Since 1992 I have been speaking and presenting seminars about my five step hiring process, the Choosing Winners™ System. I have discovered that far too many leaders have no concept of how to select the right people.

Leaders make hiring a whole lot more difficult than it is in reality. Part of this is due to a lack of specific training. However, the single greatest problem is the refusal of leaders to devote the time and effort necessary to improve their hiring success. They are all looking for the magic potion, the single test that will tell them who to hire. Guess what? That single test is a myth.

I developed my ideas about hiring while working as a school principal and superintendent. The single most positive influence on me was Ken Cardinal. Ken developed numerous structured interviews and I learned how to interview from him.

Ken always spoke about hiring as a discovery process. I found that with a discovery process mind-set I was able to focus on the interviewee’s responses and learn more about them. In discovery you want to learn all you can about a person before you make the job offer. Unfortunately, most leaders do not do this and after the person begins working it is “oh, no, why did I ever hire them?”

Hiring right is all about discipline. For years now managers have not been disciplined in their hiring of new employees. I really do not care which system is used in hiring new employees for a company. All I know is that you will be far more successful with a system, a process that everyone in the company supports and follows without exception. (Including the President!) My Choosing Winners™ System provides a framework, a process that requires discipline on the part of the leader. I never present my system as the answer, but rather as a model from which a company can plan and then implement a process.

When you hire the wrong person, the cost to your company is at least three times the mis-hire’s annual compensation not to mention the negative impact on the team. And remember, as it is written in the Book of Proverbs, 26:10, “Like an archer who wounds at random, is he who hires a fool or any passer-by.”

Bob Spence completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, and also has done Ph.D. work at BGSU. (ABD) At BGSU he received the Distinguished Service Award. Bob founded Creative-Leadership Consultants, a human resources company, in San Diego, California, and grew it to 15 professionals and 4 licensee offices. He has experience in construction, manufacturing, retail, services and high technology. Bob is based in Orlando, Florida, serves clients throughout the United States. He is also a Vistage Florida Chair and a Senior Resource for Vistage International. In 2016 he received the HR Lifetime Achievement Award from Columbus CEO Magazine. He can be reached at his email address: [email protected]