How to Hire the Right People at the Right Time

People are the business, and timing is everything! How do you forecast your growth effectively so that you neither overhire nor experience a staff shortage and lack of customer service or longer turn time for products?  Both scenarios can cost serious money to your business whether you're paying too much salary, or not able to match supply with demand for your customers. Before making any hiring decisions, you should look at company vision and define employee structure. This will ensure employee culture and value fit within your business. The best employees may fit your vision even for the roles they weren’t hired for!

Job Boards and Recruitment Tips

Managing expectations is important when selling a service or when hiring. List in the job description all your expectations and go over those in the interview to reaffirm the fit. Define what success looks like.  Decide how to best leverage this new hire to get the fastest and best return on your investment.  A recent development on job posting platforms is companies posting roles with hundreds of applicants applying to the same position, the vast majority of which aren’t even remotely qualified. While it may take time to review the applicants, one way to filter only the best applicants is by providing specific instructions in the posting for the applicant to follow. Applicants who are unwilling to pay attention to the little details are out. Remember–folks are the best they are ever going to be during the interview process, just like when you are courting someone for marriage.  If they buy you flowers once a week during courtship they will probably buy them once a month when you are married!. 

Look for talent over training. You can teach skills but you can’t teach attitude, grit, or determination. Good and great people are always getting recruited away.  A good person is hard to find.  A great person is really hard to find. They are always being recruited.  If your workplace isn’t awesome and your pay isn’t at least the same as your competitors, they will leave for greener pastures. Do you know when the marginal people will leave? NEVER.

A Tip for Job Applicants

If you are DESPERATE you are DEAD. We all know how desperation looks. Sometimes it’s obvious. Even if a company selects a desperate candidate, they will have power over you and will likely pay you less than what you are worth. Just like trying to land a first date, neediness, and desperation are a major red flag for employers. Mindset is everything and begins with you and belief in your product, which is ultimately yourself. The mindset for both recruiters and people going into job interviews is you are interviewing each other for talent and fit. As a recruiter, you need to ask all the appropriate questions to learn everything you need to know about this person to determine if you think they are the right fit. As an interviewee, you should be asking questions about the company, the culture, and questions not found in the job description. These questions will show that you are genuinely interested and thinking about the role but also help you determine if the job and expectations of the role are right for you. 

Slow to Hire, Fast to Fire

As a recruiter you need to understand what each potential employee is capable of and if they will help you at the right time. The general rule of thumb is slow to hire and fast to fire. By taking your time with candidates, you will prevent the dreaded overhiring and ensure you will get only the best candidates. The opportunity cost of hiring fast is that you will never have gotten the chance to interview what could be your best employee. When you hire the employees with the best fit and most potential, you will find that your employee productivity will improve. Since you will have set expectations during the interview and onboarding stages, it will be easier to let go of employees who are not a good fit for your business. While it is never easy to fire, you must always keep in mind your long-term strategic goals and recognize when an individual does not fit. Finally, always hire when you believe it is necessary and to match demand. Never overhire due to changes in the market or changes in AI. Trying to stay ahead and predict workplace changes will never work because you will never know how much you will use these changes in the future until you get there. It’s better to manage and slowly build a team for the future, rather than rush and burn through liquidity.

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