There’s a fine line between an enthusiastic job candidate and one that reeks of desperation. On one hand, you don’t want to hire someone with a laissez faire attitude toward working at your company, but you don’t exactly want someone who is so frantic to get a job, they are practically exploding with eagerness over the opportunity.

Many employers consider lack of enthusiasm a deal-breaker, but the question remains whether that should always be the case. If a candidate is technically qualified for a job, but seems less-than-enthusiastic about the opportunity, you may be tempted to reject them out of hand. After all, conventional wisdom holds that skills can be taught, but it’s next to impossible to change someone’s natural drive to perform and succeed. An enthusiastic employee is likely to give their all day-after-day, helping to drive the company to greater revenues. 

If you reject an apparently unenthusiastic candidate, you could be making a huge mistake, however, as that person may have been absolutely perfect for the position – and for your company. Before making a critical hiring decision, you must consider that you may have not been seeing the candidate’s true colors when it comes to their enthusiasm level. And there could be some very good reasons behind their inability – or unwillingness – to clue you in on just how excited they are to be interviewing for the position. 

It should go without saying, but you must remember that some people are naturally shy. They may be bumbling over with enthusiasm, but simply unable to communicate that adequately. Granted, some employers steer clear of shy candidates, believing their natural proclivity to introspection may prevent them from working well with others, but you must remember that shy people often make better employees, as they spend less time gossiping around the water cooler and engaged in unnecessary inner-office emails. 

At the same time, a candidate may have been excited beyond belief to be interviewing for the job, but merely afraid they would appear desperate if they came across as too enthusiastic. Therefore, they may have tempered their enthusiasm – perhaps a bit too much – and unintentionally come across as disinterested. 

During the interview process, if a candidate doesn’t seem suitably interested in the job, try engaging them in a conversation that may elicit their true level of interest. If they still seem somewhat lackluster about the position, you can just come right out and say, “I’m getting the impression you’re not particularly enthusiastic about the job.” That gives the job seeker the opportunity to tell you how they really feel about the opportunity. It’s far better to make your final hiring decision based on the truth, rather than merely assuming a shy – or cautious – candidate isn’t excited about working for you.

So you’re looking for a job and you think you’ve got your references all lined up. Before you start passing their contact information along to potential employees, you’d better make sure you can truly rely on them.

Even if you left a job in good standing, that doesn’t mean your former boss, co-workers, or Human Resources department are going to give you a glowing recommendation. Don’t take it personally. In some instances, that’s because company policy does not allow them to do so. HR, in particular, may only be allowed to verify that you were indeed employed at the company from date X to date Y. They cannot make any statements with regard to performance, professionalism or the like.

Other times, a would-be reference may not respond to calls from a potential new employer because they themselves are no longer with the company in question. It could also be that the company switched phone systems and extensions have changed.

Finally, your listed references may simply be following the old adage of “if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all.” As hard as it may be to come to grips with, you may not be remembered as fondly as you would like to believe.

Many job hunters have had their dreams dashed when the people they thought of as good references either gave them a less-than-stellar recommendation or proved to be completely unresponsive. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to ensure this unfortunate fate doesn’t befall you:

1) Obtain Their Permission: Before giving out someone’s contact information, call them yourself and politely ask if they would be willing to serve as a reference for you. If they decline or seem at all hesitant, thank them for their time but by all means, do not place them on your list. Move on to the next person.

2) Double-Check Contact Info: Nothing frustrates a hiring manager more than a list of references which leads them nowhere, thanks to countless disconnected phone numbers or no-longer-valid email addresses. Take the time to reach out to your references and verify that the contact information you have for them is still correct. Also be sure to ask if they prefer to be contacted at the office, at home, or via their cell. They may not want to raise suspicions about their own future with their employer by having a hiring manager call them at work.

3) Get Creative: If none of your former bosses or co-workers are willing or available to serve as a reference, think of other people who know you well enough to vouch for you both personally and professionally. Have you done volunteer work for any non-profit organizations? If so, ask the appropriate person there if they would serve as a reference for you. This can be especially helpful if you volunteered to perform the same kind of work you do professionally on a pro bono basis. By all means, avoid listing relatives or close friends, however.

It can be incredibly frustrating – and frankly, a little scary – when your references go MIA. By keeping your cool and following these steps, however, you can overcome this challenge.

