Great employees make a great company. I’ve had some great employees and some great companies. I have some hard fast rules that I use when I employ someone. Most of all I want my employees to have good character. I not only check references, I run a criminal background check and drug test on all applicants. I will not hire smokers, and have had this policy since the early ‘80’s. I will not hire someone covered with tattoos, men who wear earrings, someone who wears “gangsta†clothes with their shorts pulled down below their butts, women who wear micro mini-skirts, someone who lays out on Mondays with hangovers, or someone who wears their baseball cap backwards or sideways.
One of the things I look for when I personally hire someone is what I call “bright eyesâ€. I look into their eyes and can tell by their twinkling intensity that they “get itâ€.
I will not hire anyone unless they smile during the interview process. I’m not talking about some plastic grin; I’m talking about a joyful smile. I want to be around happy, joyful people who occasionally burst into laughter, not a bunch of losers who are mad at the world and have a scowl on their faces all of the time. I have noticed that the most joyful people in the world are Christians.
Hmmm… Dare I say that I would prefer that Christians would be in my employ?
By now you are probably saying to yourself that the ACLU would have a field day with an old buzzard like me and you’re probably right. The ACLU wants me to hire people just like them and I would liquidate the company before I’d do it.
My crime is that I want the best employees that I can find and my forty years of management have taught me that, while not foolproof, by and large the foregoing principles seem to work for me.
It is interesting that the Bible tells us to choose our friends wisely. I took this command a step further and applied it to employees too. Young people would do well to think about this and apply some standards of their own when choosing their friends. The seemingly politically correct peer pressure route and trying to be popular at all cost will more often than not get you into trouble if you allow it to dictate who your friends/employees will be, (not to mention your conduct).
The Bible states this concept in terms we can all understand and should be considered to be a very serious warning. Foolish friends can literally destroy your life. Consider this the next time you’re out with a group of people, and you’re considering who to talk with, and who to avoid. Hmmm… You entrepreneurs might also want to think about it when hiring your next employee, assuming you want some longevity to your business…
Proverbs 13:20
He that walks with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. –