A Five-Star Tip for Hiring

Over the last month, I’ve worked with two of my team members on reworking our hiring process. We have worked through the All In Intensive by The All In Company, founded by Danielle Mulvey who is also a fellow Profit First Professional Mastery Member. Her company takes the principles in one of Mike Michalowicz’s upcoming books, with the tentative title of All In, and brings them to action. The daily exercises we participate in are designed to help you recruit and hire people that line up with your business.

The Program

One exercise at the beginning of the program was to have our current employees take an assessment to help us understand how our team likes to work. Do they prefer to work with numbers, people, or spatial challenges? The assessments are then used to create benchmark numbers that we’ll use to compare future potential hires to. As a numbers person, I love that I can use data to understand how my team likes to operate and how we can continue to make those excellent hires for the future. Like I told my team, we can’t clone them, but we can do this.

We’ve also done an exercise on developing job posts for the current roles we have. This has become a big part of the game not that there are all these great platforms like Indeed, LinkedIn, and Zip Recruiter. It’s more than just a 1 – 2-inch ad in the classified section now. The online capabilities and platforms, candidates have truly made it possible to get to know one another.

The process for us requires assessments that are analyzed to decide which candidates make it to the interview. This way, we’re only spending time with people who have five-star potential, not wasting time or being distracted by someone that gives a fantastic interview but is actually a one-star employee.

By spending more time with the qualified possibilities, we have a better understanding of whether or not we’re a good match.

Potential hires get homework that describes their analysis and communication skills. We observe as they navigate an excel document and also ask that they participate in a paid shadow day. This may sound like a lot of work, and it is. It’s more than what we have done previously, but we want to have several opportunities to observe and assess our candidates. These opportunities are what increase our chances of hiring great people who fit the bookskeep culture and will be long-term employees. While it’s a greater time investment, it will pay off for many years to come.

Who Gets Five Stars?

So, what makes a five-star employee? The best part of this program is that you can define it yourself. I’m participating in the program with another Profit First Professional Mastery Member firm, and I can tell you that our benchmarks and hiring criteria are completely different. Our company cultures are totally opposite. While we work 100% remote, they like everyone to be in the office. Both of us want to hire motivated and excellent people, but the questions they ask in their interviews reflect how that looks for their company while we are asking based on how it shines in ours. Our five-star employees might only be three-stars for them, and vice versa.

What I love most about this approach is that it compares data from the success of our current team to data from candidates, and gives up several chances to learn and interact with our potential hires. Even better is that when we find someone that isn’t the best match for us, we know that they will be for another company, so there’s no more guilt that comes with turning someone down.

If you’ve had some struggles with hiring and a system sounds like a dream, reach out to me at cyndi@bookskeep.com. I would love to answer any questions and put you in touch with Danielle and The All In Company.

Interested in Profit First?

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You can also sign up for the Profit First for Ecommerce Sellers Online Course. As a Mastery Level, Certified Profit First Professional, I will teach you why Profit First works so well for ecommerce businesses and the particular challenges for businesses that have physical products requiring inventory management. You will learn how your behavior drives your money management habits for your business and how you can set up your business bank accounts to work with your habits.

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