SMALL BUSINESS

Dianne Buckner

The thrills and chills of hiring

Last Updated: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 | 4:12 PM ET

By Dianne Buckner, CBC News

Dianne Buckner has reported on entrepreneurs for two decades. She hosts Dragons' Den on CBC Television and is part of the business news team at CBC News Network. Hiring new staff can be exciting. And dangerous.

The excitement comes from the chance to bring fresh faces to your organization, whether it's because you're expanding or replacing someone who's leaving. It's always energizing to discover new people with new talents that might contribute even more to your team's success.

The danger comes with the ever-present risk of making a bad hire. I have first-hand knowledge about that side of hiring too, having made a couple of bad calls myself.

There was that seemingly brilliant blonde, who had worked for the BBC and reported from overseas, and seemed almost over-qualified for the job of an associate producer at Venture. After several late arrivals, unexplained absences and a number of story pitches related to Toronto's after-hours club scene, it became clear she may have been best qualified to test hangover cures.

Then there was the hot-shot producer who came highly recommended. How did no one notice his work ethic barely registered?

Worst of all was when I reported on the story of an "employee-from-hell" — a chef/scam artist who actually targeted small-business people (a restaurant in Moosomin, Sask., a wedding cake specialist in Toronto), with bogus wrongful dismissal suits. This person would walk out, then file a lawsuit claiming damages. When the business owner sought legal counsel (and there were more victims than the two we interviewed on camera), their lawyers typically advised them to offer a cash settlement rather than incurring the further expense of a court battle. This chef had cooked up a profitable little sideline.

Horror stories aside, there's no question that even a simple "bad fit" hire can be a drag on productivity. Efforts at managing the situation can end up being fruitless. Then valuable time has to be spent recruiting, interviewing and negotiating with yet another candidate.

Radical approaches

I started thinking about the thrills and chills of hiring recently when I met David Suydam. His Toronto software firm is growing fast — so fast, it can barely keep up. He's hired a recruiter to help him fill 10 positions, but at the same time, he's doing something quite radical.

"I'm giving away a trip to two to the Caribbean to anyone who can give us a name that leads to a successful hire," says Suydam. "The recruiter is giving us a good rate, but that will still cost $9,000 to $10,000. The trip will cost less than that."

Wow! Is that how tight the job market is these days? Companies have to offer prizes to find qualified candidates? You wouldn't think so, with the latest unemployment number coming in last week at eight per cent.

It turns out Suydam's challenge isn't about finding applicants, it's about finding that elusive "right fit."

'A recruiter typically makes sure you're seeing candidates with the right education and experience, but really a person's values are what determines if they'll work out and contribute in a meaningful way to your firm.'—Bruce Bay, HR Metrix

"It's not that we don't get applicants. We do, we get lots," he says. "But we want almost brand-name people, if you know what I mean. We want the very best."

During our conversation it's clear that Suydam is taking plenty of time and care with his hiring process. And maybe he's wise to tackle his recruitment challenge himself.

"A lot of recruiters focus on the hard skills," says Bruce Bay of Vancouver-based HR Metrix. A recruiter himself, specializing in sales and management positions, Bay believes the most important "fit" required in a hire is in shared values.

"A recruiter typically makes sure you're seeing candidates with the right education and experience, but really a person's values are what determines if they'll work out and contribute in a meaningful way to your firm," he says.

Finding the right fit

Well, doesn't that raise the stakes even higher! Surely it's challenging enough just to find someone with the right credentials, never mind a matching value system on top of it all.

But really it's just a case of finding like-minded people. For entrepreneurs who are already using behaviour-based questions in job interviews, it would likely be a good idea to design some questions aimed at determining if you and the candidate are aligned in terms of workplace values. (Bay has written a short guide to "The 7 Costliest Hiring Blunders and How to Avoid Them.")

There are also strategies to winnow out the bad fits, even before the interview process. At FreshBooks, a bookkeeping software firm with clients across Canada, having a sense of humour is an essential value, for example.

"We have a funny video on our website," says Mike McDerment, the company's founder and CEO. "You either get a laugh out of it, or you think we're nuts. We only want to invest our time in the candidates who appreciate the humour."

McDerment is looking to add 20 people to his team of 50 (people who presumably all think an "oversized talking donut " is funny).

For Robert Galletta of blackjet Inc., an advertising and marketing firm in Toronto, team spirit is the most important value. "There's a lot of ego in the advertising business. We like passion, and desire to do whatever it takes to do great work — but we want people who can put their ego aside. We're very meticulous about it, and our turnover rate is low."

He's set to launch a contest of his own: blackjet is challenging applicants to design a marketing campaign for the company. The winning strategy will be put into action, and the creator will win a position at the company (the openings are posted on blackjet's website ).

Back when I reported on the employee from hell (and had my own limited experience with that issue), a lawyer specializing in labour issues suggested to me that small business owners are perhaps more vulnerable to hiring mistakes, since they typically rely on gut instinct and often don't have the formal hiring procedures that are "enforced" at larger firms. But I don't believe that's true. I've heard tales of staffing disasters at plenty of large firms also.

It's clear that when it comes to hiring, even though we're in an economic downturn when it might seem like a buyer's market, there's still plenty of need for creativity and caution in Canada's small business community.