Smart hiring saves money, time


  • August 25, 2016
  • /   Shannon Nickinson
  • /   training-development
Smart hiring saves money event
Smart hiring saves money event
Smart hiring saves money event

One of the secrets of hiring success is already in your business.

Peer interviews can be a powerful tool to help make sure the entire team is invested in the success of new employees and the business overall.

The same can be said for behavior-based interview techniques and using a weighted decision-making matrix on hiring. Those tools and more were among the keys to success highlighted at Studer Community Institute's Hiring Talent workshop at Hillcrest Baptist Church.

The keynote trainers for Hiring Talent, Amie Remington, general counsel for Landrum Human Resources Co., and Kristine Rushing, chief operating officer of Beck Partners, shared how much turnover can cost a company — and what you can do to avoid that loss.

The next SCI workshop — "Generational Differences in the Workplace" is set for Sept. 15 at Pensacola Little Theater in downtown Pensacola. To register for that session, or for more details, click here.

The Institute's signature event — EntreCon Pensacola 2016 — is set for Nov. 3-4 at Pensacola Little Theater. The two-day workshop will feature speakers and breakout sessions designed to inspire and support entrepreneurs.

Whether you are just starting out or entering the mentorship phase of the Entrepreneur's Life Cycle, EntreCon's slate of speakers has something for everyone. For details, click here.

Rushing spoke with the group about when they realized turnover was hurting their growth potential. It came when they grew to four employees.

"We just couldn't get that fourth person to stick," Rushing says.

That inspired Rushing to try something else in hiring. And that's a question every business, team or organization has to answer for itself.

"Before you start making changes in your organization understand what your organizational 'why' is. Why do you want to revamp your hiring process?" Rushing said.

Rushing said the process her team developed starts with the job description, which focuses on the core competencies that are critical to each job they are looking to fill.

Once that's established, choose behavior-based interview questions that will screen for the skills and competencies each position will require. Often these are open-ended questions that ask a person to describe a time they used a certain skill to solve a problem, serve a customer or help a client.

The third piece of the hiring puzzle is using a weighted matrix that ranks the importance of each of the competencies needed for the job — and then scores the applicant in each.

The "Hiring Talent" workshop is the latest in the series of community workshops hosted by the Studer Community Institute. So far this year, more than 1,400 people have attended SCI training workshops to gain tips and techniques to improve their business or nonprofit.

Training to help businesses, nonprofits and individuals improve the health of their organization is one of the key areas of focus for the Institute, which aims to improve the quality of life in the Pensacola metro area.

Click here for event photo gallery.

     
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