Isn't it great when you can actually look forward to going to work and seeing the people you work with? That's such an important part of having a great team. At VisionWeb, we are lucky enough to say this is true about our team - we really have a good time with our coworkers, and our colleagues in the eyecare industry. Lucky for us, someone got it right when doing the hiring! We so related to one of the recent blog posts on this topic from our friends at The Optical Vision Site, which is a fantastic industry blogs if you aren't already familiar. It's so good we couldn't help but post it for you:
We read an article about hiring mistakes in U.S. Vision‘s Supervisor Support and we would like to share some of it with our readers:
Hiring the right people is critical for any business but especially for a small company with relatively few employees (like an independent optical retailer for example). Hiring mistakes not only waste time and money, they create a ripple effect that impacts other employees and your optical business. Here are a couple of hiring mistakes you might want to avoid:
1. Hiring friends and family. Some employees will overstate a family member's qualifications when making a recommendation. Their heart might be in the right place, but their desire to help out a family member doesn't always align with your need to hire great optical employees. Plus friends and family see each other outside of work too, increasing the chances of interpersonal conflicts. The smaller the company the greater the potential impact. And one more thing: Two siblings in a five-person business might just wield more power than you.
Instead: Either set up an appropriate policy , like “no family members in the same department”, or do an incredibly thorough job of evaluating the candidate. In general establishing a following a policy is the cleanest solution if only because you will never appear to favor one employee's request to interview a friend over another.
2. Hiring for skills rather than attitude. Skills and knowledge are worthless when not put to use. Experience is useless when not shared with others. The smaller your business the more likely you are to be an expert in your field; transferring those skills to others is relatively easy. But you can't train enthusiasm, a solid work ethic, and great interpersonal skills – and those traits can matter a lot more than any skills a candidate brings. According to a study by LeadershipIQ only 11% of new hires fail in the first eighteen months due to technical skill deficiencies.)
Instead: If in doubt, always hire for attitude. A candidate who lacks certain hard skills is cause for concern; a candidate who lacks interpersonal skills is waving a giant red flag.
Try and avoid the Biggest Hiring Mistakes – you will be glad you did!
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