“Can do” means the person has the necessary education and experience to be able to do the work for which you are hiring. Generally, people doing the hiring rely on resumes to give them this information.

“Will do” cannot be answered by looking at the resume. What you are trying to find out is whether this person you are considering hiring is motivated to do the job, use initiative, seek out new opportunities, work without major supervision, etc. This is a much harder to get an answer to than the “can do” question.

“Fit” is even more difficult to figure out than either of the other two questions. Both the ‘can do’ and the ‘fit’ parts of the guideline can only be explored by interviewing candidates. Since most managers only hire from time to time, they are not very skilled in figuring out what questions to ask and what a good process is for finding the right person for the position.

The process for finding the right person starts with a good job description. Yet, in smaller companies, job descriptions are usually non-existent. So many times I have heard owners or managers say, “Oh, we don’t have job descriptions because we want people to be flexible!” In other words, they are afraid that if they actually write down what they want the person to do, it is somehow limiting. That is nonsense. You cannot find good people unless you know exactly what you want them to do. Thus, a written job description is an essential first step.

The second step is specifying the values and behaviours you want to have as well as the technical skills. Most hiring decisions are based on perceived ability in the technical field. Most turnover is caused not by a failure to be able to do the work but by a failure in motivation or a lack of ‘fit’ with the culture of the organization. You many want someone with excellent values, values similar to yours. You may be looking for communication skills, initiative, flexibility, leadership or other behaviours that you see as contributing to the growth and well-being of your organization

The third step is to be able to screen out those applicants that don’t fit with your knowledge and experience requirements and then conduct good interviews with a select few applicants. There is more science to interviewing than one would expect and that is the subject of the next column.

David Bratton is a Certified Management Consultant and president of Bratton Consulting Inc. in London. He also represents Drake Beam Morin (DBM), one of Canada’s largest career counselling and outplacement firms. He can be contacted at (519) 679-2774 or by email: dbratton@brattonconsulting.com.