In the not too distant past, tennis great Andre Agassi starred in a series of television commercials in which he proclaimed, “Attitude is everything!” That tagline referred to the young, long-haired tennis star’s renegade outlook, one which went so far as to prevent him from competing at Wimbledon for several years because he refused to give up his bold-colored tennis clothes for the all-white clothes required of the prestigious tournament’s competitors.

Eventually, Agassi relented – and won Wimbledon, to boot. But that doesn’t mean his mantra of “Attitude is Everything” was wrong. Time and again, studies have shown that attitude means a lot. When it comes to hiring new employees, attitude could be even more important than skills and experience, as attitude has now been recognized as the key driver of new hire success.

According to a Leadership IQ study of 20,000 new hires over a three-year period, 46 percent failed within their first 18 months. Eighty-nine percent of the time, they failed due to attitudinal reasons such as lack of coachability, low levels of emotional intelligence, motivation and temperament. Lack of skill was the cause of the failure just 11 percent of the time. These findings have led a growing number of savvy leaders to shift their focus from hiring for skills to hiring for attitude.

Let us be clear: Hiring for attitude does not mean you can forego skills, experience, and requisite training. When it comes to deciding between two (or more) otherwise equal candidates, however, you might want to err on the side of attitude.

How exactly does one “hire for attitude,” you ask? Begin by identifying the specific attitudes that lead to success in your unique corporate culture and then look for those attitudes among candidates.

Take Southwest Airlines, for example. Often cited as a Great Place to Work, Southwest is known for creating a fun environment and encouraging its people to be a bit outrageous. One famous story involves a hiring manager who asked a group of potential new Southwest pilots to don a pair of Bermuda shorts for the interview. Many of the pilots found the suggestion preposterous and refused to put on the shorts, which were actually part of the airline’s summer uniform. Those pilots immediately took themselves out of the running, as the hiring manager concluded they may be great pilots, but would never fit into the airline’s fun-loving culture.

Technical skills can be acquired through training and confirmed through testing, but attitude is either there to begin with or it isn’t. Consider the words of former Southwest Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher: “We can change skill levels through training, but we can’t change attitude.”

Getting the right person for the job starts with writing an effective job description. These days, that entails much more than getting all the facts right. It means writing a job description that stands out amongst all the rest. Particularly when it comes to tech-savvy Generation Y (aka the Millennials), job descriptions must be ultra-appealing. They have to speak to the individual and give them a reason to apply for a job with your company.

After all, this is the “everybody gets a trophy generation.” Some generational experts have branded them the most spoiled generation in history. They are used to being given what they want. Now, it’s your job to make them want a job with your company – and to want it so badly they will actually go out of their way to pursue it.

Millennials want to feel like they are part of something important right out of the gate. The concept of “paying your dues” couldn’t be more foreign to them. So make sure to describe why the position matters to the company and where it stands in the grand scheme of things. Be clear about the importance of the role this individual will play once they are hired. And don’t forget to include how much they will be interacting with decision-makers.

Members of Generation Y are expected to job-hop more than their predecessors. Paradoxically, however, they are incredibly brand loyalty. Start building their loyalty to your brand right off the bat. Use your job description to explain why they should want to work for you. Woo them and seek to make them fall head over heels in love with your company. Avoid jargons and clichés and get to the point when describing your ideal candidate.

There’s no doubt that salary and benefits are important to a Millennial. After all, surveys have shown they expect something in the neighborhood of $75,000 starting pay. But they are also savvy enough to recognize that a job can benefit them in other ways, too. So be sure to describe the skills they will gain, the professional connections they will make, and the opportunities they will have to grow and advance within the company. Be sure to mention the other fringe benefits, like gym memberships and flexible work hours, too.

Finally, take the opportunity to tell your company story and explain your vision for the person who gets the job. Make sure you do it quickly, however. Generation Y has no patience for rambling, off-the-shelf, stodgy old mission statements. They want something short, to-the-point, and catchy. Think of it this way: This is the generation that grew up having conversations via text message. Short-hand and slogans are their language.

Looking to hire a “star” employee? Of course, you are! Deep down, that’s every employer’s dream for star employees tend to outperform everyone around them. So even if you have to pay them more, you still end up getting so much work and ingenuity out of them, it turns out to be a wise investment in the end. 

