Employees are the life blood of a business. Starting or expanding a business can be an exciting and scary time and employees are an extension of the business owner or manager. Careful planning is vital to ensure you hire quality employees who will make a difference in the organization. Some employees are almost irreplaceable in term of unique knowledge and/or competency. Always retain your best employees and hire the best talent you can afford. Here are several principles to hiring quality employees.
“Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” – Oprah Winfrey
Hire with Strategy in Mind
Just because a business is growing is not reason enough to hire an employee. Be sure to address current organization needs and also needs three to five years in the future. Hire strategically and methodically, hire very slowly but terminate quickly once you are sure that it’s the best course of action. Hiring too many people too quickly will reduce the efficiency of a business and you may hire the wrong people in the process. Be sure that the role you are hiring for has been fully developed and ready to be filled. Early on, hire staff that can fill multiple roles. As business grows, positions can be filled that are more specialized and needed.
“When you have really good people, you don’t have to baby them. By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things. A-plus players like to work together, and they don’t like it if you tolerate B-grade work.” – Steve Jobs
Hire Synergistically
Hire staff that will work together and challenge each other. Hire new employees in light of the existing staff you have. Employees need to use each other’s backgrounds and experience to be an efficient team. Bringing in a new employee with a different background adds a fresh perspective to the team and bring new ideas that may be just what is needed within the organization.
“If you always hire people who are smaller than you are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. If, on the other hand, you always hire people who are bigger than you are, we shall become a company of giants.” – David Ogilvy
Eliminate Weaknesses
Look at yourself and your organization and hire to weaknesses rather than to strengths. It is perfectly fine to admit your weaknesses. Are you or your team unorganized? Do you need a better motivator on your team? Ask employees about weaknesses and keep these in mind. Take time to identify and list out weaknesses and use these in hiring your next employee. You need strong employees that will covers the existing organizational gaps, and introduce unique expertise that complement the business vision and purpose
“For … every hire I’ve made, I’ve gotten the exact person I wanted. It’s been surprisingly easy to assemble what I think is the best and brightest team.” – Marissa Mayer
Hire Carefully and On Purpose
Remember that it is easier to hire than terminate an employee. Just because you need help should not reduce the care you should have in hiring new employees. Be sure the potential employee is a good fit with the team. Introduce them to the team to see how they interact. Take the time to ask for references and call them for better insight into the person. Use a questionnaire with the hiring process to make sure the right questions are asked, ensure a uniformity of the hiring process and make sure that multiple parties agree on the qualification of the candidates before allowing them to join the team. Just because you need help is not a reason to hire someone, you may use temps assistance for unique projects and during crunch time. Make sure there is a clear reason for hiring an employee. Each position should have a purpose statement and job objectives that can be used to measure staff performance.
“If we weren’t still hiring great people and pushing ahead at full speed, it would be easy to fall behind and become a mediocre company.” – Bill Gates
Hire Leaders
A well-motivated and productive employee is not enough. Hire staff who are leaders who are willing to go the extra mile in making the business successful. Employees who lead by example motivate those around them to be better. Even if the position is not a leadership position, hiring employees with leadership traits will make the business better.
Hiring employees is just the beginning of a relationship you will have with them. It can increase productivity and efficiency or it can be a negative influence to the business. By using these principles, you will help ensure new employees will be a great fit in the organization. Remember, People do not leave companies, they leave bad leaders and terrible corporate cultures.