What is every business out there dealing with right now? Employees and hiring! So how do you make sure you are hiring the right people, or maybe more importantly not hiring the wrong people? Let’s talk about that today. Good morning friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here.
I can’t tell you the last time I walked into a restaurant and I didn’t immediately see a “We’re Hiring” sign in the window. Or go to a local nursery to grab a few plants, yep, they’re hiring too. Mechanics, Banks, contractors, everyone is hiring today.
So how do you make sure that you get great people? How do you make sure that you’re not just winging it and hoping for the best?
Well, here are 4 practical steps to making a great hire... EVERY. SINGLE. TIME!
1. Build out the foundation for what you want!
I can’t tell you how many times I sit with a business owner to talk through why they had to fire an employee. It almost always comes back to this... we missed something. So how do you build a process to weed through the junk and know who exactly you’re hiring?
It all starts with building the foundation. Do you have core values you lean on and use as a filter? Do you have a crystal clear job role that this person will be fulfilling? Do you know the numbers you’re going to ask them to bring in or the background needed to thrive in this role? Do you know how many references you would like to hear from? Are there any technical skills you can ask them to display?
Or maybe you work backwards. Who’s your best employee? The one that if you could clone that person, you would do it in a heartbeat. What qualities do they have and what are the things you bring to the team that you need more of? Ok, now ask questions and look for those qualities in the person you’re interviewing. Ask specific things to references about those qualities?
We can’t always expect to train the person perfectly and hope for them to end up ok. If ever there is a doubt, we lean away from hiring. Because here’s the thing. When you make a poor hire, it always ends up costing you more than had you not hired at all! It affects your cash flow, your culture, your time... everything!
2. Meet multiple times and slow down
Your interviewing should be a process, not an event! SLOOOOOW DOWN. Our BoP interview process starts with a phone call. Just getting to know them. Hearing their voice and how they present themselves. So often people jump in with all the benefits of this job, salary, benefits, hours, etc... save that stuff for further down the road! After the phone call, we have an initial face-to-face interview. If that goes well, we call references and send over Job Role, expectations, core values, and long-term vision. Then we do another in-person interview to dig deeper into anything that stuck out.
Lastly, we do what almost no one else does, we host a dinner or lunch with their spouse to look for any further red flags or reasons NOT to move forward. It happens time after time. The spouse doesn’t get to see your culture from up close, or maybe he or she is not as bought in and having some doubts. You can’t see that stuff unless you go out and spend some time together.
When I got hired by BoP it was nearly a 6-month process. And you may say, “We don’t have 6 months!” Ok, I get that, but that’s because you’re hiring in chaos. But what would it look like to intentionally slow down and start preparing for future hires today?
3. Know your numbers and be honest on future possibilities
This one hits close to home for every business. We trade dollar for dollar on a hire, so we never have any margin for slow times of year. A new hire should bring in 2-3x what you pay them. If you say the job is worth 20/hr, or around 40k/year for full-time employee can it bring 80-120k in revenue? If not, it’s going to stress your cash flow!
Know what you can afford and what your employee should bring to the team. Communicate that clearly so that expectations are in writing. Then, that gives you metrics to come back to early on in the onboarding process. It gives you a chance to set the standard and hold accountable.
On the be honest part, in many exit interviews, employee after employee mentions they were OVER promised in the interview. You see, we want this job to sound amazing so we casually throw words around like “Upward mobility” or “Profit sharing”, maybe “future partnership” or “regular raises based on performance” with no real metrics for tracking and implementing those things. Stop doing that! You’re setting a bar for yourself that you have zero intention of reaching. It comes across as dishonest and leads your team members on.
4. Have an onboarding plan to ensure the people you move forward with are supported
We recommend meeting weekly for a minimum of 90 days for every new hire. You want to capture their eyes, what they are seeing from a fresh perspective before it is lost forever.
One of the things we’ve challenged our clients on recently is making the best hire possible, but also on equipping the people already in your business! It takes too much time, money, and energy to retool your entire team with new hires. So, how do you add needed pieces and equip the rest to rise to the standard? Training, training, training!
Don’t shortcut that. Don’t expect them to know what to do! Build out your process for getting them up to speed and then stick to it.
So, if hiring is on your mind. Like I think it is. If your team needs a boost and some fresh energy…
That’s it! Now go do the work and make your hires. The people are there. And they’re waiting for you to lead them
Have a great week!