The problem lies in attracting star employees when you don’t necessarily have a dream job to offer them. After all, star employees are in demand and can basically write their own ticket. They don’t have to take just any old job offer. They can pick and choose and wait for the right opportunity to show up on their door step.

The secret lies in hiring those people who don’t yet know they are stars. Sound difficult? It can be, but there are a few tips you can follow to help you determine who has what it takes to someday be the kind of employee you have to worry about your competitors poaching. 

1. Recruit Mediocrity – On the surface, that may sound counterintuitive, but experience has shown that mediocre students often have a sixth sense about what really matters in life. Sure, they may not have been motivated by the prospect of impressing their professors and racking up stellar grades, but when it comes to earning a decent salary, they are generally ready to kick it into high gear.
2. Seek the Well-Read – A well-developed interest in reading – anything, everything! – displays a natural curiosity and level of engagement. It doesn’t really matter if they read comic books, romance novels, or Guitar Player magazine, the important thing is that they read.
3. Test them Out – Before hiring someone, have them take the Myers-Briggs test. You will gain incredible insight into how they will perform on the job by finding out if they are an introvert or extrovert, etc. This can be particularly helpful if you are looking to hire a natural born leader.
4. Become Their Mentor – New to the workforce, college grads often feel lost because the real world is different from what they have envisioned. They need someone to guide them and help them feel their way through new territory. Show them from the beginning that you have a true interest in their career development and they just may blossom into a star, even if they are stuck in a decidedly non-dream job for the time beginning.
5. Pile on the Responsibilities – From their first day on the job, give your potential future superstar a massive amount of responsibility. See how they respond. If they dive in headfirst without asking questions or balking at the enormous amount of work before them, chances are they will fail. Once they have fallen on their face, do they look to try again? If so, you probably make a good choice. Most people who are destined for greatness consider their own failures a tremendous learning experience.

The hiring of a new employee is an exciting time. Whether you are replacing a previous worker or expanding your business, the infusion of new blood is something to be celebrated. 

Hiring decisions should never be made lightly. Chances are you’ve thoroughly reviewed all applicants, checked backgrounds and references, conducted careful interviews, and performed the appropriate due diligence before extending an offer. Hurrah! Your first choice accepts the offer. You can breathe a sigh of relief. 

Not so fast. Your work is far from over. Now, you must take steps to ensure that new employee succeeds. According to a 2009 study by Washington, D.C.-based Leadership IQ, 46 percent of new hires fail within 18 months. Only 19 percent achieve unequivocal success.

Just why do so many new hires fail to thrive? According to the managers who responded to the Leadership IQ survey, 26 percent of new employees fail because they can’t accept feedback, 23 percent have a hard time controlling their emotions, 17 percent aren’t motivated to succeed, 15 percent have the wrong temperament or work style for the company’s environment, and 11 percent fail because they lack the necessary skills.

So what can you do to turn the tide and ensure that your next new hire becomes a success story? Undertake an effective onboarding process that helps the employee integrate into their new work environment. Onboarding is intended to give new hires the confidence they need to hit the ground running, make a positive impact on the company, and help carry out the organization’s mission.

Every onboarding process should be centered on the following four goals: 

• Welcoming and engaging the new hire
• Helping them understand the company, its goals, and its vision for the future
• Ensuring they understand how they fit into the big picture
• Helping them become more productive

Make your onboarding process more effective by following these simple guidelines:

Don’t Overwhelm Them– The first day of a new job is bound to be hectic and nerve-wracking, even for a seasoned professional. So don’t bog them down with administrivia that could just as easily be completed at their leisure. Several days prior to their start date, send via email or traditional mail any paperwork you need them to complete. Include a copy of the employee handbook so they have time to review it and prepare any questions. Be sure to include small, but critical details, like where they should park. 

Develop a Plan for Week One – Don’t wait until the new employee arrives to figure out how you are going to train them – or who will be in charge of showing them the ropes. Map out an agenda for their first week in advance and make sure everyone who is going to play a role in orienting them to the company has been briefed and is on board. 

Welcome Them – Your new hire may have the right stuff in terms of skills and attitude, but if he doesn’t fit in to the corporate culture, he’s going to have a hard time succeeding at your organization. Facilitate positive relationships from day one by going out of your way to make the newbie feel welcome. Encourage others to do the same.

