Priceless deep classic throwback from Sean Malarkey about Tom Kineshanko’s simple technique for filtering out perfect-looking-but-horrible hires:
Sean:
It really made me stop and think about my business, and look at my employees that I had. And, which, at the time, was about eight. And, I thought each one one-by-one,
- ‘Are they a 1, 2, 3, or 4?’
And, it made me almost wanna cry.
Because, out of the eight, I think seven were 1’s and 2’s.
(Tom K’s Topgrading Scale):
- 4 = goes above and beyond always
- 3 = goes above and beyond 50% of the time
- 2 = goes above and beyond occasionally
- 1 = gets the job done
Mike Tecku:
Right.
Sean:
Probably mostly closer to 1’s.
Mike T:
Yep.
Mike Hansen:
Topgrading.
Mike T:
How do you find people that are 3’s and 4’s, and how do you even know? Because, we’ve hired people that we’re like,
- ‘Yes! This person is great!’
And, they get there, and we’re like,
- ‘Aghhh. Super lazy.’
Mike H:
Wow! Yeah.
Sean:
This sucks!
You’re not alone.
So, he runs ads, and he tries to get at least 50 applicants for every ad, right?
Mike T:
Where does he run an ad at?
Sean:
That’s a good question — I should ask — but, I would assume anywhere and everywhere. He said multiple places. So I’m gonna just go off the cuff and say, you know, Craigslist, Monster dot com, local colleges — I run ads at some of the local colleges here and get some good applicants from that.
And, then, I guess just other job boards and asking— what’s worked for me too is just asking my current employees and social network and people, ‘Hey we’re looking for this if you know anybody.
So— you still hear me?
Mike T:
Mhmm.
Mike H:
Yes.
Sean:
So, what he does, then, he gets 50 to 100 applicants, and he whittles it down to 20 to 30, based on looking at their résumés. Right?
And, in the resumes, after doing that, he will then have those 20 to 30— he will ask them to set up three-way calls with their previous employers or their references.
And, from that, let’s just say it was 25 people, 15 will go by the wayside, ’cause they just won’t even do it. Right? 10 will set up the calls and once they have the call set up, he said they’ll do the calls with the 10.
He said it’s unbelievable what happens. He said, on those calls, like, the ones that are 3’s and 4’s, their employer is like,
- ‘Dude, you’re really getting a gift with Mike. Like, he is an amazing employee. You know, I feel bad — we downsized and just cut that department out,’ or ‘we sold that part of the business and, you know, I wish we would’ve kept him for something. But, you’re— you’re doing great, you know, and—’
…whatever.
And— and, then, he says you’ll have the opposite. You’ll have employers that would be like, you know,
- ‘Why did you say that you increased our revenue 66%?’
When he would ask— you know,
- ‘So, it says here that he increased revenue 66% by doing this—’
And the employer would be like,
- ‘You did not.’
Like, you know. He said it would literally be so revealing, that, like, they looked at the résumé, and they looked perfect.
And he— you know, if he’d called and just said, ‘Hey, I was looking at this,’ he may have gotten a response, he may not have.
But, he— he said, ‘Sometimes we’ll that people are confrontational on those things,’ whatever— but they’re really revealing.
And, by the end of the calls, he said ‘We’re always down to like two or three that are just amazing — and then we do the in-depth interview, at that point, and make a decision on who we wanna hire.
Mike T:
That makes so much more sense.
For some reason, we’ve had a— we haven’t been doing ba— you know, background checks. We haven’t been doing reference calls. But, to do all that stuff before you waste your time on an interview makes way more sense to me.
Definitely take a good look at any state and/or federal laws you could trip over before following this advice, but I think even the mere mention of 3-way calls could be quite the effective filter for any Pinocchio applicants who may have slipped past your radar.
— Tang
Sean Malarkey’s owned platform is: Repurpose.io.
Mike Tecku’s owned platforms include: Momentum Shake and Strike a Pose.
Mike Hansen’s owned platform is: Strike a Pose.
