This question may be simple or complex depending on how well you really know your employees. These days, I hope you are taking the time to choose wisely. There are many factors that go into this and in the Real Estate market, you can’t be too careful! As a settlement company, we have to uphold the highest standards in choosing trustworthy people because we are handling the money in the transaction. We are trusted by our clients and we take that very seriously. Did you know that it is often times the most trusted employee that ends up stealing from their employers?
According to Statistic Brain, $50,000,000,000 is stolen annually from U.S. businesses by employees. How can you make better decisions to hire more trustworthy people? Let’s take a look at some ways.
Do background checks. In an economy at the height of Short Sales, Foreclosures and Bankruptcies, you never really know what the true financial situation is for your employees. If they have collection companies hounding them every day and they owe more money than they have, it can be tempting for them to look at other ways of generating it. Make background checks part of your hiring checklist!
Dig deeper than references. One recent recommendation I heard from a seminar at Keller Williams which I thought was great was to ask each reference for a reference to go deeper down the line. If someone seems absolutely squeaky clean, they might be too good to be true. Another great way to dig deeper is to check out their social networking profiles.
Do they fit into your culture? When you meet someone for the first time, it will be hard to tell if they will fit in. Do more than one interview and make sure that your other employees meet them and then get their input. This is another area where scanning through their social media will help you!
