Hiring Lessons from Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs

It’s hard to find good employees, people who honestly care about your brand, your services, your products.  Sometimes the hiring process can be long and strenuous and you still don’t know if you chose the right person.  But what characteristics should you make sure to avoid when you’re hiring?  I go to the Disney classic, Snow White, for inspiration.

The seven types of employees you should avoid:

1. Dopey (the clown) – At the beginning of the movie, Dopey picks up two diamonds and pretends they are his eyes, distracting the other dwarfs from their work.  Though he’s fun to be around, he’s silly, playful and childish.  Having fun and enjoying work is one thing (and a good one), but when it gets to the point where an employee is distracting everyone else and not getting his work done, there’s a problem.
2. Grumpy (the negative one) – Though Grumpy is a perfectly competent worker (arguably the most capable one), he’s negative about everything.  In addition, he resents Doc’s leadership.  Sometimes, skill isn’t what’s the most important.  An employee that brings everyone else down with their negativity and resents leadership isn’t an employee that needs to be around.
3. Doc (the absent-minded one) – Doc’s the leader of the group and he has a lot of great characteristics.  However, he’s incredibly absent-minded.  He’s always flustered, loses his thoughts mid-sentence and often doesn’t even know where he is.  In a business situation, this kind of absent-mindedness can lead to important documents being lost, customers being dissatisfied and an inordinate amount of supervision by the employee’s leaders.
4. Sleepy (the lazy one) – Sleepy is the lazy one of the dwarfs.  He’s always falling asleep at inopportune moments and just doesn’t want to get work done.  A lazy employee will cost you more than they produce and it will be much better to spend more time choosing someone who will get work done efficiently.
5. Happy (the too-bubbly one) – Happy is bubbly and bright, which can be annoying after too much time spent with someone.  But, more importantly, someone who is too happy all the time may not be able to take important problems seriously.  While positivity is great, there has to be a balance so that things can be looked a realistically.
6. Sneezy (the one that can’t work in a group) – Though Sneezy’s obvious sneezing problem isn’t something that should necessarily keep you from hiring someone, it’s representative of someone who drives other people away.  Often, your employees need to be able to work in a group and get along with other people.  Depending on your type of company, this could be seriously detrimental.
7. Bashful (the shy one) – Bashful is shy and scared of everything; he blushes all the time.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing depending on the role of your employee, but if he is in sales, being afraid of interacting with people will be a serious issue.

Obviously, every employees will have some flaws, and many of them can be overlooked.  Just keep in mind that employees are who represent your brand and who will help make you successful.  You deserve to be picky.