It has happened to all of us who manage others. We are overloaded at work and need extra help. After what seems like a distraction, our budget requests are granted and we can go out and find someone to ease the workload. We create a “wish list” job description and send it to a headhunter, internal recruiter, or the classifieds section of the local newspaper.

We always start with the best of intentions. We are only going to hire someone who meets all of our expectations; we want someone who fits our “wish list” perfectly. After reading reams of resumes with misspelled words, obviously inflated skill sets, and skills that clearly don’t match the position being offered, we switched gears.

Okay, check the wish list. We’ll take someone with a bachelor’s degree instead of an MBA. Do we really need five years of experience; maybe someone with 6 months experience will help. After all, we can train just about anyone to meet our needs, right?

After a few weeks, or for those of us with a lot of patience, a few months, we scrapped the wish list altogether. “Just find me someone, anyone who can do the job,” we plead with our recruiters. And they do.

We interviewed three to five candidates for the position. Then we make an offer to the best candidate in the group and cross our fingers, on both hands.

As an employee relations manager for a Fortune 100 company, I frequently received calls from managers who said something like this: “I hired this man (or woman) about three months ago. He had a good interview, but it was a disaster. He can’t meet any of the job standards and I want to fire him today.”

After further discussion, I learned that the manager had some concerns about the employee before hiring him, but “was desperate for help. We were overwhelmed with work here.” When asked what managers had done to advise the employee in question, the answer was generally “nothing.”

What many managers don’t understand is that firing an employee cannot be done on a whim. Terminate someone who has not been counseled about performance deficiencies and has not had an opportunity to improve, and the result may be a lawsuit, a complaint to a state agency that the termination was discriminatory, a complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunities. (EEOC) that the termination was discriminatory, etc. Forget the fact that there is no discrimination (in most cases) and the employee just can’t do the job. Before the ink dries on the termination paperwork, the manager has been called racist, sexist, incompetent, or all of the above; and the company is a callous corporate bully.

And after all that, the manager has to start over, looking for someone to fill the position. More time, more money, more training for the new employee.

Get it right the first time

So how to avoid the nightmare described above? You do it right the first time. You hire the right person for the right job. It’s called “hire hard, manage easy.” If you take the time and energy to hire the right person, even if it takes a lot of effort to identify the candidate who can make the grade, you’ll find it easy to manage and you won’t have to rehire. process over and over again.

Start with that “wish list.” What exactly do you need? If you’re looking for a Senior Accountant, you probably want someone with a substantial amount of experience in addition to formal education. It is unreasonable to expect someone who has just graduated to be able to take on the responsibilities of a senior accounting position. Exactly what skills are needed for the position? If the job requires a lot of written communication, toss out those résumés and cover letters littered with grammatical and spelling errors. If oral presentations are required on the job, don’t even consider a candidate who seems nervous or doesn’t express himself well during an interview.

More than once, a manager confided that he felt something in his “gut” when he was interviewing the candidate. “Something just didn’t seem right, but I couldn’t put my finger on it, so I went ahead and hired him.” Listen to your gut. If something during the interview sets off alarm bells, listen to the warning.

The interview itself is crucial, but many managers have not been trained in interviewing. The behavioral interview is an excellent way to find out how a candidate will fit in with your company. “Tell me about a problem you had in your last position and how you solved it.” “Tell me about the worst supervisor you ever had and what made working for him or her so difficult.” If the candidate says something like, “Well, my last boss expected us to work overtime if we were behind schedule and I don’t like working more than 8 hours a day,” this says a lot. If the candidate’s way of solving a problem at work was to take it to her supervisor, is that someone who will reduce her workload or increase it?

Many employers will only give neutral references to protect themselves legally, so it’s hard to get much information when you call for references. But listen carefully when you call references. And it should be the hiring manager who calls, not your recruiter. You are the one who needs to know what kind of employee he was at other companies. If the previous manager seems hostile when asked about his former employee, this could be a sign of potential trouble ahead.

If the employee is going to be working closely with others in your department, it’s not a bad idea to have someone else interview them. You wouldn’t want a managerial candidate interviewing a potential subordinate; but you could ask another director in his department or one closely related to his department to conduct the interview. Or you could ask someone in a higher position (eg vice president) to interview the candidate. It always helps to get a second opinion.

Once you’ve made the decision to hire a candidate, give that person every opportunity to succeed. From the beginning, let him know what you expect of him. Schedule conferences in the first few weeks to check on his progress; let him know where you are meeting his expectations and where you are falling short. In those areas where an employee is falling short, give constructive criticism, letting the employee know you want to work with them to be successful.

Despite our best efforts, we may occasionally fail when it comes to hiring the right person for the job. But putting our energy into identifying the right person will likely result in a successful outcome for us and the new hire.