A company is by and of its employees. It lives, it breathes, it dies through the actions of those individuals that create and espouse its core principles. In discussing what makes a good employee, it’s crucial to reflect and evaluate the behaviors we’ve learned in our time as professionals that brought us company-wide success in an organization, and perhaps just as importantly, individual success on a personal level.

This week’s blog highlights the hiring perspective as both employee and employer as we talk to business strategy expert and Director of Operations at eCubed, Kirby Atwell.

I have spent a good part of the last decade looking at organizations. It seems elementary, but there are really just 3 types of employees; great, good, and bad. While they may fall into each category for different reasons it really breaks down like this:

Good employees are average- they show up on time, do the job as asked and perhaps a bit more. In general, they are adequate – fair enough? Most people fall into this category.

Bad employees are toxic. They may be a poor fit for the team or the position because they lack the skills for the role. They may not work well with others. Others may need to double or triple check their work (adding to their own work load) or carry the load on joint projects because the bad employee is just too hard to collaborate with. Of course the worst is the negative attitude. We all know them. They continually distract from the flow of the team, the division, or even the company. Managers usually hold on to these people too long.

We spend plenty of time thinking about bad employees and, perhaps, not enough about the good ones. Sure, everyone is a good employee for the first few weeks or so, but I’m talking about the ones who are good over the long haul. The ones who tend to be more optimistic even when the world gets hard. You can see the fire. They want to do a good job, not just for their manager or the company, but for themselves. These are the people who, with good leadership, build excellent companies.

Some of this can be coached, but most of this is intuitive to a good employee- they almost can’t help themselves and they are hard to find. While it is easy to judge technical skills, a person’s nature is a little trickier to uncover in a one-hour interview. Remember, everyone is great when you meet them… Corporations invest tens of thousands of dollars assessing high level executives for fit and work style and that makes sense. Lower level employees is more of a hit and miss game- But I argue there may be value in spending some money to hire right even at the lower levels.

“While it is easy to judge technical skills,
a person’s nature is a little trickier
to uncover in a one-hour interview.”

I cut my teeth in restaurants a thousand years ago. We rolled through dish washers at a pretty good clip. One would quit and we would hire the next able bodied person to fill. It’s not a super technical roll, but the first few weeks could be rough and they learned the flow. So, during this time the kitchen might slow due to a backlog of pans, pots and kitchen tools. Or perhaps things were not where the line would put them. Schedules might have to be modified to accommodate the new person. A couple times a year, in the heat of a rough night the dishwasher would walk off. Sometimes in the heat of the kitchen, I’ve seen them throw fits (and once fists). The first few are a learning curve, the last few are traits of a problem employee.

The costs are both clear and subtle. Clear costs are the first few weeks of training, the manager’s time to adjust schedules The not so clear costs- moral: moving a line cook to the dish with any regularity may cost you a line cook. Managers often end up washing dishes meaning a poor use of the most expensive resource in the building. Not being able to fill positions and keep them filled kills the moral of the team as a whole and if leadership can’t turn it around quickly, your hiring for multiple positions, not just one.

Turnover is expensive and I am not arguing that hiring right in the beginning solves the issue, but it dramatically improves it. If I hired 10 dishwashers a year before- what if I only had to train 6. What if that savings was the same for most entry level positions? In multiple locations? These numbers are very real for any multi unit operator in any industry.

This is why I joined the FIT team. It fulfills my personal mission: “Make work better for everyone.” The FIT platform allows assessments that apply to the role- Language, technical skills and a proprietary assessment that measures the often intangible that shows a candidate has a connection with the company. Hiring managers can evaluate these candidates at a glance, saving time and highlighting the better candidates. FIT strives to democratize the use of assessments offering these assessments at a price that makes sense- even for entry level employees. Improve your hiring. Improve your team. Improve your work. Hire with confidence.

Fit-in-Test

FIT’s (Fit-in-Test) Talent Acquisition and Talent Management Solutions are specially designed to work with your team. Using our proven Learning Management System (LMS) for onboarding and new hire training, test customization that curates curricula to your organization’s essential talent question strategy, and FIT’s robust talent acquisition engine, FIT easily integrates into your organization. In conjunction with our robust data reporting tools, FIT can create, launch, and manage an unparalleled hiring solution for your team.

FIT combines all our performance hiring tools to provide you with a best-in-class workflow to fit your retention strategy. Contact us now for a free consultation today!

Visit the FIT site to learn more.  If you’re interested in learning more about FIT and Talent acquisition, download this free infographic. 

Sign up for more to stay ahead of the latest in hiring solutions, or

Contact us to get in touch with us directly and find out what we can do for your company today!