Ensure Success – Preparing For a New Hire

Photo Credit: Stark Photography

You may often hear the comment “hire slowly, fire quickly”, and that is very valuable advice. But you also may feel that you don’t have time to “hire slowly” as you need help NOW. So how can you speed up the process and still ensure success with your new hire?

Just as you should have a budget plan and a marketing plan to give you direction in reaching your financial goals and the increased success of your business, you also should have a plan in place to prepare for the growth of your team.

The hiring process should be part of the processes and procedures you have developed for your business. Not only can hiring haphazardly upset the rhythm and culture of your business and team, but it can also negatively affect your bottom line.

As you start developing your hiring process review what you have done in the past – and write it down – and then identify what was successful and what was not. Then begin to develop your new process.

Following are 5 suggestions to help you develop your hiring process and strategy.

1.  You need to clarify your company’s culture. If you hire someone who does not fit the culture of your team, even if you are currently the entire “team”, you will not be preparing for success.
2. Once you clarify your culture, then develop a very detailed job description. Include the duties and responsibilities – what are 3-5 key skills that this job requires? What will they spend most of their time doing? What tasks can be learned after being hired? What are the performance expectations and how will you measure success for the position? What education and experience is required?
3. Develop an employee onboarding process. Having this in place will be invaluable when you are ready to hire and will help to ensure success for the new hire.
4. Your next step would be to advertise the position. If you are proactive and have developed and maintain a network of valuable resources who also know the culture of your firm, then once you are ready to hire additional team members, you can put the word out along with the job description. Often your best hires come from these connections. It is also valuable to build and maintain a talent pipeline. Create a database of possible future hires.  You may meet qualified people before you are ready to hire, so keep track of them. There are also a variety of online resources to use when looking for a candidate.
5. Make the interview count. Identify the qualities, characteristics, and basic aptitude you are looking for. Then develop interview questions that clearly identify those characteristics, including how they problem-solve. Make use of references as early as possible. It can give you valuable information before investing too much time, or if positive, can shorten the hiring process.

Finally – a reminder to hire for attitude. You can train for skills.