Each Tuesday, we’re happy to turn over our blog space to a Guest Genius, someone who can give a fantastic and fascinating perspective about making word of mouth work.
This week’s guest genius:
Cam Beck
Experience Planner, Click Here
The 5 Rs of Hiring
Being remarkable is a function of exceeding expectations, wherever those expectations are. Engineering it effectively doesn’t require a litany of PR announcements, overproduced ads or overpriced media buys. It requires a culture comprised of people who passionately believe in what their company is doing – and their part in it. Building that culture requires a systematic approach to hiring based on these five principles:
Respect.
Those who respect people rather than things tend to have proper discernment and perspective. They care about not only what the company does, but also what it becomes.
Recruit.
Companies have a responsibility to both their customers and their existing employees to find people who can help advance the company’s vision. This is too important to be left to chance. Sometimes this means being able to tell the difference between an intelligent, highly motivated but slightly less polished candidate over someone with the beefy résumé who would show up faithfully and perform competently – but only to collect a paycheck.
Rally.
The types of people who will daily strive to exceed the expectations of their customers tend to be motivated. Motivating them will take more than pretty speeches or impressing them with raw expertise. It will take investing in their continued development.
Reduce.
Even for those companies who recruited well and worked hard to develop their people, situations change and people grow out of a position or the position grows out of them. It’s important to recognize when a person is irreparably poisoning a company’s culture. When that happens, let him go.
Repeat.
Every day is an opportunity to outperform the last. In a climate of exponential change, continuous improvement isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity. There is no room to hire at anything less than peak efficiency.
It isn’t a mystery. People are drawn to those who make them feel good about themselves. Advertising isn’t likely to do that. Ads are too easy to ignore, and people don’t trust them, anyway.
They do, however, trust their friends. And their friends are more likely to say good things about your company if their interactions with your company’s representatives are consistently positive.
The specific way to make sure that happens is different from industry to industry, but one thing will always be the same: You need passionate people who are capable and motivated to go above and beyond to make your customers happy.
Ensuring your hiring practices are aligned with the 5 principles above isn’t a particularly flashy task, but when you do it, in time the results are worth talking about – even if your product is of good quality but otherwise unremarkable.
Learn more from this Genius:
- Cam’s blog: ChaosScenario
- Cam also contributes at: MarketingProfs Daily Fix
- Cam’s employer: Click Here
