If you attended the webinar that Eric Bloom presented during our two weeks of Breakthrough Ideas in Training Webinars this summer, you already know what great ideas he has for getting the most out of training.

Today, we would like to highlight another one of Eric’s highly effective ideas – one that can dramatically improve the results of training and lead your company to greater success too. Eric wrote about it in a recent post on his Manager Mechanics Blog. And here is his idea  . . .

Hire people that love their work

It’s a surprisingly simple idea, isn’t it? But like very simple ideas that also happen to be very wise, there is a lot of depth to it. When you hire people who love to do what they do, their motivation to excel is already there. You don’t have to get them fired up about training, because they are already eager to learn and get started in their new jobs. And when training is done, they apply what they learned because they are fired up about it, not because you told them they had to. You don’t have to encourage them to contribute to their teams, or to come up with new solutions to nagging problems, or to take risks, because all of those desirable behaviors – and many more – are already part of their thinking.

To quote from his blog . . .

“I have hired a number of people over the years and have consistently found that my best long term hires were not necessarily the most qualified people; they were the people with the best attitude, a willingness to learn, and the ability to acquire new skills quickly.”

How to Hire People Who Love their Work

Eric recommends asking these questions in job interviews, and then listening carefully to the answers . . .

• “I know you are looking for a new position, but what things do you like about your current job?”
• “What things about this job make you excited?”
• “Do you think work can be fun? If so, how?”
• “Do you think it’s important to like your job and the work you are doing?”
• “If I were to ask the people you currently work with what they thought of you, what would they say?”

As your job candidates answer those questions, Eric recommends watching their body language, listening to the tone of their voices, and looking for what he calls “the twinkle in their eye.”

The result of hiring that way will be a room full of trainees who are really on fire about learning and about joining your team. Eric sums it up when he writes, “A single team member that loves his/her job can create the morale within the group and the customers/clients being served.

We think you will agree that there is an oversize dose of wisdom packed into the simple concept of hiring people who love what they do.