Care Bear countdown

Finding employees is easy. Finding great employees is hard.

Talking to other entrepreneurs, I hear how tough the labour market is. Employees aren't good like they used to be.

How do you know when you have a great employee in an interview?

There are thousands of assessments that can help predict hiring successes. However I don't believe in most of them because of one reason. My world is in retail. Retail is like a war. The employees are like soldiers fighting. They are here today and gone tomorrow.

No time for fancy costly personality assessments.

I believe in hiring on one criteria. "Does the potential hire care enough to act positively in someone else's life?"

Most people will answer positively if you asked if they cared.  To demonstrate that they care is difficult because the answer is just words. They could be lying.

The real assessment is to see if they have done any volunteer work.  Find out if they do things on a regular basis for other people, even when they don't feel like they HAVE to.

The person who served me tea this morning told me how crappy his job was. The person I called at Kawasaki sent me on a wild goose chase. The person at the hotel yesterday barely smiled as she took my money. The person at the gas bar  didn't look at me when I asked her a question. The person at the grocery store saw me as another number in a line of numbers.

Customer service in the retail industry is almost dead because the owners of those businesses aren't hiring caring people. The caring soldiers who are hired get noticed by bigger industry and get poached for higher paying jobs.

You can teach someone to care about as much as you teach them to fly. If they don't have the proper stuff, they only fake it.

In retail, it is the job of the bosses to find and select the next batch of carers.

In the passing of Wayne Dyer, I heard a great story. He was on stage with an orange and asked someone in the audience what he had. Obviously the person answered it was an orange. He then asked what would come out if he applied a bit of pressure. The same person answered that orange juice would come out. Wayne Dyer then preached that people were exactly like oranges. Whatever is inside someone has to come out when you apply a bit of pressure.

Going to work will at times present different pressures or stresses. If a person does not have the "Caring" gene inside of them, they can fake it until too much stress is applied. Then what they really have will come out. If they are caring, pressure will bring out more caring.

Look out for the Care Bears. They can make any business a resounding success.


Who's that comin' from somewhere up in the sky?
Moving fast and bright as a firefly
Just when you think the trouble's gonna pounce
Who's gonna be there when it really counts?
Do the Care Bear Countdown
And send a wish out through the air
Just do the Care Bear Countdown
When you need them they'll be there
Don't be afraid when clouds are brewin' in your heart
If you can dream just send a wish out in the dark
And do the Care Bear's Countdown
5, 4, 3, 2, 1

lyrics from Care Bear Countdown