Excellent Recruitment Advice
Seth Godin offers some wise counsel on hiring after an exchange with a receptionist at a company he visited. He makes the point that all too often people are focused not on the value that a great employee can bring but paying as little as possible or falling to the lowest denominator. He notes:
"Just about every organization has a receptionist. Sometimes, he or she is merely a guardian, a patrol designed to keep the riffraff in the lobby.Other times, though, a receptionist can change the entire tone of an interaction. If you've got someone answering your phone, greeting your clients--who have traveled a thousand miles to visit your office--or otherwise dealing with the outside world, I think it's time to do some simple cost/benefit analysis.
If the receptionist greets just 100 people a day, that's 20,000 people a year. Is it worth a dollar per interaction to transform all of those interactions into something spectacular? In other words, instead of hiring the cheapest person, or sticking with the existing person because it's easier, what if you invested in a truly remarkable experience?
It works the same way with the telephone. How many companies, especially law firms, have a policy that the phone must be answered by a person, not voice mail. The result, often a live person, with barely a pulse or any enthusiasm answers the phone, gives you the third degree, attempts to transfer you, finds that the party you are calling isn't available and puts you into voice mail anyway. Usually the person answering the phone is on another floor, doesn't know who you are or, most times, the person you are calling. So, my question is, why bother answering the phone? Just let me go to voice mail in the first place instead of asking me to prounounce and spell my last name three times.
For those who don't know of Seth, one click to his post on this subject regarding the receptionist who asked him if he needed a haircut and failed to notice his completely bald head will drive the point home.