Tightrope: Check, check, check backgrounds of would-be hires

— -- Periodically I feel the need to remind you about the importance of hiring people who know what they are doing.

We are in a recession. Many people have been laid off and are seeking new ways to make money. Some of these folks are passing out business cards as professionals, skilled workers and consultants. They tend to target entrepreneurs and other professionals.

When considering candidates for outsourcing, check, re-check and triple check experience claims and see if they've had satisfied customers. Make certain that they can provide the service you need and not just something close to it.

I have said in the past that even after checking references and screening potential hires it can still be difficult to know if you have the right person. Make certain that you observe their skills and work delivery before they get too deep into your business and your pocket.

Consider these examples:

Several months ago I met a woman at a social gathering. She was a publicist, with several high profile clients in California. A couple of clients, she said, were entrepreneurs. She said that she had just finished a news release for one of them and would e-mail it to me.

I received this release several days after our meeting. It was more like a bio of a man in the real estate business. And it was full of errors and confusing to read. When I asked her a few questions about her background, it turned out that she had never seen an actual press release and was writing what she thought one would look like. After more questions, I learned she had been laid off as a furniture salesperson and was coming to the end of her unemployment. Had she ever met a publicist? I wondered. She had not, nor had she ever read about one. Imagine that! Meanwhile she is being paid by unsuspecting people to gather publicity for them and their businesses.

My friend Emma is a professional writer and a member of an 18-member writing circle. The members hoped to branch out into television, so they hired a professional to teach them how to write scripts. They interviewed several people and settled on a man who appeared to be the best candidate. His written qualifications stated he was an award-winning playwright, television scriptwriter and author of webcasts for corporate clients. According to Emma, he had charm to match this impressive bio.

They contracted their "professional" to create a lesson plan and meet with them once a week for 12 weeks at the rate of $400 per person for the 12 week training. When Emma called me she was excited and said the group was already imagining themselves writing the next hit TV series.

About four weeks into the program I had lunch with Emma and asked her how the writing classes were going. Her enthusiasm was gone as she told me that up to that point they had not learned anything. Their "professional" took up most of the session time analyzing and talking about various movies and television programs, but had not taught them anything about how to write for television.

And something that happened to me: Last summer I had the responsibility of caring for a sick family member which required that I hire additional household help. Instead of calling a personnel service, I made the mistake of placing an ad in the local newspaper for someone to do laundry.

I interviewed several people and finally settled on an older woman who had good references and assured me that doing laundry was second nature to her, especially since she had raised eight children and did a great job on their laundry.

Within a couple of hours on the job she had managed to completely destroy half of my summer wardrobe. She mixed all of the clothes together, failing to separate dark from light clothes, and poured bleach into the washing machine.

Other clothes were ruined without her even washing them. After placing a pile of clothes on the floor that would go into the washer after the first load was complete, she set the opened bottle of bleach on top of the washer. The vibration from the machine caused the bleach to fall onto the pile of clothes. My wardrobe looked like it had been tie-dyed. What a mess!

The mistake was mine. When I checked her references, her previous employers spoke of her dependability and trustworthiness. In hindsight, I don't recall them talking about her laundry skills. She later told me that she was not accustomed to doing laundry other than her own. She left telling me that I was a bit too picky for her taste.

Most of us who hire will at some point in life will pick the wrong person. However, let this week's column be a reminder to carefully check and re-check backgrounds of your would-be hired help and don't assume anything!

Gladys Edmunds' Entrepreneurial Tightrope column appears Wednesdays. Click here for an index of her columns. As a single, teen-age mom, Gladys made money doing laundry, cooking dinners for taxi drivers and selling fire extinguishers and Bibles door-to-door. Today, Edmunds is founder of Edmunds Travel Consultants in Pittsburgh and author of There's No Business Like Your Own Business, a six-step guide to success published by Viking. Her website is www.gladysedmunds.com. You can e-mail her at gladys@gladysedmunds.com.