Hey there – Michael Gortenburg here!
The year is winding down here at Eighteen Capital Group (18CG) in Kansas City, and we have already started to look toward next year. We’re factoring in new opportunities for growth, strategies to improve our business and plotting out a plan for how we would like to take things to another level in 2020.
In looking at all of the plans for Eighteen Capital Group (18CG) for next year, it got me thinking about one of the most important aspects of growing a business – hiring team members. It can be a tricky process, especially if you’re a relatively new business owner and have little experience in vetting and securing top talent for your company.
HR departments the world over have been studying how to improve this process for decades. I thought I would share some tips from my experience on what to look for when bringing on new employees.
Know What You’re Hiring For
Sometimes as business owners, we become so inundated with tasks and aspirations that we can get lost in the process of it all. A business owner who is trying to scale operations might not even know exactly what roles they’re looking to fill – they just know that they need help, and they need it ASAP.
Before any hiring takes place, business owners should take an objective look at their operation to see where exactly they need help. It is important to take inventory of everything that goes into the business to see where time is going, what can be tweaked and what may require the introduction of a new role or employee.
A wrong hire can cost you significantly in inefficiency and mismanagement.
Hold Out for the Right Fit
Sometimes when business owners are seeking to expand, they may jump the gun when hiring to meet their demand. This can lead to making the wrong decisions when hiring new employees or promoting current members to a new level.
Hiring the wrong candidate can be a disaster for your growth plan and even your bottom line. One of the many things that we have done in hiring our highly-talented team at Eighteen Capital Group (18CG) in Kansas City is to carefully consider each candidate before making a selection.
Once you know what it is you’re hiring for, always consider the following:
- Are they currently experienced enough to handle the responsibilities of the role?
- Are they capable of learning as they go?
- Do they have an interest in learning and growing in their career?
To some people, a job is just a job. It’s a place they go to shuffle some papers and do just enough to pay the bills. And while that may work well for that individual, as a business owner – you have to consider whether that works well enough for your plans. There is a saying that “you don’t hire for experience; you hire for mentality.” I have found this to be true to a large extent.
A candidate that might not be the most experienced, but has a demonstrated interest in learning and growing within their career can often be the better choice for hiring. When considering candidates like this, business owners know that they have a team member who will strive to achieve excellence, rather than simply “going to work.”
Understand the Market
Hiring isn’t just about “filling positions” within your organization – it is about retaining top talent that will take your company to higher levels of success. To achieve this, you have to understand the job market within your field.
Know what other companies are offering their employees in terms of salary, benefits and perks. A top-tier candidate is more likely to go to the company that offers more of these, but there is wiggle room that can be made to help entice them to join your team. In the age of digitization, consider offering remote-working, flexible hours, and other things that appeal to workers.
You might think that smaller businesses would have a harder time offering enticing positions, but in a smaller operation, there is more wiggle room to fit the needs of employees. Due to the natural bureaucracy of larger organizations, they have a harder time remaining flexible and are forced to streamline into a one-size-fits-all model. This can turn away top talent who have developed their career and are seeking to be more than just a cog in a corporation.
Ultimately – business owners should do their homework and understand what they need to do to bring the best people into the company.
Go With Your Instincts / Avoid Obvious Red Flags
It’s hard to get a wholly accurate read of a candidate and how they will perform for your business in the hiring process, but obvious red flags should be avoided. Sometimes it just takes going with your gut.
Some classic indicators for when you might want to skip a hiring option:
- When the candidate shows a lack of interest or general curiosity about your business and industry (this tends to carry over into the role once they’re hired).
- Candidates who pre-maturely talk negatively of their previous jobs. This could indicate that they carry a lot of baggage and drama that could soon find its way into your business ecosystem.
- Candidates who fail to meet the bare minimum of effort for interviews. If a hopeful team member dresses poorly, talks like they’re in a sports bar and doesn’t demonstrate their relevant skill sets – it might be time to move onto others who take joining your business more seriously.
There are a number of things that HR departments can do to weed out the obvious no’s, and it is never a sure thing when bringing on a new employee, but these are the types of things that business owners should consider for new hires.
If you’re in the market to hire new employees, hopefully these tips will help you know when to actually hire for a position, what to take into account to retain top talent and some of the more obvious mistakes to avoid.
It is never a clear-cut process, but these tips have served me well. I hope they do the same for you.
~ Michael Gortenburg, Kansas City, Founding Principal of Eighteen Capital Group (18CG)
Michael Gortenburg 