Subject: Hire Score Newsletter January 2003

Happy New Year and welcome to the third year of the Hire Score newsletter. My name is Barry Shamis and I am dedicated to helping you maximize your ROI (return on investment) on every employee decision.

For those of you new to the newsletter, welcome (and you should visit www.selectingwinners.com) and review the past newsletters). For those of you who have been with me for a while, welcome back and let's get to work.

I took my wife to the dentist yesterday and was in the waiting room when I noticed an interesting fact. Every patient that came and went during the time I was there waiting was female. My wife's dentist is female. So what does this have to do with recruiting and hiring great employees you say?

It caused me to think about one of the great myths associated with hiring -- We hire in our own image. Only in this case it is not a myth bur a very real fact. We are much more comfortable with people who are just like us so we have a bias for hiring people just like us.

Whether this is right or wrong, the important point to understand is that it is! We are all human and are affected by these things both consciously and subconsciously. So, now that we know that this is the case, it is time to break the mold and rise above the pack.

I got a call yesterday afternoon from a long time client Frank Isernio who is the CEO of Isernio Sausage here in Seattle. I had been working with Frank to help him hire a Director of Sales for his company. His message was how he had just hired a fabulous person to run sales using my process.

This is not surprising but what led me to share the story with you is that Frank said that this was the first time he had not applied all his biases (what the person looked like, etc) and felt great about the decision.

The lesson here is that you can overcome your biases and use a proven system to hire the right person for the job.

Let's take a quick quiz to see what is really important. Please choose the best reason to hire a person. You must only choose one answer:

1. I like the person.
2. They remind me of me when I was young.
3. The person is wearing $300 shoes.
4. I think they will get along with the other team members.
5. I am absolutely convinced they will successfully solve the business problem I am hiring them to address.

If you think this is a trick quiz you are wrong. People hire for hundreds of reasons, some good some not so good. But I contend that if you can focus and hire for only reason number 5 above, you will be much better off.

Is it easy -- no! But this is where a proven system that leads you to the data necessary to make great decisions is essential.

A person walks into your office for an interview and there is immediate rapport. Let's say they start by saying, "Wasn't that incredible how Ohio State won the national championship!" (I had to throw that in for all my Ohio buddies --Go Bucks!) The rest of the meeting goes great but because you have been impressed from the first moment you have put a positive spin on the entire meeting.

Same scenario but using the Selecting Winners process. After the person walks in and makes a positive first impression, you say to yourself, "Nice first impression, now I need to get the data necessary to make certain this is the person to solve my business problem." The difference is that no matter what happens, you need to work the process and make decisions based on volumes of data.

That's right, Volumes Of Data. Beat that into your heads. The more data you have, the better decisions you will make.

This is going to be the year of Strategic Staffing. I have a quote that I hung above my desk which says, "We will give you a job if you give us something that will either benefit us or will solve our business problem. Give us exactly what we want and we will return the favor."

You might want to write this down on a yellow post-it note and put it on your computer monitor. Let this simple phrase drive all your hiring activities this year.

I have heard back from some people saying this is a bit harsh. Baloney! What is unfair about setting expectations on both sides and making that the basis for a business relationship. We have lost sight of the fact that hiring a person is just a business relationship. If you have a better reason to hire a person, I would like to hear about it. Send me a note to staff@selectingwinners.com. I promise to read and share the information.

Finally, I am going to go off into dangerous territory but I think this is really important. In the United States a debate has begun about how to jump-start the economy. There are suggestions about taxes and tax cuts coming from opposing sides. I just want to throw in my opinion.

People working is the primary fuel for a good economy. And people work for companies. Any proposal that hurts companies and depresses hiring is bad for the economy. Businesses are not the bad guys but instead we are the engine that provides jobs and fuels the economy. If someone can please get this message to the knuckleheads making the decisions we will all be better off.

Enough politics.

I want to encourage all of you to spread the message of the benefits of Selecting Winners in your organization. It is time to upgrade your staff. Please have them visit www.selectingwinners.com or call us at 206-230-9400. Thanks!

I just read an article in Fortune Small Business where one of the leading business prognosticators says it is good time to hire. I welcome him as a reader of this newsletter.

As always, I would love to hear from you. Please send questions and comments to staff@selectingwinners.com.

Have a great month recruiting!

Barry Shamis