Six Suggestions When Hiring Your First Employee

Now that some of you have already committed to owning a franchise, I’d like to offer some practical suggestions in hiring employees that will not only make the work easier for you, they’ll help grow your business.

Charm and I have had some good and bad experiences in the hiring process. We have hired keepers and we have also hired pilferers and thieves. Hiring should not be guess work and I am hoping that by sharing what we have learned, you can hire good employees to man your franchises.

In hiring, I now follow a rule I learned from a book: Hire Slowly but Fire Quickly.

I find this rule very practical. In one instance, we did not fire an employee quick enough which was why that employee was able to pilfer more than she should have. Some other things to consider:

Give an IQ Test – not to hire geniuses but to look at the distribution of your applicants’ intelligence levels. There are IQ tests you can get from books. Make sure that the IQ test is general in nature and not focused on just one section like math or spatial reasoning (but it depends on what you are hiring for, I’m assuming this is for a food cart only). From my experience, applicants in the average IQ range turn out ok. I try not to hire those at the bottom and I always look for smart people because smart people with good hearts are simply put, the best there is (more on good hearts later). Also, let them do math without calculators because there will be a lot of addition and subtraction during store operations. Just the basic, no algebra stuff.

Look at the resume’s and biodata – and look for applicants who care about their applications. I don’t even read incomplete biodatas, those without specific dates. If they don’t care enough to fill up information correctly, then they are not worth hiring. Also, look at how long they have served in their jobs. Good employees usually last longer than 1 year at a certain job. While there may be a lot of contractual lately (jobs lasting 5-6 months), try to see if they have been renewed which is a good sign. Also, look for and ask about gaps in between jobs. Why were there gaps? Was it because they found it hard to look for jobs or because of other stuff? If other employers turned them down, ask them why. Also, require NBI and local police clearances always. Baka si Osama yang na-hire mo, eh di mayaman ka na.

Interview properly – In an interview, my goal is to make the interviewee feel at home and comfortable. I am not that particular about questions that they can make perfect answers to. I ask them stuff about employment, usually about their last job. But I also ask them about their daily routines. For example: A kid I interviewed watched a lot of TV which for me was a red flag. When I asked this kid to do an OJT, I was right, she wasn’t able to focus and got bored easily. Don’t just ask questions, get to know the person. Look at the person in the eye when talking, honest people usually can look right back. Look at their body language, are they too tense? You need calm people who can take customer complaints in stride.

Always do a hands-on test – IQ’s and good interviews do not compare to the information that you get when the person is actually on the job. You will see how fast they learn, how they interact with customers and other employees and most important of all, you will see who has initiative. A lot of good interviewers fall flat when it comes to initiative. In fact, more than 70% of potential candidates after testing and interviewing seem not so good after all once you tried them out. Try outs can usually last 1 to 2 days.

Some stuff I have observed – these are not meant to be generalizations, these are just based on my experiences. Feel free to test them.

1. Single moms are hard workers. I salute single moms, some of my most hardworking employees are single mothers.

2. Women generally are more diligent than men. Ewan ko ba.

3. Employees below 25 years are just too young. Some of them are good but they could be diamonds in the rough, but you have to spend some time polishing them. They have too many distractions going on.

4. Employees above 40 could be so hard wired already. In short matitigas na rin ang ulo. May sariling style na. Ayaw paturo.

5. Employees who respond to your text messages to confirm appointments are good candidates. You need guys who are responsive to you as their boss.

6. Look for leadership experience in college and in work.

And.. fire quickly - If you find your employee stealing or doing something that erodes your trust, replace him quickly. If there is suspicion, act quickly and investigate. Always be ready to lose an employee. DO NOT BE DEPENDENT on one single employee. Know the ins and outs of your business so that you will not be crippled if you lose a key employee.

That’s it for now. I hope I was able to help those who are already planning to operate their carts. More blogs to come!

God Bless!

Caloy