The Dreadful Hiring Process

Hello and welcome back to this month's edition of Building Value. One of the more crucial aspects to building value is building your team. And let's face it, hiring is hard. It's not fun, it's time consuming, and more often than we care to admit, we get it wrong, leading to even more wasted time, wasted money, and wasted energy. But somehow there always seems to be someone or some company that makes it look easy. They've got these wonderful people, these wonderful teams, and this wonderful culture, the dream. So how do they do it? What have they figured out that so many of us still haven't? I wish I could tell you, but we still haven't figured it out. We have, however, through our share of bumps and bruises, learned a ton, and I will go so far as to say gotten better. So although I do not have the exact answers you may be looking for, I will tell you what we have done differently and where I feel like we've improved.

First, we take our time. We are thoughtful. We are not in a rush to bring someone on board, knowing how important each and every one of these decisions are. Part of this means that we may end up hiring a little before the person is truly needed. But what that also means is that we avoid being in a rush to hire later when we now absolutely need them, as this is where a lot of mistakes occur, when you have no other choice. The preemptive nature of our hire allows us to be very thoughtful about the candidates and allows us to methodically work them through our process. I will note, methodically does not mean slowly, and this does not mean dragging them through some unnecessarily long process without much in the way of updates throughout. Methodically means that there is a rhythm and a cadence to the process, a rhythm and a cadence that the candidate is aware of and understands.

For us, it means that you will spend time with each person at our firm. Currently, we do have the luxury of being on the smaller end, so we can still do this, but ultimately it means spending time with everyone you will interact with, and it means spending additional time with those you will directly work with and or report to every day. Part of this is to review culture fit. We're incredibly protective of that here. If that doesn't fit, nothing else matters. We need to be able to come into work each day ready to go with people we like, trust, and respect. We also need to know that these people are going to be people who our clients like, trust, and respect. Without that, we've got nothing.

Now, as it relates to hiring, to the best of your ability that means getting great recommendations from the people that are around you. Often, those in your life, again, those you already like, trust, and respect, will also have great candidates come to mind who they also like, trust, and respect. Now, if that doesn't work, and it may not, do not be afraid to employ the help of a professional. Recruiters, I think, sometimes can get a bad name, but like anything else, recruiters come in all shapes and sizes, and a great recruiter, one who takes their time to get to know you, your business, and who exactly you need to fill that role, is worth their weight in gold. Picture all the time that you spent on generating a job description as well as the job posting, sifting through endless resumes, the majority of which seem to be submitted blindly, and interviewing candidates who are not even truly interested. Think about how much value you can add to your business by reallocating that wasted time while still finding more high-quality, qualified candidates more quickly.

Again, I'm not sitting here to tell you we have all the answers. We don't. But we've been in the trenches, both as business owners looking to grow our business and as human beings looking for people to work with. For that reason, I'm happy to serve as a resource to talk through our approach, what's worked and what hasn't, interview questions we ask and have found helpful, and many other aspects of this process to consider. Thanks for joining me everyone. Until next month, keep building value.