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The four elements needed to align for a successful hire:

June 1, 2020 by Don Jasensky

  1. Qualified
  2. Highly interested
  3. Available
  4. Affordable 

Qualified – They have the experience and capacity to excel in your position.

Highly interested – Strong enough interest to put in their notice, not take counter-offer to stay on, and do whatever is necessary to start with your organization. Assume if they are a good employee, there will be a counter-offer.

Available – Any contract or non-compete or other commitments to keep them from starting with you? Non-competes can be a deal-breaker. What about bonuses the candidate is waiting on before putting in their notice? These, too, can be a deal-breaker. If it is September and the candidate is waiting for a year-end bonus that pays in January, the hiring company may not be willing to wait that long. Other availability issues we commonly see include the ability to travel as needed or relocate. Also, the daily drive may be too much for a candidate.

Affordable – Within your budget and not out of line with other employees in the same position. You do not want to cause an issue with current employees; however, it is a judgment call if you should give a high performing candidate more money than others.  

I hope this gives you a better perspective of the four elements that need to align to have a successful hire.  For more information look for my book on Amazon.com   click here: “Hire Like A Pro”

Don Jasensky

Automotive Personnel, LLC

216-226-8190

Don@AutomotivePersonnel.Careers

TWITTER:DonJasensky

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Do you want to eliminate the most common hiring mistake employers make?

October 25, 2019 by Don Jasensky

Mistake: Passing on a high performing candidate because they did not “blow you away” or “show a lot of enthusiasm” during the 1st interview. 

I know this goes against what most of us have been taught. However, 30 years of interviewing and several thousand successful placements have taught us this very valuable lesson that I want to share with you. 

Let me show through example, by looking at two candidates – Bill and Mary.

Bill is under a lot of stress at his current job and may soon be terminated for poor job performance. Doesn’t this put a lot of pressure on Bill to find a new job? How might it affect his interviewing?

Mary is excelling at her current position, just as she has in her past positions. She does not need a new job but is open to seeing what your opportunity is about and make a smart decision if it is worth pursuing further. How will the fact that Mary is under no pressure affect her interviewing?

Bill and Mary will interview very differently!

Bill will look at your interview: 

As possible relief from the pressure of being terminated for poor job performance. Bill will be in “sales mode” and compliment you, your company, and its product or service. Bill will be enthusiastic and ready to jump through any hoop, take any test, and will start very soon with you. Bill wants to impress you! Yes, Bill will interview very hard for your job. Bill will have no concerns about your position, its work content, or driving distance. Bill will work hard to cover up the fact that he is a low performer. Usually, by compliments, enthusiasm, and lack of job performance specifics. Bill will likely continue to be a low-performer if he gets your job.

After the interview:  Bill will be answering many other job postings in his search for another job. He will likely call you frequently about getting your job and will look very enthusiastic to the interviewer. 

Mary will look at your interview: 

As a learning and fact-gathering process. Mary isn’t trying to “sell” you on herself nor impress you. She will tell you about her role and successes’ with pride, but she will not attempt to “blow you away.” Mary will likely be more pensive and ask thoughtful questions and probe you about issues she may see with your company, position, product, or service. She will openly express these concerns. This is how “high performers” interview and make value judgments. Mary will likely continue to be a high performer if she gets your job. 

After the interview:  If Mary is interested, she will conduct more research about your company and let you know if she is interested in a second interview.

 Don’t confuse Mary’s behavior as being aloof nor low energy. Mary is in thinking and fact-gathering mode, whereas Bill is in “sales mode.” If Mary becomes more certain that she wants your position, her interviewing will change, and she will switch gears and become more expressive and enthusiastic during follow up interviews. 

Lesson: The best indicator of future job performance is past job performance. High performers tend to be high performers throughout their careers, and low performers tend to gravitate towards low performance. So invite Mary back for a second interview and spend the time learning about her past and current job performance while checking references. You may even need to “do some selling” to entice Mary to your company. Many managers loathe the thought of having to sell the position or the company. However you are not looking for a BFF, you are looking for a person to help your company. In a competitive job market, some “selling” by hiring managers is very beneficial in landing the best personnel.   

Note: Do not confuse someone like Mary, who is quiet and gathering facts (not trying to sell), with poorly prepared candidates, bad attitude, disengaged, disinterested, disrespectful, unmotivated, or uncooperative, etc.    

Don Jasensky is the Founder and President of Automotive Personnel, LLC

Look for Don’s book “Hire Like A Pro” at Amazon.com

Reach Don at 216-226-8190     Don@AutomotivePersonnel.Careers

Mistake: Passing on a high performing candidate because they did not “blow you away” or “show a lot of enthusiasm” during the 1st interview.

