The give-a-dang factor

All hiring managers say the same thing to me: "How can I find employees who

care a little bit about my business?"

They don't need people to toss and turn at night over problems in the business. They just need their employees

to care enough to ask a question when they don't understand something, or to

tell a customer "I don't know the answer, but I'll find out."

They just need people who care a little bit.

I always tell them, "If you want to hire people who give a dang about the

business, you've got to interview for that characteristic."

Have you ever noticed how most companies hire talent? They screen for skills, skills,

skills -- tossing out any resume that doesn't have 10 years of X and five

years of Y and certifications A through Q. The way employers screen job

candidates for skills, you'd think that it was impossible to teach anyone

anything on the job! But people pick up skills on the job every day.

If we cared less about the picture-perfect resume and more about hiring people

with good brains and intellectual curiosity, we'd be better off. Our customers would be better off, too.

To find out whether a job-seeker is the type who will give a fig about your

business, don't ask him or her about each and every responsibility at every

job he or she has held in the past. Ask him or her to tell you stories.

"Tell me a story about a time when you had to make a decision on your own,

in an area that was out of your depth" is a great interview question. "Tell

me about a time when you had to convince your boss to change his or her

mind" is another one. We don't ask enough of these "tell me about" interview

questions. We get stuck in the rut of "Have you ever worked on a Frazzlebit

machine?" Who cares? We're smart people -- can't we teach another smart

person to operate the Frazzlebit machine? Didn't we learn how to do it, one

day, ourselves?

There is nothing more important in hiring than the elusive give-a-dang

factor, but most of our hiring processes don't take that into account. We

should screen resumes with an eye toward pluck and horse sense -- you can

get a great sense of that in a job-seeker's cover letter -- over other

attributes.

When we interview people, we should tell them enough about the

job opening to let them imagine how they could make a difference, and then

ask them to describe how they'd hit the ground running.

Can you afford to hire people who don't give a dang about the business?

Liz Ryan is a former Fortune 500 VP, a 25-year HR veteran and an expert on careers and the new millennium workplace. An award-winning entrepreneur and workplace adviser, Ryan is author of "Happy About Online Networking" and founder of the global online community www.AskLizRyan.com. E-mail Ryan at liz@asklizryan.com.