Page 57 - GIADA-Oct 2017-Final

3 Keys to Effective Hiring

By Tori Zinger

Good employees are your dealership’s most Do Your Research. programs the job uses? Are they able to
valuable assets, but the wrong employees To find the right person for the job, you work overtime or abnormal hours if the
can be among its riskiest liabilities. must have a thorough understanding of position in question requires it (and in the
Interviewing candidates and training the job itself. “Have a job description for car business, it usually does!)? The answers
new employees costs time and money. each position to be filled. Job descriptions to these questions will determine whether a
All of these things mean it’s critical to should be specific, concise, and clearly follow-up interview is warranted.
ensure you hire the best people for your understood.” They should also evolve with
dealership, right from the get-go. A 2002 the dealership. Merely having a standard Once you’ve determined, through the
study suggests that “the organizations job description thrown together that an initial interview, that a candidate does in
with the more effective hiring systems interviewer pulls out any time the position fact possess the skills necessary to perform
ranked higher in financial performance, needs filled suppresses the opportunity for the job, it’s time for the secondary, or follow-
productivity, quality, customer satisfaction, growth and learning. “The basis for future up interview. This is where you start to
and employee satisfaction and retention. performance is a thorough study of what dig a little deeper: Just because a person is
‘This is . . . proof of what HR professionals has been done in the past.” Thus, each technically qualified to do the job doesn’t
have long said: Success is based on finding time a position opens up (or is added), it’s necessarily mean they are the right fit. To get
the right people for the right jobs.’” Below important to spend some time assessing or a feel for whether a job candidate is a good fit
are three keys to effective hiring. reassessing what does and does not seem to for the position, ask what Wheatley refers to
work, or what did and did not work in the as traits-related questions. “Traits are natural
Assess Their Motivation. past. “If the previous person was promoted, abilities that would help a candidate succeed
When assessing a candidate’s motivation, what can they or their manager tell you in a job. They are measured by a person’s
interviewers frequently focus solely on the about necessary skills for the position? pattern of behavior...Trait related questions
amount or level of motivation a potential If the last person in the position was not would include areas such as organization,
employee demonstrates. But quantity is a good fit, find out what mistakes not to initiative, creativity, integrity, and decision-
only half of the equation: Quality is an repeat.” making. Hiring a person with the traits to
equally important consideration – in other excel in a job can be the difference between a
words, not simply how motivated someone Hone Your Questioning Skills. good hire and a great hire.”
is, but what motivates them. Is the candidate To get the best answers, ask the best questions.
motivated by the factors associated with a Tonja Wheatley, for buildaninterview.com, For job candidates, the most important
particular job, or by a dealership’s mission, suggests asking open-ended questions, thing when interviewing is to be prepared.
culture, and other overarching ways of using follow-up questions to get beneath For the interviewer, the most important
conducting operations? The ideal candidate the surface of a response, and controlling thing is, also, to be prepared. Being
is motivated by a balance of these things. the interview with redirecting questions. thoroughly prepared for interviews,
Someone who is motivated by individual She also advises focusing each question on through research, assessment, and quality
success in their position may do a good a specific skill or trait – and knowing the of questioning, will allow you to make the
job, but if they aren’t on board with the difference between the two. absolute most of your hiring process so
mission of the dealership as a whole, they you can hire the right people the first time
won’t be the right fit. “[T]he key in your job Skills-related questions regard a candidate’s around. Especially in this business, where
interview is to identify what motivates your “developed or learned abilities necessary to employees tend to come and go, you may be
candidate. Then, decide whether those do the job. Skills are measurable and should hesitant to spend so much time preparing
qualities, characteristics, behaviors, values, be the focus of the initial interview.” Asking to interview job candidates. But hiring
and approaches exist in your workplace. If skills-related questions tells you whether effectively from the get-go will reduce
they do, you’ve found a dynamite employee the candidate, if given the position, has the turnover rates, which will save you loads of
from your job interview match dance.” actual ability to do the job. For example, are time and money in the long run and allow
they proficient with the types of computer your dealership to truly flourish. n

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