Let me show by example with looking at two candidates – Bill and Joe

Bill is under a lot of stress at his current job and may soon be terminated for poor job performance. Doesn’t this put a lot of pressure on Bill to find a new job? How might it affect is interviewing?

Joe is excelling at his current position, just as he did in his past positions. He does not need a new job but is open to seeing what your opportunity is about and make a smart decision if it is worth pursuing further. How will the fact that Joe is under no pressure affect his interviewing?

Bill and Joe will interview very differently!

Bill will look at your interview:

As possible relief from being the pressure of being terminated for job poor performance. Bill will be in “sales mode” and compliment you, your company, and its product or service. Bill will be enthusiastic and ready to jump through any hoop, take any test, and will start very soon with you. Bill wants to impress you! Yes, Bill will interview very hard for your job. Bill will have no concerns about your position, its work content or driving distance. Bill will work hard to cover up the fact that he is a low performer. Usually, by compliments and enthusiasm and lack of specifics. Bill will likely continue to be a low performer if he gets your job.

After the interview:  Bill will be answering many other job postings in his search for another job. He will likely call you frequently about getting your job.

Joe will look at your interview: 

As a learning and fact-gathering process.  Joe isn’t trying to “sell” you on himself nor impress you. He will tell you about his role and successes’ with pride, but he will not attempt to “blow you away.” Joe will likely be more pensive and ask thoughtful questions and probe you about issues he may see with your company, position, product, or service. He will openly express these concerns. This is how “high performers” interview and make value judgments. Joe will likely continue to be a high performer if he gets your job. 

After the interview:  If Joe is interested, he will conduct research more about your company and let you know if he is interested in a second interview.

 Don’t confuse Joe’s behavior as being aloof nor low energy. Joe is in thinking and fact-gathering mode, whereas Bill is in “sales mode.” If Joe becomes more certain that he wants your position, his interviewing will change and he will switch gears and become more expressive and enthusiastic during follow up interviews. 

Lesson: The best indicator of future job performance is past job performance. High performers tend to be high performers throughout their careers, and low performers tend to gravitate towards low performance. So invite Joe back for a second interview and spend the time learning about his past and current job performance while checking references.   You may even need to “do some selling” to entice Joe to your company.  Many managers loathe the thought of having to sell the position or the company.  However you are not looking for a BFF, you are looking for a person to help your company.  In a competitive job market, some “selling” by hiring managers is very helpful in landing the best personnel.   

Note: Do not confuse someone like Joe, who is quiet and gathering facts (not trying to sell), with candidates who are poorly prepared, bad attitude, disengaged, disinterested, disrespectful, unmotivated, or uncooperative, etc.

Don Jasensky is the Founder and President of Automotive Personnel, LLC

Look for Don’s book “Hire Like A Pro” at Amazon.com

Reach Don at 216-226-8190     Don@AutomotivePersonnel.Careers

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: automotive recruitment, dealership, finance, hiring

Save thousands of dollars and much aggravation by presenting a pay plan the way  we do!

August 28, 2018 by Don Jasensky

Candidates  will turn  down a terrific pay plan offered to them  or ask for a lot more base salary if they don’t   understand, or worse they misunderstood, the variable portion.

Present a pay plan like we do and you will end this problem !

Address variable compensation with:

  1. Show candidate what the pay plan will yield based on the trailing 12 months .
  2. Then let them know that you are looking for an improvement, (let’s go with 10%). With a 10% improvement  your variable will be  $X +
  3. Over perform at 15% and variable will be $X ++

Now your candidate will understand the base and variable and can do accurate mental calculations.   If they are a high performer they will see themselves performing at the higher level.   

Donald Jasensky is Founder and CEO of Automotive Personnel, LLC    216-216-8190   Don@AutomotivePersonnel.Careers    TWITTER@DonJasensky

 

Filed Under: Published Articles, Uncategorized Tagged With: compensation, headhunting, personnel, recruitment

Characteristics Of A Good Personnel Recruitment System

December 6, 2017 by Don Jasensky

 

 The most important ingredient to your career/ business  success is the people whom you hire. They sell you products, find your customers, provide  your revenue stream, solve your problems, and fend off your competition.

Problem is , you can have an MBA from an Ivy League school and still be ill-equipped   to find great candidates, interview, assess and evaluate.

For 2018 I recommend reviewing your recruitment system and look for these characteristics.                         

  • Highly effective
  • Easy to use
  • Repeatable across all positions
  • Teachable  – becomes  “Tribal Knowledge”
  • Easily adopted by new managers

 

  • Highly effective means that if you follow the system you will consistently hire good employees who fit your open positions
  • Easy to use means it is not overly complicated whereby the system itself gets into the way of hiring .
  • The system must be useable for all positions, from junior through senior level positions. Of course more complex and higher level positions require more time and effort but the system remains the same.
  • The ability to teach the system to other employees is essential for a system to be adopted and become “tribal knowledge” by the employees.
  • A good system must be easily adopted by new managers who join the company. A system so complex that new managers need to go off few a few days of training to learn how to use the system is way overly complicated and often become untenable in small through medium size organizations.

