ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Business Related Discussion How do you find a good employee?

Having hired and fired more people than I can remember...

For blue collar trades only the most rudimentary screening is required.

I always start off with a candidate's tools. They are telling.

Weight extremes are telling, too: too light/ wired indicates drug issues/ chronic heavy drinking... too heavy indicates sloth.

(I had an eighteen-year old first day hire simply squat on his can. He was seventy pounds overweight. His physical sloth was matched by his mental retardation. He couldn't even repeat a PVC floor box glue up to match the one that he, himself, had just assembled. We're talking about a handful of elbows for power and data. They were sitting side by side on the slab!)

All new hires are solely employed in structured efforts so that their performance tempo and quality are obvious.

One must discount praise and trash talk from the established crew members. High quality talent will inspire trash talk more often than slow work. Good old boys will be praised because of non-work related matters.

Terminated employees, regarless of reason, will have blame heaped upon them from those that made the very errors that are of issue.

Lastly, new employees figure that it's a liars win all contest. That's what the absurd qualifications lists do -- the ones you see on CraigsList and in the classifieds.

The one thing that's hard to detect -- but critical -- is how reckless a man is. High speed iron is the only tell that I know of. I do note that CraigsList adverts request driving records of new applicants. Such traits are carried onto the job.