When great performance is the goal, it’s easy to turn to criticism in an attempt to make it happen. After all, if you can get an employee to correct the things they are doing wrong, the end result promises to be better. Right? Well…yes…and no. 

Conventional wisdom holds that pointing out an employee’s shortcomings will cause that employee to bring their A game. While it’s true that criticism can lead to temporary improvement, experts now say that employee’s performance likely would have improved even if you hadn’t said a word. The philosophy behind their claim is called “regression to the mean.” It centers on the belief that human performance is never completely consistent. That applies to everyone from world-class musicians and athletes to college professors and line workers.

An individual’s performance varies from day to day. That’s why a baseball player may hit three home runs in one game and strike out five times in the next. Or why a classical musician may fumble a few notes in one performance, only to play the same piece flawlessly the very next night.

For this reason, we do not typically judge a person’s ability based solely on one performance. Instead, we consider their average performance over time. Statisticians refer to that as an individual’s “mean performance.” If one were to track a person’s performance day-by-day or task-by-task, they would likely discover that an extraordinary performance – one that is far greater than that person’s average – is almost surely followed by one which is decidedly lackluster.

In the workplace, therefore, someone may have an off-day – or an off-week or off-month, for that matter. As their boss, you will probably feel compelled to criticize them for their poor performance. Afterwards, their performance will most likely return to their pre-slump level, as did our baseball player and musician in the hypothetical example above. The “regression to the mean” philosophy holds that they would have returned to that same level – their norm – with or without your criticism, simply because it is their norm.

One of the key areas of any performance review is “opportunities for improvement.” As a result, much of the formal discussion of the review revolves around the employee’s shortcomings. It’s basic human nature to pay more attention to what’s wrong than what is right. The problem with that approach is that it does little to improve the employee’s long-term performance because they will invariably return to their normal, the mean.

Research shows that positive reinforcement produces better long-term results than focusing primarily on faults. After all, few employees are going to be motivated to raise their norm if they feel like all you’ve done is tear them down. Thus, our goal should be to shift our focus from increasing performance on specific tasks to increasing someone’s overall performance. The best way to accomplish this goal is to focus on that which a person does well, rather than dwelling on the times they’ve faltered. Identify and reward employees’ strengths and then help them map out a plan for building on them. Then and only then will you truly see employee performance improve, rather than shoot up temporarily only to regress to the mean.

An unseasonably warm winter and a downright hot spring have many employers thinking about summer. For many organizations, summertime brings the specter of seasonal hiring. The good news is there are plenty of talented people out there just chomping at the bit for a summer job — if you know how – and where – to look.

Unfortunately, small companies often feel they are at a disadvantage when it comes to attracting summertime help, simply because they don’t have the same reach as a major employer. While it’s true that large companies have broader resources for casting a wide net, there’s no reason why small companies can’t have a successful seasonal recruitment effort, too.

Successful seasonal hiring requires a well-thought-out process, based upon the following key principles:

Begin Early: While it may be difficult to start thinking about summer when the snow is still falling, it’s best to start planning for seasonal hires as early as possible. Savvy companies begin the process in January, seeking to lock in the best people before someone else snatches them up. This strategy is particularly helpful when you are looking to hire high school or college students, as they feel a sense of security going into their spring semester knowing they have a summer job already lined up.

Be Choosey: Last year’s summer job market was an employer’s dream. High unemployment rates led many terrific employees to seek out seasonal jobs as a means of making ends meet. Employers were clearly in the driver’s seat, receiving countless applications for each open position. That gives them the opportunity to pick and choose to their liking, never having to settle for a substandard hire.

Extend Your Search: When looking for professional entry-level hires, it’s tempting to gear your recruitment efforts towards Harvard, Stanford, and other top-notch schools. It’s important to remember that smaller, lesser known schools also produce desirable candidates, so be sure to reach out to them as well.

Act Quickly: Once you’ve identified someone you wish to hire, make the offer immediately. Any worthwhile candidate is likely to be deluged with offers, so you must act quickly if you want them to commit to your company in advance.

Whatever you do, don’t wait until the last minute to start looking – or to make your hiring decisions. Even in today’s job market, that could be a fatal mistake, as you just may find yourself heading into the summer months without a sufficient staff to deliver warm weather success.

