One Way to Make a Good Hire
Posted October 13th, 2014
Businesses spend a lot of time and effort in trying to find the best people. One big problem that businesses face is how to determine who the best people are.
Often, they use past experience – if a person is an outstanding performer at his current job, the reasoning goes, you would expect that person to be an exceptional performer in any other job. But the problem is, this is not always the case. A stellar performer might move into a new situation and never get back to his or her previous level.
Companies often spend a lot of money to figure out what qualities are necessary to maintain top performance at a particular job. They look at top performers and try to isolate those qualities that make them unique, and then look for other people with the same qualities. But this method is not always successful either.
One business consultant, however, believes that there is a way to sort through all the white noise surrounding this issue, one that may offer some real help in finding a good fit for a job. What he suggests is this – finding out what the person does in his or her spare time, time when they are not on the job.
This is a relatively simple way to really gain insight into what makes a person tick, and how dedicated he or she is, and how likely he is to be successful in his job. It gives insight into what motivates him, what he really strives to be good at.
He uses the example of the pilot C.B. Sullenberger, who is now famous for making an emergency landing of a damaged airplane in the Hudson River. Many were amazed at the level of skill and composure Sullenberger showed throughout the ordeal. But if they had known more about his life, they would not have been so surprised.
Sullenberger got his pilot’s license while still a teenager, flew glider planes for fun, was an accident investigator for the Airline Pilots Association, worked to improve training and methods for evacuating aircraft, and built model airplanes. These were all things he did outside of his job.
All of this shows that his job was also his passion, what truly motivated him and gave him satisfaction and fulfillment. His heroic efforts don’t seem so surprising once you know more about him.
What a person does in his or her spare time gives you a window into his passion and talents, a view that just might help to find the right person for the job.
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