Best Hiring Pratices from a Florida Gym in Inc Magazine

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Here is an excerpt from an Inc Magazine’s article about a man who built a multi-million dollar Gym business starting with twelve cents.  See if you can get some ideas from their hiring process:

The company, which now has 375 employees, typically gets about 1,000 applications a year for 70 to 100 jobs, almost all of which start at minimum wage. “We compete on work environment,” says Stewart, who oversees the selection of more than 75 percent of the company’s new employees.

Paying low wages in exchange for some other kind of value…sounds familiar.  Oh wait, I’ve been saying that for years.  Give someone the chance to work as a Virtual Assistant from their own home, and they are often willing to be paid less in exchange.

There are five steps to getting hired at GHFC, beginning with a four-page application form consisting mainly of puzzles and games. “We eliminate most of the lazy people with that,” Stewart says. Next, references are checked by phone, which further reduces the pool. The third step is a group interview, with at least eight candidates and a hiring team including supervisors and department heads, followed by a one-on-one with the department head. Stewart challenges his people to come up with creative ways to determine whether candidates really share the company’s four core values: integrity, willingness to work hard, extraordinary commitment to helping people, and desire to create the future.

One technique, for example, is the chair test, wherein extra chairs are left in the interview room. Stewart used it once with a candidate who had come through the group interview with rave notices. The candidate was sitting in the room when Stewart entered. “They need some chairs next door,” Stewart said and began picking up the extra ones and carrying them out of the room. He kept doing this until only two were left. The candidate didn’t move, except to take his feet off a chair when Stewart asked him to. “Well,” said Stewart, “thanks for coming, but this place is really not for you.”

The guy was taken aback. “But you haven’t interviewed me yet,” he said.

“Yes, I just did,” Stewart said and ushered him out of the room.

How cool is that?  The company identified something they wanted employees to have (not being laziness) and devised a test to see if they really were or not.

Finally, candidates are taken through a high-intensity workout on the MedX machines developed by the late Arthur Jones, the founder of Nautilus. The idea is to work a particular muscle or group of muscles to exhaustion. “We want to see how people react to adversity,” says Stewart. “That’s when the true self comes out. We tell them up front we’re not looking to see what kind of shape they’re in. We just want to know two things: Are they hard working, and can they listen and follow directions?” Despite all the screening to that point, 25 percent of the candidates fail the test.

Another way, though one I admit I failed to cover in The Assistant Who Pays Their Own Salary, that lets you know how people really are, and not just ask them a question that anyone can answer correctly.

The ones who pass become the raw material of the leadership factory. Most recruits seem only too happy to get with the program. That includes being “shadowed” by a veteran employee who serves as an on-the-job trainer and administers weekly quizzes in preparation for quarterly tests, on which they must score at least 90 percent. They are further expected to take advantage of the opportunities for continuing education offered by the company’s large library of self-help books and tapes. And they have to follow the rules.

Recruits receive points for things like tardiness, no tie or nametag, improper shoes, complaining, and cursing. Seven points in a quarter results in probation.

It’s not for everybody, which is intentional. “The whole selection process is designed to weed out the wrong people,” notes Will Phillips, a management consultant who runs roundtables, including one Cirulli belongs to, for fitness-industry CEOs. “Joe takes very seriously the idea that you should hire for attitude and train for skill. When you hire people and try to convert them to your way of doing things, you create a horrible tension that training is supposed to ‘fix’ employees. That may be more insidious than having a selective, somewhat authoritarian goal-driven business like Joe’s.”

Authoritarian?  Goal-driven?  I feel like I’m reading a mirror.  It was refreshing to have this article reinforce my belief that your business is YOUR business, dangit, and people can either get with the program or ship it on out.  YOU decide what you want, and then everyone who doesn’t help you get there gets the boot, and DON’T SETTLE.

Hire the right people (meaning: right attitude) and you can always teach them skills.  This is another reason I don’t like to hire anyone with real estate investing experience.  What is more important is if they’re the right kind of person–you can always show them the ropes once they’re hired.