There’s Another Yellow Car

If you look for yellow cars all of a sudden it seems like every second car is yellow. The same goes for purple, blue, pink or brown ones. Now that I’m looking for information about hiring, there are resources popping out at me from everywhere.

I had lunch with a friend, Shelley Fleckinstein of King’s Physiotherapy, who has grown her company to 26 people. Shelley is a people person so I asked her for her advice and this is what she said:

• Be clear about the job
• List the benefits you offer
• Hire on probation
• Create a process for evaluating the new hire

Thank you, Shelley for making it manageable and less scary.

This week the HRSDC (Human Resources and Skills Development Canada) conducted an information workshop about hiring (look, another yellow car). They talked about breaking jobs down into essential skills and then looking at what level of each of those skills are required for the job.

1. For instance, what level of reading is required?
2. Reading emails and responding
3. Reading a full page memo about a new company process
4. Reading a manual to learn a new computer program
5. Reading and interpreting government regulations

Each of these is more challenging than the one before. It is important to realize what level of skill is required and to make sure the people you hire have at least the level of this skill that you require.

For more information about Essential Skills, Skills Assessment and Development and for improving HR practices can go check out these links:

http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/workplaceskills/essential_skills/general/home.shtml

http://essentialskillsthatwork.com/home.html

When I got to the presentation Shelley was there with her manager, Cheryl, so I knew I was in the right place. It just goes to show you that the learning never ends (that's a good thing) and we can always get better at the skills we need.