With Halloween less than a month away, we wanted to take a moment to talk about zombies. Did you know zombies are among us? It’s true. They are in the news, on the big screen, and throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul for the annual Zombie Pub Crawl. Zombies are even in your office!
Zombies can really bring down your field service business. They are called the walking dead for a reason. No enthusiasm , no motivation, plus eating your other employees is a downfall. So how can you stop the zombie apocalypse from touching your company? Susie Hall, president of Vitamin T, and her employees came up with some ways to fight the zombie fight!
Don’t skip the reference process. One of Hall’s best tips is to not skip over those references. Call these people and see what they think of your interviewee. Find out how they handle certain situations, what their work ethic is like, and just what their overall personality is. This can be a good source to start off with and during the interview you can bring up some of the things the reference mentioned to see how they react.
Do a test run. I like this idea the best. Whether you are hiring a new office person or a tech out in the field, do a test run. Some call this a working interview. You have the person do the job they will be doing if they get the position for a few days or weeks. This is a good test to see if they will fit in with other employees, understand the job and its requirements, and have the attitude you want in an employee. Offering payment is a good way to get potential hires to agree, and it will save you the cost of actually hiring them if they turn out to not be a good fit.
Train Properly. Be sure your new employee is trained in and given everything they need to do their job up front. If they are stuck waiting around for certain tools or need extra training that is spread out over a long period of time, they may get discouraged. If you don’t instill a sense of urgency, why should they? And not even urgency, but if you aren’t eager for them to get up and running, they may not see a point in being eager either.
Having a zombie in the office is life threatening to your company. They will drag down your resources while not contributing much and may even infect other employees with their zombie behavior. It is important to take the time required to properly hire someone. Gather as much information as you can about them and don’t be afraid to speak with their references. Hire an employee who is lively and active or the consequences could be deadly.
And check out Vitamin T’s whitepaper: I Hired a Zombie. It shows great statistics on the costs of a bad hire.