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sn’t matter how hard an employee tries. If they’re not suited to the job they won’t perform well. Whether they’re suited or not is a function of the success or failure of your selection process. And it starts with your job vacancy advertisement. A poor ad usually leads directly to poor on job performance.

What Your Ad Tells The Applicant. Your ad should tell applicants what you want them to know. But your carefully crafted words might be completely misinterpreted by applicants Make no mistake, you’ll attract the sort of applicants your ad seems to seek. Unless you’re very clear about what you want, you’ll attract inappropriate applicants.

Selection Includes Rejection. Your selection process should reject inappropriate applicants. But applicants want the job you’re advertising. They try to present themselves as well as they possibly can. You can easily be misled by poor quality applicants who are adept at presenting themselves very well on paper or at interview. Ensure your job ads deters unsuitable applicants.

Beware The “Good” Interviewee. Personable, articulate and well presented applicants can make shortfalls in background and experience seem relatively unimportant. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been told by a frustrated manager “But he performed so well at interview: I can’t understand why he’s not working out” or “She wasn’t the perfect candidate. We expected her strengths to overcome her deficiencies. But in the last six months we’ve seen few of her strengths and lots of her deficiencies”. Trust tests more than interviews.

You Create The Problem. The link between an inadequate selection process and subsequent poor performance becomes very evident very quickly. But we blame the new employee. We say “He doesn’t seem up to it” or “she’s not handling the job well”. These statements may be true. But they reflect symptoms. The problem is poor selection. Don’t blame the new employee.

What To Do. Before you place your job ad, undertake a thorough job analysis * Define the goals of the vacant job * Define the performance standards needed to meet the goals * Define the qualifications and experience needed to reach the standards and meet the goals * Establish tests you’ll use to work out whether applicants can do what they say they can do.

That’s the minimum you must do.

The Link. A poor job analysis will result in a poor job ad. You’ll make a poor selection decision. Eventually, performance problems will occur. Your performance appraisal process will be difficult. That starts with the job ad you put in the paper. Managers rarely make this link.

Conclusion. Poor job analysis leads to an unsatisfactory ad. That almost always leads to inferior on job performance, sooner or later. I guess I didn’t need to remind you of that. To avoid the frustrations it leads to, make the link.

Leon Noone helps managers in small-medium business to improve on-job staff performance without training courses. Some say his ideas are too unconventional. Find out for yourself by reading his free Special Report