By Julie Ballard-Lebe, a 19 year veteran of CBS Television Stations and currently Senior Vice President/Director of Sales managing 7 of their10 national sales offices.
Hiring 'the best' employees has to be the single most important and most challenging responsibility facing media sales management today. It sets you and your company up for maximum performance in an ever-changing competitive environment. Hiring this special person takes experience, time and lots of listening skills (and the openness to learn from your past mistakes!). Would you believe that 40% of all hires are considered poor hires after the glow of the new, well-polished interviewee wears off and the poor work habits kick in? You can help prevent a hiring mistake by keeping a few key points in mind:
• First start off with the basics: Establish what qualities and skill-sets you are looking for in a candidate in advance. Set an uncluttered amount of time aside to do your interview and allow no interruptions so you can give the candidate all of your attention.
• It's a courtship! An excellent way of seeing what you'll be getting in a future hire is to establish a business relationship that you can cultivate over time. Investing time in a new relationship prior to making the hire can provide a lot of valuable information about a future hire. Take the future candidate out for breakfast or lunch. Invite them to join one of your committees or to a networking function.
• Actively listen to what your candidates are saying and (more importantly) what they are not saying. Should you be looking to fill a sports manager's position, ask this question of the candidate: "What do you do during your weekends (other than working)?" and just sit back and listen. If they love to read, go to plays, do charity work, that's wonderful, but not the person that you would probably want to hire to specifically fill a sports manager's position. Hopefully your future sports manager spends their weekend doing something sports related.
• People drop clues. It's up to you to pick them up and listen to them. Another comment that sends warning signals is when the prospective hire says that (s)he is looking for a "comfortable" place to work. If someone wants comfort in this day and age then get out of the media business and go somewhere else.
• Check your own sources! The number one question that I like to ask sources when I'm calling references is 'would you hire them (or re-hire them) if you had an opening?' That will tell you volumes about what the reference on the other end of the phone truly thinks of the candidate.
Checking the candidates list of references is OK, but it's more valuable to ask the candidate for a full client list and then, discretely with the interviewee's permission, call those contacts that you know personally so that you can get the real picture. Or if you don't know anyone on the list then ask the candidate to tell you who they work with.
Tomorrow: more tips in the process
