Why HUMOR IN THE HIRING PROCESS Succeeds

If you're like most roofing contractors, you take your hiring process seriously. You want to find the best employees possible who will be a good fit for your company and its culture. There's nothing wrong with that – but it's also important to remember that humor can be an effective tool in the hiring process. In fact, using humor can help you to assess candidates' abilities to think on their feet and react effectively in unpredictable situations.

So how do you ensure that your employees have a sense of humor? The best way is to incorporate humor into the hiring process. Here are a few suggestions on how you can achieve that.

Add Satire to your job posting

Make sure your job postings are lighthearted and upbeat. No one wants to work for a company that takes itself too seriously. Inject a little bit of personality into your job postings and let your potential employees know that you're a fun bunch to work with.

Take for example this hiring video that our marketing agency produced.

The problem: The client had several open positions for 4 months but due to the economic climate and free government money, they were struggling to get qualified employees to apply.

The solution: The in-house video team at Best Roofer Marketing & Mesmereyes Media created a hysterical video to help with their recruiting efforts.

The outcome:  They had two employees hired literally in the first 24 hours after dropping this video (only to their FB page organically).

Sounds too good to be true?  I know, we thought the same thing.  But the truth of the matter is, dating back thousands of years... sex and humor still sell.

And, well, we aren't in the sex game, but the humor was an absolute ringer.

Ask the candidate their favorite joke or share a funny story

Include a "funny" question in your interview process. For example, you could ask candidates what their favorite joke is. This will not only help you gauge their sense of humor, but it will also help them relax and feel more comfortable during the interview. The answers they provide will help you evaluate their  problem-solving skills, critical thinking process, creativity, and ability to perform under stress.

Here are a few examples of funny interview questions;

1. How would you sell hot cocoa in Florida?
2. Describe the color red to someone who is Blind.
3. If you could be any tv character who would you be and why?
4. What is your idea of the best use of time off work?
5. What is your most useless talent?

Share some of the funny moments from your work experience

Take the time to share some of your company's funnier moments with your job prospects. This will help them feel like they're part of the team and give them a better understanding of your company culture. The best salespeople and managers understand that business is built on relationships and humor is an easy way to nurture and build them. Also showing the candidate that you don’t take yourself too seriously will help them to relax.

Research the applicant’s community involvement or hobbies

When receiving a resume, look for employees who have hobbies and community involvement outside of work. Besides point blank asking them what they enjoy, in this digital age you can learn alot about the candidate by doing some Internet research on their social channels. You can gain a lot of understanding about a person’s personality by seeing what pages, groups, or activities they participate in.

Why is hiring a manager with a sense of humor important?

Humor is a great way to create lasting change at your workplace. It can help transform corporate cultures, improve talent retention rates and productivity while putting employee well-being first.

For example, knowing the type of humor someone has could be very useful when recruiting them for your team or company because it gives an insight into who they are as a person which may result in better matches than if you had just interviewed them without any knowledge about their personality traits beforehand.

Humor has been found to be an excellent tool for success in the workplace. A study by Hay Group shows that outstanding executives use humor more than twice as often as average ones: 17.8 times per hour versus 7 5/8ths thereof (rounded up).

Leaders need to have a good sense of humor and an incredible work ethic, according to the findings from this Bell Leadership Institute study. The two most important traits were “work ethic” (which ranked higher than integrity or communication skills) as well as leaders who are logically thinking people with creative problem solving abilities--the kind you want on your team!

Humor is a great way to put people at ease during interviews. The type, timing and appropriateness all matter when using humor in a workplace, as Humor That Works found that those who used negative or inflammatory remarks were less effective than others while also seeming unfunny by comparison - so make sure you're only utilizing positive humor!

Laughter really is the best medicine and those who have a great sense of humor  have proven to have better immune systems, lower blood pressure, and stress coping skills according to the Mayo Clinic.  Science proves laughing activates the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin, the same brain chemical affected by the most common types of antidepressants.

A sense of humor is essential for any roofing contractor who wants to attract and retain the best employees. By incorporating humor into the hiring process, you can ensure that your employees are happy, productive, and healthy on the job. You see, when our employees are happy, they're more productive. And when they're more productive, we're able to get more work done in less time (which saves us money)!

Speaking of more money, if you want advice on how to grow and scale your roof contracting business sign up for our Best Hustler Academy course below.