As a small business owner, do you have employee issues? Do you have a recruitment strategy?
Employee issues tend to be quite painful at times. When we start digging down to find the root of the problems, it often goes right back to the hiring process – or lack of a hiring process.
Investing a little more effort at the beginning of the hiring process can save a lot of money and future frustrations.
Tip 1 – Have a recruitment strategy – Although it may be obvious to the businesses that have one, many small businesses do not plan for hiring employees. The plan should include a clear description of the job and realistic performance expectations. It is very important to communicate the vision and strategy of the business to potential hires. The business owner needs to know if the potential hire does not buy into the vision of the company before a hiring commitment is made.
Tip 2 – Hire for attitude, train for skill – It was Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines who coined this phrase. The philosophy that attitude is hard to change makes sense to me. It, therefore, makes sense to focus more on the attitude at the job interview and fill the skills gap with training after the hire.
Tip 3 – Involve team members in the hiring process – It is important to consider the importance of a cultural match and a happy workplace. It also makes sense if the current employees help pick the future employees. The current employees have a vested interest in supporting the new hires to fit in as part of the team.
Involving the team can save the owner time by sharing the efforts to filter through and do initial interviews with the applicants, while still keeping the final hiring decision with the owner.
Eliminate 2 potentially huge issues
When the boss wants to hire family or old friends. If it is a policy that the beginning of the hiring process starts with team members and the owner isn’t involved, it makes for a fair and diplomatic way not to hire the owner’s brother-in-law simply because he just lost his job. The process also has the opposite effect of having the employees assess family members’ potential more fairly than a slightly biased business owner.
You might think from the above comments that I believe not having family and friends involved in a business is better for business. I would rather suggest that the hiring decision should first make sense for the business. In other words, if the family member or friend would be hired even if they weren’t family and friends, it is fine. Hiring just because they are family and friends is where some problems start.
