The knowledge on how to hire the right people and build a productive team is one of the most, if not, the most important strategy to get right in every growing business. Sometimes the power of this is underestimated.
Many business owners are hesitant to delegate and end up taking on most of the key responsibilities simply because they do not trust others or have been burnt before. We want you to be free of this trap and be able to achieve all your goals.
Here is why you need to place attention on your hiring.
In most businesses, people have everything to do with your success.
And on the other hand, if you think about mistakes or problems that occur in a business, it can usually always be traced back to a person.
Even though you may not be hiring at the moment it doesn’t mean it will never happen. It is important to get skilled in your ability to hire so that you are never making decisions in a rush or out of desperation.
Hiring a new team member can be your best investment or your worst nightmare. Why? You are growing! At this point every decision is critical. A bad hire could represent a stressful time for you and potentially it could end your business! The situation can be less stressful and painful in bigger companies as teams are more established and they can distribute the workload. Smaller businesses have less room and less cashflow buffer for hiring mistakes.
Hiring can be challenging without the right knowledge and processes, especially if it is not something you do regularly.
Here are 5 steps to get you started.
1. Manage your expectations.
Naturally, when you are looking to bring someone on board you will think about certain skill sets, experience, or track records. However, finding someone productive and willing to help may be the best solution for you.
Be open and manage your expectations. How so? Start with a role description or a Fact Finder, this is what we call it at Performia. Think of every detail about the role that you want to fill, the negotiable and non-negotiable things and it will help your process in many ways. We have the exact, most perfect template for clients that ensures they capture all the critical information.
This is an absolutely incredible and golden document that our clients dare never to start a hiring without! And it is going to make a huge difference in your hiring, and help you increase your candidate numbers.
2. Build your hiring process.
No matter the size of your business you should have a step-by-step for your hires; It doesn’t mean it has to be complicated or you should have 100 steps. It means that you have at least a plan of what to do when you start a hiring cycle.
It could be role description, advertisement budget, interviews, reference checking, and onboarding.
3. Be prepared for your job interviews!
We know interviews can be tough sometimes, and that is why we want to teach you how to know in only 10 minutes if the person will add value to your company or not. See our short video Play
4. Skipping Reference Checks is not an option!
This is the last line of defence for your business. You are the bodyguard of your business, and it is your job to verify if the information provided to you is real and legitimate. Imagine hiring someone who never added value, caused problems in a team or has outright lied about results. We don’t want you to make better decisions in ‘hindsight’. We want you to know exactly how to identify and select the right people for your team.
Our advice is always to complete the reference check process thoroughly to avoid future surprises.
5. Onboarding.
Having an onboarding system in place will save you time. As you have worked on the job description prior to your hire you will know what activities and responsibilities this person will have. There are plenty of resources for this; you can implement a checklist with step-by-step process and videos to help the new person to settle in.
Make sure to follow up, be there in case of questions, and provide feedback!
We hope you find this information helpful and even better if it motivates you to start building your team.
If you don’t know where to start, our next Live and Online Performance Hiring Training is coming up! Click here for more information.