Moved by admin from old site (02/22/10)
The CEO of a local software company recently made the following observation: "One bad hire can negatively affect an entire organization". How right he is. Hiring the right people is an executive's #1 priority – and showing the door to those that that are not performing or are not the right fit for your company is a close second. By "right people" I mean a good fit for your organization's culture, the experience needed to hold up his/her weight on a team, and the capacity to challenge existing staff to do better. The person should contribute to your organization – not just fill a slot.
Take your time recruiting and hiring. Run people through multiple interviews via phone, email and in-person, do the standard reference checks, and then do technical aptitude testing, a personality assessment, and check their "online presence" (Facebook, personal blogs, LinkedIn, etc.) And never, ever ignore your gut feeling. If something doesn't seem right, don't hire – regardless of how good they look on paper.
Once a person is on board, make the expectations crystal clear. Then pay attention – close attention. Observe their interactions with staff and management, customers, delivery people – not just whether they can fulfill the job responsibilities. If you're cringing when an employee is talking to a customer or prospect, you can bet the customer is doing a lot more than that. (And if they can't do what they claimed they could on their resume or in an interview, they're out.) A misrepresentation to get hired isn't the only misrepresentation you'll be dealing with.
I absolutely believe in giving someone a chance to improve, but you still have to identify the problem early, deal with it head-on, and make a fast decision as to whether improvement is imminent or not. If not, let the person go and move on. Sure it's excruciating to have to let someone go – but it's even worse to penalize everyone who works with that person by making them carry the individual.
As the saying goes: "Hire slow & fire fast."
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