Editor’s note: This post was originally published on 1/30/14 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehension.
Growth is awesome. It’s what you want.
It’s a great feeling to know your services or products are resonating with an audience.
But what happens when your business starts to massively grow and you’re suddenly juggling how to expand – and hire the right people?
In the U.S. alone, over $130 billion is spent annually on hiring new employees. So, not only is hiring extremely tough, it costs a ton of money.
Here are four ways to make sure you’re hiring the right person, the right way.
The investment involved in hiring a new employee is one in which you can expect to get a hefty return.
That means that bringing on a new person frees up your time, lessens your workload, and actually saves you money.
Here’s the bottom line: It’s cheaper to let someone else handle all of the busy work than if you were completing the work.
If your business is not big enough to hire several full-time employees, consider hiring a virtual assistant. They’re generally self-employed and provide professional administrative, technical, or creative assistance to clients remotely from a home office.
Think about it for a minute.
Which has more of a negative effect on your business:
The answer is obvious, but I’ll let you make the decision.
If your business is small, first hire those individuals who have a broad set of skills, because they can take on many roles within the company, just like you’ve been doing.
As you grow, you can narrow the focus and hire individuals who have a very specific set of skills.
It’s important that you don’t hire someone just because they’re a nice person.
Let me explain something about “nice” people. Nice people are a disease in the workplace IF they’re not the right type of nice people. How many times have you witnessed subpar work-ethic and below-average production justified by the fact that someone is nice?
“I know Susie has a hard time filing her paperwork on time, but she’s really nice.”
“Jack isn’t quite hitting his sales quotas, but he’s really nice and understanding. We’ll get him where he needs to be.”
Many times, employers make the mistake of hiring nice people because they’re trying to replace someone who is no longer a part of the company.
Here’s an example:
Jill was the receptionist for ABC Inc. for 15 years. When she was ready to retire, her employer was inclined to immediately hire someone who had the same nice personality as Jill, without taking into account the specific skill sets and character traits that Jill had.
You can’t measure nice. If a nice person doesn’t meet deadlines, can't manage their time, causes more headaches than smiles, and doesn’t hold true to their word, then you need to get rid of them.
Similar to all relationships in life, there is no “perfect” candidate that you can choose to hire.
Everyone has certain skills and everyone has their own personality and overall character. Why is it then that 82% of employers do not use any type of screening in the hiring or employee promotion process?
These processes, while not always 100% accurate, reflect character. Here are some questions you can ask of prospective employees to see how they may fit with your company and the culture you’re creating.
If their character doesn’t align with the type of person you want to work with day in and day out, then ultimately, they’re not going to thrive at the company, or assist in leading the company to greatness.
Let’s get something straight: This is not discriminating, it’s being smart. You’re sparing your company and the individual from an inevitable future divorce. Don’t put someone in a position that you know their character can’t sustain.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that 58% of organizations in the U.S. are currently using social media as a tool to recruit potential job candidates.
Here’s why: If you have a decent social media following as a company, the majority of those people are targeted individuals. You’re probably always thinking of how you can leverage those targeted individuals into sales funnels, turn them into MQLs or SQLs, and convert them into customers.
But, how often do you take the time to evaluate if any of them would be a good fit for your organization?
Here are a few ways you can use social media to recruit talent.
This is a basic rule of thumb: The more you interact, the higher chance there is of finding someone who has the unique set of skills that would fit your organization.
Some of your closest followers often have skills similar to yours.
Even if they’re not on the same level or mindset as you, it all comes back down to hiring character and training skill. If you watch them and their character, engagement and interaction grabs your attention in a good way, dig a little deeper!
Who would have thunk it?!
Post jobs on social media and you’ll likely receive responses faster than posting on actual job sites.
Post inspirational quotes, entrepreneurial tips and challenging questions. When you have someone who is really engaged in your postings, it’s worth it to get in contact with them to learn a little more.
You’ll be surprised at how much information you can get out of someone just from talking to them in a private message.
Break the ice by mentioning something you noticed about them. (i.e. “I noticed your Instagram bio said you’re in digital marketing, tell me a little more about yourself.”)
This could all be valuable information for your recruiting decision-making process.
The next time you’re in a position to make a hire for your company, use these tips to make sure you’re on the right track.
Here are a few final facts for you to consider:
After reading these stats, is it worth speeding through the process to fill a position in your company?
Absolutely not! Don’t worry about wasting “time” and “resources” for the screening process of a potential recruit. You’ll waste far more if you make a bad hire.
