31 5. Involve Your Employees in the Hiring Process You have three opportunities to involve your employees in the hiring process. • Your employees can recommend excellent candidates to your firm. • They can assist you to review resumes and qualifications of potential candidates. • They can help you interview people to as- sess their potential “fit” within your com- pany. Organizations that fail to use employees to assess potential employees are underutilizing one of their most important assets. People who participate in the selection process are committed to helping the new employee suc- ceed. It can’t get any better than that for you and the new employee. 6. Pay Better Than Your Competition Yes, you do get what you pay for in the job market. Survey your local job market and take a hard look at the compensation people in your industry attract. You want to pay better than average to attract and keep the best can- didates. Seems obvious, doesn’t it? It’s not. I listen to employers every day who talk about how to get employees cheaply. It’s a bad practice. Did I say, “you do get what you pay for in the job market?” Sure, you can luck out andattract a person who hasgolden hand- cuffs because they are following their spouse to a new community or need your benefits. But, they will resent their pay scale, feel un- appreciated, and leave you for their first good job offer. I have seen employee replacement costs that range from two to three times the person’s annual salary. Did I say that "you get what you are willing to pay for in the job mar- ket?" 7. Use Your Benefits to Your Advantage in Recruiting Employees Keep your benefits above industry standard and add new benefits as you can afford them. You also need to educate employees about the cost and value of their benefits so they appreciate how well you are looking out for their needs. Treasured currently by employees is flexibility and the opportunity to balance work with oth- er life responsibilities, interests, and issues. You can’t be an employer of choice without a good benefits package that includes standard benefits such as medical insurance, retire- ment, and dental insurance. Employees are increasingly looking for cafe- teria-style benefits plans in which they can balance their choices with those of a working spouse or partner. Pfau and Kay recommend stock and owner- ship opportunities for every level of employ- ees in your organization. I like profit sharing plans and bonuses that pay the employee for measurable achievements and contributions. 8. Hire the Smartest Person You Can Find In their recent book, First Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Dif- ferently (compare prices), Marcus Bucking- ham and Curt Coffman recommend that great managers hire for talent.