How The Owner Of El Arroyo Approaches New Hires

We recently invited Ellis Winstanley to join our podcast, “Nothing’s Sacred,” and we spoke to the serial entrepreneur about how he evaluates candidates during the hiring process.

The criteria that Ellis uses is slightly counterintuitive. Rather than prioritizing how well a candidate’s skill set fits the job description, he puts that last.

“So the top three priorities for me are – are they fundamentally a good person?” he said. “Do they seem ethical? Are they gonna do the right thing when presented the opportunity not to when nobody’s looking?

“Secondly, it’s really, to me, do they want to contribute? I mean, what are they there for? I mean, at their core, do they want to get something accomplished that day? Do they want to be a part of something, a part of making something happen?

“And then lastly is like, what do they know how to do? So I think, for me, what they know how to do is third in line. If you know how to do a lot of things, and you don’t pass one or two, it really doesn’t matter.”

Ellis developed this framework from experience. 

“If you don’t pass number one,” he said, “there’s gonna be a lot of conflicts in the workplace and with clients and some permanent damage probably done.”

This discussion begins at the 50:22 mark of our podcast. To read the transcript and hear the full podcast – including the question that recruitAbility CEO Nad Elias asks each candidate that he interviews, click here or listen below.