Hiring Good Managers

As your business evolves and grows”?whether this growth is
slow, steady, or rapid”?your success will depend largely upon
the quality of the management team that surrounds you. After
all, you can't do everything yourself; plus, you'll find that if you
are able to put quality individuals in key positions at your company,
you won't have to. The company will benefit from a varying
combination of your skills
and ideas combined with
your team's, and the company
will thrive as a result.

Assembling that core
management group, however,
can be one of your most
challenging tasks. Plus, once
you have put together your
“dream team,” how do you go
about training and retaining
it? This month, I'll focus on
the hiring aspect (in a future
column I'll tackle training and retaining)”?how do you get quality
managerial prospects to your shop in the first place?

Initial steps
Begin by deciding exactly what type of individual you would
like to hire. When advertising for your management position,
list the qualifications that you're seeking as well as the salary
range that you expect to pay. Listing these factors up front can
save you from getting too many resumes from either underqualified
or over-qualified candidates.

Next, decide where to search for your new manager. Years
ago, your primary and sometimes only option was using the
local newspapers. Not any more. While that remains an excellent
resource, other alternatives are available. One logical
place to post the position is on your own website. Once people
notice that you advertise for employment positions on your
website, you'll be amazed at how many will respond to your
site”?and it's free.

In addition to your own site, multiple websites are dedicated
specifically to recruiting and placing personnel, such as Monster.
com, Careers.org, Jobs.com, and Craigslist.org. The good
ones are usually subscription-based for the employer doing the
searching. Don't be a tightwad”?not everything is free on the
Internet. The top management candidates out there are using
these websites, too, so it can be money well spent.

Recruiting firms”?a.k.a. executive-search firms, placement
firms, or “headhunters”?can also be helpful when trying to find
a specific fit. These can be expensive”?sometimes up to 25%
to 33% of the employee's first year salary, payable as a onetime
fee (by the employer, not the employee). In spite of the
expense, some employers prefer recruiters because they can
save valuable time by doing a lot of the searching and screening.

Some firms do specialize in graphic-arts placement: Print-
Link (www.printlink.com), PrintStaff (www.printstaff.com),
and PrintQuest (www.printquest.com) are just three examples.
You can find more of these listed on the Graphic Arts Information
Network website (GAIN, www.gain.net), which also has its
own Job Bank.

One more thing: Make sure you also post the job opening
internally. Regardless of whether or not you believe that anyone
internally is qualified, allowing your current employees
to apply for management positions is good business practice.
Even though they may not get the job, the opportunity to apply
and to be considered can keep good employees interested in
remaining with your company.

The screen
Now the word is out, and the resumes begin pouring in. There
isn't really any magic to reading resumes, it just takes time and
perhaps a little luck. We all know that some applicants overstate
themselves on their resumes (perhaps the majority) while others
may understate their experience and qualifications.
When attempting to filter through the resumes, I recommend
the following approach:

• Have at least two people go through them and classify
  each as either A, B, or C candidates.

• If you don't find what you want after interviewing the As,
  evaluate the Bs to see if perhaps there is a sleeper there and
  begin interviewing some of them.

• Ignore the Cs”?your original hunch when reading their
  resume was probably right.

When determining who gets an interview, give people the
benefit of the doubt. In other words, over-schedule the amount
of candidates that you believe may be qualified. Bring in some
candidates whose applications may not be that strong, but have
some of the qualifications you are looking for. Again, you may
find a sleeper.

The interview
If you follow my advice and over-schedule the number of candidates,
you will now have a seemingly overwhelming amount of
interviews to conduct. Not to worry: Your first round of interviews
should be considered just that”?an “exploratory” interview, not
an in-depth one.

Schedule each of these 15 or 20 minutes apart. You know
from experience that within the first 5 minutes or so, you will
typically recognize whether or not the applicant has a chance.
Since you control the interview, you control the time. If they
don't qualify, be polite but don't waste time with them. Get
them out of your office, put them in the “No” pile, and move on.
Note: As a matter of courtesy, you should let the candidates
know in advance how much time they should anticipate spending
in these early-round interviews.

When you find someone that may qualify, spend a few extra
minutes, then reschedule them to come back for a second,
more thorough, interview. This procedure will help you move
through a lot of potential candidates quickly and narrow your
search to the few candidates with the most potential.
Once you have winnowed the field to the few best candidates,
then spend quality time with each. Take them on a tour
of your shop. Have different people in your organization interview
them and give you their feedback.

You should also get them out of the formal interview process,
and find out what they are really like outside of work. Take them
to lunch or invite them and their spouse or partner to dinner. Sell
them on your business. Share with them your ideas about what
you expect and ask them in turn what they expect out of the job.
Be deliberate at this stage of the process, and don't feel
badly about spending what seems to be too much time with
any one candidate. It's an important decision for your company,
and you want to make the right choice. But don't move
too slowly”?the good managers may get away.

Hiring good managers is a tricky business. Even if you
decide to follow my suggested steps, there is still no guarantee.
Sometimes, we just get it wrong”?it's that way with any
personnel decision. But if you go about the hiring process the
best way, your chances of landing the best person on your
management team will improve significantly.

Marty McGhie ([email protected]) is VP finance/
operations of Ferrari Color, a digital-imaging center with Salt
Lake City, San Francisco, and Sacramento locations.