players hire D players. So pretty soon you’ll be surrounded by Z players.
You can avoid the bozo explosion by remembering these key takeaways from Guy’s presentation at Stanford:
Hire infected people
Infected people are the individuals that are passionate about your company, product, or service. You want them on your team because they believe in the company and want to see it grow and succeed. It is great if you can employees that have the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for the job, but an extra dimension of passion for the company of product yeilds even greater benefits.
Hire better than yourself
If you want the company to continue to succeed, hire people who do things better. Some of the best companies are around today because the founders hired better people. If you are the founder or the top executive of a company, can you really expect to always be the most competent with every aspect of the business?
Don’t focus on irrelevant information
Yes, look at a person’s credentials, but also examine how the person fits the job or company. There are plenty of educated and bright people who don’t have college degrees or the ideal work experience. Don’t let irrelevant information turn you off of a potentially great employee.
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