Sonny Newman is the President of EE Technologies , a premier contract manufacturing partner that provides global electronics manufacturing services. Here are his insights on recruiting key people:
The most important attributes to my first key leadership hires when I started my company in 2000 were commitment, trustworthiness, and job knowledge. It was important to me to know them personally or have a personal referral about their work ethic and honesty. Some of my first key hires were people I knew, and people who were referred by someone I respected and trusted.
Reputation is another character trait I wanted in the people on my team. These initial hires are still on my team. Although their roles have changed over time, they still add value and demonstrate commitment, trustworthiness, and job knowledge. And now loyalty can be added to the list of attributes.
It is more difficult to hire team members and other non-leadership positions by reputation or referral. So for these positions we hired based on resume/application/interview systems. One of the key lessons I learned early on is that people show you who they are early on when there is a problem (for example, late to an interview and will struggle with being on time).
And a second lesson is that four full seasons will tell you whether the employee will be a good fit for the company (for example, most can make it through the 90 days but understanding their commitment and capabilities takes a full year). 90 day probationary periods are helpful but do not tell the full story.