Finding and Keeping Great People

There are two basic reasons why you might be thinking about hiring someone. Either you're planning to replace someone who left (or was fired!), or you've created a new position and want someone to fill it. Whichever situation you find yourself in, these next couple of articles are intended to help you find (and keep) the best possible person for the job.

So, before you rush off and start creating job ads for Monster.com or wherever, let's take a few minutes to think about the process.

Step 1 is to design the job - which means thinking about what it is that you want done, and how you're going to know whether it's been well (and what you're prepared to pay for those results).

Step 2 is to define the ideal candidate - which means thinking about the skills, knowledge, personality, values, and qualifications they're going to need to get the results you want.

Step 3 is to "go fishing" for applicants - which means you need to think about which "pool" you should "cast the net" into to maximize your chances of attracting a good number of suitable candidates.

Step 4 is to select the best person for the job from among the applicants you have attracted in step 3 - which means thinking about how you're going to compare each person with the spec you created in step 2, and

Step 5 is getting your new hire on board and up-to-speed as smoothly and quickly as possible - which means thinking about how you're going to provide them with access to all the information they'll need to become high performing member of your team.

So, now we need to look at each step in more detail. First up, step 1 - what's the job?