Hire the Happy
The last time I wrote, I told you that the secret to hiring success is to hire happy people. Easier said than done, I realize. I can’t say I have a perfect track record, but I do have some ideas on how to screen for what we might call the “contentedness factor”.
Making the right hire (finding a good fit for the job and your organization) has a lot to do with expectations. You want to find someone whose expectations fit what you can offer. I learned this years ago when I was the VP of Human Resources for Smith & Hawken (may it RIP.)
Prospective S & H employees used to come crawling on their knees as though toward Mecca, out of a desire to work for such an environmentally correct company. I had to convince candidates that the company’s green mission wouldn’t matter for long if they hated data entry.
Here are some things to consider in determining whether a candidate is looking for more than you can offer (i.e. happiness or meaning in life), or worse, looking for a place to spread the misery around.
Do the reasons the candidate left prior jobs make sense, and seem unrelated to performance or professional relationships? Does she make any negative references to former employers? Does your job seem like the next logical step for this candidate? If not, what does your gut tell you about their reasons for being interested?
Determine through resume, interviews, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. what kind of life this person has outside of their profession. Got friends? Family? Other passions and ways of blowing off steam? All good indicators. (Yes, you should Google candidates and read their Facebook pages and LinkedIn profiles.)
Last, references are just as important as interviews. You can ask a reference: Is Jane a happy person? You can ask how Jane got along with colleagues. You can ask if Jane was a mentor and support to others. You can even ask if Jane was fun to be around. (I promise, these questions are not illegal.)
Of course, you need to hire someone with the skills and experience to do the job. But I’d pick a happy person who needs a bit of training over a miserable yet highly skilled person any day.
August 2nd, 2009 at 11:46 pm
I added your blog to bookmarks. And i’ll read your articles more often!
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:33 am
Thank you very much for that glorious article
August 4th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Leyna, can anybody nowadays even get any references other than confirmation of employment? Happiness may be a legal area of inquiry, but that won’t help in an environment where giving references is a violation of most organizations’ policies.
ST
September 4th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Steve, you can’t make a hire without speaking to references. Interviews and resumes don’t tell the whole story. You must require a candidate to provide you with references with whom you can have a meaningful conversation about their employment. No references – no job offer. Even if an organization has a “no reference” policy (and most nonprofits do not have this policy), the candidate can often get a personal reference from a former or current supervisor. Candidates can certainly provide references who no longer work for the candidate’s current employer.