Another Reason for Team Building

Being in the team building business we are constantly talking to clients about the value of keeping their talent and how team building can boost morale during a layoff and get people to know each other better when things are booming. We are in the process of hiring and in dozens of interviews, one thing that I personally have learned to value is the people on our team, right now. It is much easier to keep good people than to find and train new ones. I want to share a story from an interview last week. This has a whole other lesson but you’ll get the point.

I had been looking forward to meeting this candidate for over a week since he replied to my help wanted ad. This particular ad was place on Craigslist where I have a great track record of finding who and what I want. The interviewee arrived and he was impeccably dressed and said all the right things. He was young, well spoken and had a great resume and references. After a tour of the office, I sent him over to meet the rest of our staff in our production and business office. The consensus was that this person would be a good addition to our team. I received a glowing reference. I was going to hire him. Right before I called him, I was sidetracked for a couple hours and I went back to the office that night at 7:30PM. I opened his resume and was picking up the phone when I made a quick decision. I had heard that employers did a Google search on their applicants. I thought that would be interesting to see if he had a Facebook or MySpace. So I put his name into my Google Search bar. I’m not sure if you can imagine my thoughts when he appeared on the page with an account of a recent arrest with photos and videos of him in an entirely different suit, an orange one, with handcuffs. I was stunned.

I called him and he confirmed that he was having an issue that should be resolved. I told him that when it was, to give me a call again. I called it a day and was thankful that I had the done the search. I have another interview today – and this time, a Google search is the first thing that I am doing. Moral of the story: Good people are hard to find. Look around you and appreciate the good people that you have working for and with you right now.