Interviews, Recruitment and People

03 November 2014, 14:19 pm
Speciality Bites by Paul Hargreaves

I have recently been conducting a number of interviews for various new positions at Cotswold Fayre, and with a wealth of good candidates to choose from, it has made me think again about how to choose the best people to recruit

We probably all have different ways of judging and recruiting our people, which may involve structured interviews, informal interviews, psychometric tests, presentations and others. I have used all these and more in assessing whether candidates’ experience and characteristics will make them a good employee and one that will develop your company.

My current thinking as an owner of an SME, is that the positivity of the person and their ability to fit into the company culture are possibly more important than the candidates’ experience.  This may possibly be influenced by some less than positive people that have left the company over the summer, but give me someone with a sunny disposition and a desire to learn and grow any day than someone who thinks they are God’s gift and thinks they have reached the pinnacle of their own personal development, which inevitably leads to cynicism and can be ultimately very destructive.

Having good, positive people in your business is certainly key to your growth.  I have made plenty of mistakes over the last 15 years of running Cotswold Fayre, many of which are around recruitment and ongoing management of staff.  I have generally made mistakes when not going with my gut instinct.  I would also say I should have recruited better (and more expensive!) people earlier.  However, this is not necessarily easy in the formative stages of a business when cash is tight and you are wondering whether you will make any profit at all.

Generally though I would advise you to recruit the best people you possibly can afford, and then add on 20% and get even better people.  Good staff will save more than the extra you pay them, and usually a lot more.  I would be pleased to hear your recruitment stories, positive and negative, as I think this is an area we can all learn more about in the speciality food world.

Happy recruiting, even if it is just temporary cover for the madness of the next few weeks.

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