Let’s start with the end in sight.

By looking at what types of behavioral and emotional skills a potential new hire will need to best manage his or her job, you have the best chance of getting the right person in the right place.

Notice how we used the phrase “behavioral and emotional skills.”

Bill Gates and Ross Perot, both highly acclaimed businessmen, agree that people can learn nearly any skill set, but natural leadership traits cannot be learned. As quoted from Executive Focus [1] (June 2004):

"For instance, at EDS, when Ross Perot was looking for department managers, he hired teachers because they could manage, even thought they knew nothing about data systems.... [Bill] Gates and Perot know that people can learn information and skills; they can't learn behavioral traits. People with the right traits will learn surprisingly quickly. Not everyone has what it takes to be a good employee/manager/leader - it requires traits that have nothing to do with expertise in that area. Find a person with these natural traits and you have found a good match."

In considering the above approach by some of America’s most successful businessmen, let’s shift our focus to a specific set of behavioral preferences that may be useful during the new hire process:

1. Does this person need to be a Doer or more Dominant in his or her approach to the job? Could a more competitive, risk-taking person be a good fit or might they be too pushy?
2. Does the job require exceptional verbal or Influential skills? Will a strong sense of selling or people-related Intuition be valuable?
3. Will this person need to be more Steady when it comes to dealing with people and situations. Does the environment attract a more Stable person or will they need to be adept at highly unpredictable situations and conflictive events?
4. Finally, do you want someone who relates better to information and data and is more Conscientious when it comes to setting priorities and being attentive to details? Will logic in this new position be the best trait?

You may recognize these key words from the DiSC® [2] profiling system. While Inscape Distributing does not recommend hiring based solely on the results of its DiSC® Classic or 2.0 Plus Profiles [3], we can gain a lot of insight into a possible new hire at relatively no cost by measuring the above behavioral preferences before we get the wrong person into the wrong job!

A final word on not hiring the best.

It is estimated that in the process of bringing the wrong person on board, the industry rule of thumb is that it will cost you two or three times that person’s annual salary! So a $50,000 employee will cost you $150,000, not to mention the time invested to hire and train--and now you are right back where you started. Whether you use a profiling system like DiSC® or not make sure you understand that the new hire needs to be NOT just what they need to know.

For tips to effectively train your people and streamline your organization, and for other solutions to your staffing challenges, visit www.traininginabox.com [4]. Sign up for our free newsletter at www.quicktrainingsolutions.com [4] to make your HR training and development life easier. Corey Nielsen designs and delivers innovative and effective training solutions for businesses through NTG, his business development and training company.

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