How to Interview to Find Your Next Great Employee

Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash

My father, who was in management, always said to me “Over my career I have learned that great help is hard to find.”

I never quite knew what he meant.

That is until I got into management myself and had to start finding good potential employees to fill various job vacancies.

Anyone who has had a list of applicants to interview for a job opening knows exactly what I am talking about.

The other day I was talking to an acquaintance of mine who was looking to fill some openings in his company.

Recently he had to speak to an employee who had not been doing a great job with his assigned tasks and then decided to quit out of the blue. Another employee suddenly had to be terminated for drinking on the job, as he was responsible for driving company vehicles and it was a liability for the company.

“You know, I had 11 people who applied for the job opening and out of those only 1 showed up for the interview. The only one who showed up smelled heavily of weed and there was no way I could have hired him. So for now I am having to fill in myself for what needs to get done until I find someone suitable to replace the two employees.”

While you might not be in this dire of a situation, whenever there is turnover or attrition…