Usually, employers rapidly scan the resume of each job applicant looking for relevant education, skills, and work experience. They select 10 candidates for telephone calls, invite three in for interviews, and hire the one they like the best.
This is a bad way to hire because at best it gets you nice people.
You don’t need nice people.You need good people.
Good and nice are not the same thing. The opposite of good is bad. The opposite of nice is unlikable.
Nice people care if you like them; good people care about you. Nice people stretch the truth; good people don’t. If you tell a nice person to do something evil, they might do it because they do not want to upset you; a good person will refuse to do it.
You might think you are a good person, but you are fallible, so if you want to avoid inadvertently doing something evil you must surround yourself with good people, not nice people.
How do you separate the good from the nice? If you do what I do, it will be a piece of cake.
Nice people will allow you to hire them even if they know they are not among your best candidates; a good person won’t let you hire them unless that is what is best for you.
People reflect what you project and expect. If you advertise that you need cutthroat employees, those are the people who will apply. Or if you say you only hire the goodhearted, you will attract those people. The funny thing is, if you run both those ads simultaneously, you’ll get the same people applying. You influence the kind of people they become even before you meet.
Rather than ask people to send resumes and formulaic cover letters, ask for thoughts and questions. This way spend time evaluating people’s thinking and answering questions, and don’t waste it reading resumes from thoughtless unquestioning people who cannot follow instructions.
Identify everyone who might possibly be appropriate and invite them all to visit for an open-house. Over pizza and soda they get to see our offices, meet the staff, and learn more about the work.
Then assemble the crowd and lay down some rules. Below are some rules that I follow to hire:
- As said, you must have a good heart and a giving personality. If you do, then you won’t object to the rest of my rules.
- I will not hire anyone until we both understand and care about each other. I have to care enough about you that I will tell you reasons the job I am offering might not be best for you, and you need to care enough about me to tell me why you might not be my best choice. Once we get all the objections on the table, we can address them, and only then will we both be capable of making a good decision.
- I give honesty and require it in return. I’ll listen if you want to convince me that honesty is not the best policy, but so far nobody has.
- I won’t get between you and your dreams. If you have a dream, I need to know what it is so we can figure out if this job gets you closer. If you don’t have a dream then that’s fine, as long as you really want one and you’re not addicted to wishing and complaining. I’ll consider hiring you if you can make my dreams yours too.
- I won’t make an offer to anyone until I have at least three people I’d hire, so you might as well help me find them. This also means that I will end up with a surplus of people I care about but cannot hire, so if I hire you, you’ll need to help me find jobs for the others.
- If you don’t have a requisite skill right now, I won’t hold it against you as long as you get up to speed before I make a hiring decision. People should help each other learn things, and I’ll help too.
- If someone is “overqualified” for the position, I will try to find them a better job elsewhere rather than pay less than I should.
Anyone can hire the way I do–it’s easy.
Care, and people cannot help but care back. Be authentic and people cannot help but be authentic back. Be honest and people cannot help but be honest back. Don’t treat others the way they expect to be treated; treat them the best way you can imagine treating them. Strive to be a better person than you are, and you’ll figure out the rest.
Another reason most hiring practices are bad is because most employers treat badly the people they do not hire. If what you do is bad, then you can’t call yourself good without at least trying to be better; that’s not even being nice.
What do you 
? Post your comments 
Courtesy: Inspired by Brooke Allen, qz
