You’ve had the call from a spoke in your networking wheel – it goes something like this:
“I’m gonna need a new morning show”, they ask.
“Tell me what you’re looking for?”, you respond.
(Crickets)
Program Directors – building a radio station is much like casting and directing a movie.
You MUST have the vision in your head to complete the picture!
It is documented that up to 30 per cent of the position’s salary can be the cost of hiring.
Plus, a bad hire can increase that toll. Stop right now and do a web search on job interviewing.
You will discover thousands of websites on how to ‘rock’ the interview.
Quality interviewing is an art – that can be learned.
You have your stock questions that may lead you to the correct candidate.
Before you get there, do your homework.
The Basics
Smart
For the position, insure the candidate is qualified for the opening. Making the mistake of ‘they can nearly do the job – we can train them to do the rest’ can be costly.
Work Ethic
Radio is like White Castle – we never close our grills. Your candidate must understand that crazy hours is part of what we do.
Attitude If it’s close, hire attitude over talent. An ambitious attitude can make up for talent shortcomings – and the reverse can be cancerous.
Nice People
Identify those individuals who have a strong moral compass and can complement your mission – not disrupt it.
The Law of Three(borrowed my Friends at Midwest Communications)
Three Candidates
- Through the piles of resumes, identify at least three qualified target candidates.
Three Interviews
- Before the candidate visits your market, conduct three thorough interviews.
Three Locations
- Candidates react different to separate environments – interview each in three different places.
Three People
- Enlist at least TWO other department heads to interview the candidate – each of us has different styles and these styles will bring out different qualities in the candidate.
In our world of the impersonal job solicitation (Monster, Career Builder, Web auto applications) it is the intimate personal contact that will build your team’s most important, non-duplicable asset.
Your People.
Next Week: Weeds (Revisited)
