Originally posted on Linkedin
According to Richard Branson, author and founder of Virgin Group, “the one area in which you should definitely do a lot of the work yourself, it is the hiring process.” I agree with this statement. Branson adds, “your choice of who to hire will make or break you – and this is true no matter how big your company is.”
I personally believe that you should always be hiring, and here are the three reasons why and how to do it.
1. If There’s No Opening Now, There Will be One Later On
Even if you have good people in all the positions where you need people, don’t stop making new connections or getting to know new people. Mike of startup88. com says that he “actively looks for new people and builds relationships” long before they need to employ people so that when it comes time to recruit a new team member, “you probably already know who you want in the position and you have already got to know them, and that they can do what you want them to do.”
Furthermore, you can never anticipate when an employee is going to leave, take maternity leave, relocate with family, or when your business will grow and new positions will be organically created. You should always have an idea of who you want hire to either reinforce or add to the skills of your team.
2. Hire Like You’re Buying a Laptop
When you’re looking to buy a new laptop, you probably already have a few brands in mind. Or maybe you have a few models that you’re looking at. You probably short listed those brands or models from previous purchases, advertisements and/or positive reviews and recommendations from your friends and family.
Apply the same mentality to hiring. When you’re on the lookout for new hires, let people know about your network. Let candidates know that you are open to hiring good candidates. In turn, when your network comes across good candidates they are likely to refer them to you (like how they would consider buying a laptop and if they come across a good one they will recommend it to you as well).
You can build trust in your team by letting them know that you also rely on their networks to source candidates and reference. You’ll never know where a referral might pop up from.
3. Talk to Everyone
You never know where your next potential hire might come from. If you happen to get called up by a telemarketer, don’t hang up. Stay on the line. Talk to him. Critique his selling skills. If he can sell you, maybe he can sell for you?
Monitor representatives of your Vendors and Service Providers so that you are aware of the talent around you and the specific skills these people possess.
Furthermore, always be available to conduct interviews and meetings. Learn about the person you are interviewing, their business and their passion. Apart from the obvious benefit that this person might be a perfect candidate - you also increase your chances of learning new ways of doing critical functions for an industry or maybe even something to revolutionize what you do day to day.
I’ll end off with another quote from Branson, “surround yourself with people who have the skills, know-how and personality to get the job done, and success is bound to follow.”
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Besides being the CFO at Tradition, I'm also the founder shareholder of Jai Financial and Blake-Dair Consulting.
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