Building The Foundation
The first step includes professional testing. It is the same sort of professional testing you can get from just about any company, but Shoresh retro-fitted the results by asking his current employees to take the test as well, giving him access to the “DNA of the superstars” in his business.
“I have a profile for what makes great technicians and what makes great project managers,” Shoresh said. “Using the Q&A lets me see how this person compared to someone else in my company. This way I have something to compare it too. I want to replicate DNA by looking at the superstars in my company, and you can’t do that without the testing.”
Equally as important, Shoresh stresses that cognitive bias plays a significant role in shaping opinions about someone. Unfortunately, that can lead to hiring a person they like (because of a university they went to or a military position they have held) despite not being the best fit for the job. His solution was letting more people in on the interview process.
Navot maintains that the advantage of having more people meet a potential candidate not only makes the onboarding easier it usually leads to a stronger work environment. “Instead of just one person handling the hiring, you have office managers sitting in on meetings, technicians holding their own interviews with completely different levels of conversation,” Shoresh said. “You gather all this information and it lets people ask entirely different questions and get true feedback from different points of view.” “It’s about having every one of your employees, whenever you can, talk to this person,” Shoresh added. “It not only makes sure that someone has the right technical skills but also the right behavioral and cultural skills to fit into our company.”
Most importantly, Shoresh believes that a company needs to have a culture and vision to push against; otherwise, no one will invest in his system. Recently overhauling his human resource department led to hiring a treasured employee who just left her job at the Pentagon. He praises her hands-on system and her ability to translate the company vision into something tangible.
“We really work hard at explaining the company vision, the company culture, how things are behaving,” Shoresh said. “We have an HR manual that explains everything. It explains how our company operates; it’s something concrete in their hands.”
Shoresh also believes his system works well because of a robust and transparent onboarding process, something he thinks many companies completely gloss over. He believes that being honest and upfront with everyone (both current employees and new hires) can diffuse stress from growing pains.
“Don’t expect them to hit the ground running. When someone comes on, and they are uncomfortable, we tell them that the first couple weeks are about learning and understanding what other people do,” Shoresh said. “I also tell the people around them that this person is new, and you can expect them to slow you down.”
“When current employees start thinking ‘Oh, this new person is slowing me down’ or ‘I’m not getting anything done with the new person’ it automatically creates stress and negative emotions towards them,” he added. “We try to avoid that all together.”
In the end, Spire operates with loyalty coming from every angle. Shoresh believes that creating a top-down environment of support fosters both a deeper connection to the company but also avoids letting any negativity distort their opinion.
Shoresh understands that no system is perfect, but after 15 years he believes that he has a good idea of who to hire and how they can impact a working ecosystem. While there are some obvious red flags and traits that he believes are unfixable, Shoresh likes to think that everyone deserves a shot.
“The truth is you don’t hire to fit a role; you hire to fit a culture and that starts with you.”
Original Article By Patrick McCarthy From: Dealerscope