Good recruitment becomes a part of your organizational  culture not a  just a Human Resources function. 

Donald Jasensky

Founder and CEO  Automotive Personnel, LLC

216-226-8190

www.AutomotivePersonnel.Careers         Don@AutomotivePersonnel.Careers

TWITTER: @DonJasensky

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Deciphering a candidate’s employment record during the interview – made easy !!!

March 14, 2017 by Don Jasensky

Deciphering a candidate’s employment record during the interview – made easy !!!

 

The best indicator of  a candidate’s future performance with you is their past  performance .  But you have to know what to look for !!!

 

Employment behavior tends to follow consistent patterns. A low achiever has a record of low achievement and a high achiever has a record of high achievement.  The confusing part is deciphering a candidate’s employment  record during the interview  and evaluation process!

 

Low achievers are usually very good at “hiding” in successful departments.  As an interviewer it is your responsibility to find out the actual contributions, accomplishments and employment record of the candidate to determine if a high or low achiever is sitting in front of you. In 28 years of recruiting we have learned  that one of the most common mistakes employers make is hiring low performers from successful companies.

 

As the interviewer, you  must ask the questions that will yield the information you need to make a smart hiring decision.
During the interview, probe candidates about their accomplishments, their specific role, dates and time frames, awards, bonuses, promotions, attendance and good teammate traits. Then verify with references.  Do not miss the “verify with references “ part!   Learn from the automotive finance and banking industry – they do not just ask customers “how they pay their bills” do they?  No, they verify – so should you!

Don’t allow important questions to be answered with soft answers.  They provide you with no real assessment value.  Ask for facts, details and information to support their contributions and references who will verify them.  

 

 Revealing Questions:

In a quarter of a century of recruitment we have found certain questions can be very revealing.  Of course many question will be asked, but keep the 80/20 rule in mind when it comes to revealing questions!  Following is an  example that I use when interviewing Sales Managers.  Whether  your position is a National Sales Manager over the entire US, or a Sales Manager for an automotive dealership, a few intelligent questions reveals so much from the interview.

 

 Now watch as I drill down for specifics and remember that  the devil lies in the detail !

After a general discussion about our client’s sales staff and its strengths and weaknesses

I ask : Now that you know the issues our client has with its sales staff tell me how you will   help their  sales staff perform much better for you than they are now.

Candidate answer : I will motivate them to sell 

My follow up – Walk me through the details how you have done that in the past …

 

Candidate answer : I will train them to be better, I’m a great trainer

My follow up – Share some significant details about your training program and walk me through your  ” from-to “results …

 

Candidate answer : I will hold them accountable for their results 

My follow up – That sounds great, let’s talk about your current system to hold your people accountable …

 

I do not allow for soft or generic answers to specific questions.  You shouldn’t either.  The high performers will have specific answers and be able to support their “from – to” results. 

You as the interviewer must lead and ask the questions that will yield the information you need to make a smart hiring decision. Become great at developing these revealing questions and pursuing details so that you can decipher a candidate’s true employment record. We have a separate article devoted to “Intelligent  Interviewing “ that goes into more detail.  

 Please keep in mind we are not trying to stump a candidate, we want to learn about them so we can make an astute judgement on how they will perform in the future with our client.

Donald Jasensky

CEO / Automotive Personnel, LLC

216-226-8190

don@automotivepersonnel.careers

www.automotivepersonnel.careers

Twitter : @DonJasensky

 

“We Find The People Who Drive The Automotive Industry since 1989”

 

Filed Under: Published Articles, Uncategorized Tagged With: automotive finance, automotive personnel, employee recruitment, employment recruiting, executive search, finance, interviewing, recruiting

This is an honor …..

February 3, 2016 by Don Jasensky

For the second year in a row we are very proud to be nominated to The Subprime Auto Finance News

“Subprime 125 Heavy Hitters”.   For 27 years we have been devoted to helping our clients find the very best candidates for their key positions.   We are proud to be a part of this $1 trillion industry and I want to thank our clients for the opportunity to work with them.  I also want to thank  my fellow team members here who work so hard every day devoted to our clients’ needs.

 

Thank you,

Don Jasensky

CEO / Automotive Personnel, LLC

216-226-8190

don@automotivepersonnel.co

www.automotivepersonnel.co

TWITTER@ DonJasensky

Filed Under: Published Articles, Uncategorized

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