Much like the synopsis on a book’s dust jacket, a job description is intended to generate interest by providing a few critical insights into what is contained inside. Specifically, it provides clear and concise summary of the responsibilities and requirements of the job in question. Not only are job descriptions used to advertise for new employees, they are also a key component of the performance review process, as they allow the employer to compare the employee’s performance to the expectations which were set forth when they were hired.

Job descriptions typically consist of the following components: title, summary of the position, essential duties and responsibilities, qualifications, terms of employment, the title of the person to whom the employee will directly report, and any special considerations, such as working conditions or physical demands that may be out of the norm. The last piece of information is crucial in that it will be used to monitor compliance with the ADA.

It’s critical for an employer to write accurate and appropriate job descriptions. Here are some tips for ensuring that your job descriptions not only provide you with a pool of qualified candidates, but help build your company’s reputation. 

• Be Concise – The goal is to write a useable document, not the great American novel. Avoid the temptation to ramble on needlessly. Don’t make a seemingly endless list of responsibilities, for example. Limit yourself to a manageable number of duties, typically six or eight. You will find the description much more user-friendly if you keep it short and to the point.

• Be Specific – Don’t merely state that you need someone who is “computer literate.” Rather, state exactly what programs (Microsoft Word, Excel, QuickBooks, etc.) you need them to know. Likewise, if the person you are hiring will be responsible for administrative duties, list the specific duties you will need them to perform. Also be sure to state what level of proficiency you require. Use qualifiers like “basic,” “intermediate” and “advanced” to reflect exactly what you are seeking in a candidate or employee.

• Be Generic – Avoid gender-based language, even if your workforce is predominantly one sex or the other. After all, how would you feel if you were a male nursing professional reading a job description that consistently refers to “she” or “her duties?” Likewise, a female construction worker might be put off by a job description that is clearly geared toward men. Far better to take the modern –some might say politically correct – route and be gender neutral. After all, you want to attract the best candidate, regardless of gender.

When appropriately written, a job description can be a powerful tool as it relates to numerous aspects of the employment relationship. Take advantage of these tips to draft the kind of job description which will give your organization a competitive edge by attracting qualified candidates, conducting effective performance reviews, and boosting your company’s reputation.

Time is money. The old adage has never been truer. In today’s business world, companies are continually striving to do more with less. Employees are feeling increasingly pressured as a result. Constantly barraged by emails, voice mails, and faxes, they face information overload. And as companies struggle to reinvent themselves in order to stay afloat, employees find themselves faced with priorities that seem to change with each passing year. No wonder prescriptions for anti-anxiety medications are on the rise.

There are many ways to help employees work smarter and be less stressed. The most effective – and easiest to achieve – is by cultivating an environment that stresses the importance of time management.

By definition, time management is the act of “exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency, or productivity.” Indeed, experts from the American Management Association stress the impact of time management on worker productivity. Through time management courses, their experts teach people to how to delegate tasks or implement new paperwork systems and also provide suggestions for avoiding interruptions from colleagues.

Workers are encouraged to prioritize their daily activities, completely purging worthless tasks from their agendas. Some time management experts, like best-selling author Julie Morgenstern, recommend not checking email in the mornings when an employee is fresh and energetic. Instead, she says, that is the best time to concentrate on critical projects. She also recommends activating voice mail and discouraging colleagues from dropping by to chat, saving such time “nibblers” for later in the day.

Some companies have begun directing employees to keep a detailed log of their daily activities. They typically use a format that divides the day into 15- or 30-minute intervals. Employees are told to keep track of everything they do throughout the day. After a couple of weeks, they are told to tally their activities by the amount of time spent on them. The idea to identify time wasters let them see how much time they are actually spending on unimportant activities. They are then able to prioritize their activities by assigning specific times on the calendar for each day’s tasks.

In recent years, time management software has automated the task of logging employee activities, although it clearly has its limitations. For example, time spent talking with co-workers cannot be automatically logged. Such software is primarily useful for tracking computer activity, thus giving an employer insight into what staff is working on, as well as how much time they are wasting surfing the net or playing solitaire. Other software applications, such as task list applications, provide built-in task hierarchy, allowing for easy ordering of tasks.

Regardless of how you introduce employees to time management, you will clearly reap rewards in the form of a more productive workforce. Consider rewarding employees when they demonstrate they are practicing good time management practices.